Alyssa Pfannenstein was watching her four-year-old daughter play in a park when the tree holding the hammock she was sitting in snapped
A Minnesota mother was left paralyzed after the tree holding the hammock she was sitting in snapped, hit her in the back of the head and broke her neck.
Alyssa Pfannenstein, 25, was sitting in the hammock with her boyfriend over Labor Day weekend.
They were watching her four-year-old daughter play at a Bemidji park.
The couple didn’t know the 15-foot-tall birch tree holding the hammock was rotting from the inside out.
She told CBS Minnesota: ‘All of the sudden this big boom hit me in the back of the head.’
Her boyfriend Justin Janssen told TwinCities.com: ‘She was very calm.’
Janssen called the moment ‘surreal’ and said there wasn’t time to panic because it happened in an instant.
‘She calmed me down and she calmed her daughter down. She said, “Mommy’s going to be all right,” you know, and the ambulance came.’
Alyssa Pfannenstein had surgery to remove bone fragments from her spine and feeling has now returned to 95 percent of her body
Pfannenstein’s friends set up a GoFundMe to pay for her medical expenses, setting the goal at $100,000 (stock photo of hammock)
The accident shattered her C5 vertebrae, leaving her with limited mobility in her arms.
She has undergone surgery to remove bone fragments from her spine. Now, feeling has returned to 95 percent of her body.
Jansen said: ‘She can feel her toes and which toe you’re touching, and she can move her arms … She can’t wiggle her fingers or move anything below her waist, but her spirit is the most positive I’ve ever seen.’
She has spent 13 days at Hennepin County Medical Center. She is optimistic about making a full recovery and will enter a rehabilitation facility soon.
Alyssa Pfannenstein will continue to recover at a rehabilitation facility after she is safe to leave the hospital
Pfannenstein and Janssen hope the accident serves as a warning to other families to keep this from happening again
Janssen told the CBS station: ‘Accidents happen and we will get through this like anything else.’
Pfannenstein and Janssen hope the accident serves as a warning to other families.
Her friends have set up a GoFundMe to pay medical expenses, setting the goal at $100,000.