A Bay Area woman has been left partly paralyzed after a huge tree limb hit her while she was sitting outside knitting.
Jasmine Mayer, 22, suffered life-threatening injuries and is now paralyzed from the waist down after the freak accident in Santa Rosa during a storm last week, the Chronicle reported.
It happened outside the Steele Lane Elementary School where emergency crews rushed to the scene and treated her, before she was taken to UC Davis Medical Center.
Mayer’s father Andy said his daughter “was knitting and talking to her friend, and the branch came right down on them.”
“We’ve talked about it since. There’s no anger. There’s no drunk driver. It’s just an unimaginable incident,” Andy told the outlet.
“She is currently healing from a severe spinal cord injury, fractured vertebrae and broken and bruised ribs,” per the GoFundMe, which credited the “emergency services, and the expertise of surgeons” who saved her life and stabilized her.
Mayer’s father describes his daughter’s injuries as “catastrophic.”
“She’s paralyzed from the waist down. Time will tell,” he said. “I’m hopeful. She’s hopeful. She’s going to work hard on her recovery.”
The latest message on the GoFundMe page does sound more hopeful, revealing that she’s beginning to get some feeling back.
“Her lower body is currently paralyzed, but some pins-and-needles-type sensation is beginning to return to her legs and feet,” it read.
“The road ahead will be long as she moves through the stages of recovery, physical therapy, and adjusts to a new normal.”
Her father said even through the pain, his daughter has remained her positive, upbeat self.
“She’s been kind to everyone through the pain. She’s been a positive person, and that hasn’t changed at all.”
The same storm that injured Mayer knocked down trees and downed power lines all over the city, with fire crews saying they responded to more than a dozen wind-related calls, with wind gusts up to 40 mph, per the report.
There was even a fatality, after a falling tree branch hit a 61-year-old man, per the outlet.
He’s since been identified as Ralph Harrington of Santa Rosa, the Sonoma County Sheriff’s department told The Post.
He was taken to an area hospital where he was later pronounced dead. The sheriff’s office said the official cause of death has yet to be determined.
The California Post has reached out to the Santa Rosa PD and the Sonoma County Sheriff’s office for further comment.
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