What Happened?

On August 4th, 2015, my life was changed forever. I was an elite athlete my entire life.  I competed all over the world as a gymnast when I was young, and then rowing and track & field (pole vault) at the Division I level in college.  I was an athlete in all aspects.  I ran, I rowed, I lifted.. but I did not bike.  In fact, I had not been on a bicycle since 2002, when I was hit by a car and thrown from my bike.  I had a friend though, who is an avid mountain biker, and on that fateful day, despite my numerous objections, she pressured me to try it.

Only, I never made it very far.  I put my feet on the pedals, mounted the bike, and my front wheel zigged and zagged on the uneven trail, as I tried to gain my balance.  That wiggly wheel hit a rock and turned sideways, and took me down a narrow slope, and over the edge of a cliff.  I fell head first over a cliff, plummeting over 20-30 feet onto flat cement, where I landed flat on my back, in a drainage ravine.  I never lost consciousness, and can recall every painstaking moment of this tragic fall.

When I landed, my lungs started to fill with blood, I could barely breathe, but I found the will to faintly cry out, “Help! I can’t feel my legs!”  I could not move more than my head.  My arms were numb but I could wiggle my fingers.  At that moment, I knew I was paralyzed.  I was lifted out by a fire rescue team, who scaled their way carefully to the top. I was rushed to Stanford Hospital’s Emergency Trauma Center in Palo Alto, California.

I had 19 broken bones (14 broken ribs, 5 vertebral fractures), two punctured lungs, two hemothoraces (blood spilling into the lung), and a mysterious and rare combination of two spinal cord injuries.  At the T10 level, the cord was crushed.  I have a partial cord injury at T6, resulting in varying levels of sensation and function from the chest down.  I’ve been categorized with T6 complete paraplegia.  Irreversible misfortune.

Immediately after the injury, I underwent two surgeries to stabilize and decompress my spinal cord, and was hospitalized for nearly two and a half months, first in the ICU, then the trauma unit, and finally a spine center for acute rehab.  In the beginning, I had to re-learn how to brush my teeth, comb my hair, and even struggled to lift a pen and place it an arm's length away from me.  It took me 9 minutes to put on a sock.  I could not sit up on my own, without a harness.  Determined and self-motivated as I've always been as an athlete, I made tremendous strides in my recovery.  At 3 months out from this traumatic, paralyzing, life-altering injury, I did the unthinkable.  I was boarded onto a plane and flew back to work.  This was record time.  It normally takes survivors of such injuries 1 to 2 years to rehabilitate well enough to work again – in fact, over 90% of spinal cord injury survivors are on permanent disability.  But, even after 15 surgeries and procedures, and a few additional broken bones, my positive spirit and determination willed me back, so that I can continue to help others.  This is life, version 2.0, and I am working to make it better than ever.

- Joan Rubinger © 2017