A Minnesota woman has been left paralyzed after a falling tree broke her neck as she lounged in a hammock with her boyfriend.
Alyssa Pfannenstein, 25, was lying in a hammock with her boyfriend, Justin Janssen, while watching her daughter play, according to WCCO-TV.
The couple had unknowingly attached their hammock to a rotted birch tree, which uprooted and fell.All of the sudden this big boom hit me in the back of the head,”Pfannenstein told the outlet.
“It was surreal. At the moment, there was not even time to panic because it happened so quickly,” Janssen explained.
The Labor Day weekend incident had broken her neck and left her paralyzed. However, Pfannenstein remained composed.
“Her calmness calmed me and her daughter down and made us understand everything would be okay,” Janssen noted.
According to a GoFundMe page set up to assist the family with her medical expenses, Pfannenstein shattered her C5 vertebrae and is currently paralyzed from the C5 vertebrae down, leaving her with just limited mobility in her arms. The Mom also underwent surgery to remove the bone fragments and repair the damage in her spine.
WCCO reported that Pfannenstein will enter a rehab facility where she’ll work on regaining mobility.However, the young mom has remained positive throughout the ordeal.
“We just want to appreciate every miracle,” Janssen said. “Accidents happen and we will get through this like anything else.”
Mother With Cancer Dies A Day After Giving Birth To Twins
The Fresno, California Mom, Jamie Snider, gave birth to twins Camila and Nico on March 16
During the pregnancy, Snider was going through chemotherapy to overcome an advanced form of cervical cancer.
Snider also has two older daughters that are mourning her death.
She had previously battled cancer and lost an ovary in the process. While pregnant, she learned the cancer had returned and did what she could to fight it, according to her brother, Chris Snider.
“They couldn’t give her too much chemo because it would affect the development of the babies,” he told KGO-TV in San Francisco. “She made sure, she made sure those babies would live. She traded her life.”
Despite that, Doctors told her that she had beat cancer for a second time, just in time to give birth via C-section.
At 33 weeks, the babies were born prematurely and weighed only about 3½ pounds. They were, however, healthy, and Snider was a proud mother.
In order to ensure she would have a long life with her family, Snider had a radical hysterectomy to remove any remaining cervical cancer.
Sadly, Snider died a day after giving birth and having the surgery, not of cancer – but of heart failure.
“What gives me peace in my heart is she got to see those babies and hold them and be with them a little bit,” her friend Larina Campanile told KGO-TV.
The twins have been discharged out of the hospital and are with members of Snider’s family until they can move to New Hampshire with their father and older sisters.