Woman paralysed after freak accident on Hawaii holiday: 'My life was over'

When Cassie Eckroth decided to take some surfing lessons in Hawaii she never anticipated she'd be returning home in a wheelchair.

The university student experienced sudden onset weakness and lost feeling in her legs and was later diagnosed with a rare condition called Surfer's Myelopathy; a spinal cord injury associated with hyperextension of the back leaving her paralysed from the waist down.

"This devastated me, my life was over," Ms Eckroth, from Nevada USA, wrote in a tearful Facebook post.

"In the hospital, I struggled with thoughts of ending my life, I couldn’t live in a world where I couldn’t walk."

Ms Eckroth said she initially struggled to even sit up after the freak accident in April 2021, but said the journey that followed was just the beginning and every day was a struggle.

"Once I could sit I had to relearn how to dress, transfer, use a wheelchair, shower and use the bathroom," she said.

"Everything was different and hard."

Going home was just the beginning of her recovery

The student, who was studying to become a teacher, said returning home from the rehab facility was the hardest part as she wasn't surrounded by carers and people in similar situations all the time.

"When I finally got home the struggles began again. I was no longer surrounded by people in wheelchairs," she explained, saying people would stare and ask about her wheelchair.

"I wasn’t the confident happy person I was anymore. That was another thing to relearn. It took months to become resettled and feel 'normal' again."

Although Ms Eckroth's recovery journey has been difficult with lots of "ups and downs", she said it was made easier through support groups as well as physical therapy, acupuncture and hyperbaric oxygen therapy.

"I have been accepted into an amazing community of people who also have disabilities and I look up to every single of them," she said.

She also credits sport and other physical activities in helping her gain her confidence back and can now drive which gives her some freedom and independence.

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"I’ve also become involved in so many activities like biking, horseback riding, and CrossFit just to list a few," she said.

"Every day is a battle but time heals and every day my life gets better," she said. "I get happier, and things even become easier."

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