A Los Angeles woman’s birthday vacation in Cancun, Mexico, became a terrifying ordeal after a fall from a 22-foot bridge left her facing the possibility of paralysis.
Nina Bakhshi and her boyfriend were taking part in a guided ATV excursion when her boyfriend’s tire reportedly became tangled in wiring on the bridge. The ATV flipped, leaving him caught in the wire, while Nina fell the full distance, suffering fractures to her spine and neck.
With no ambulances available, she was carried for around 30 minutes before being transported to a hospital in the back of a truck.
Footage shared on social media captures the moment of the incident, and her boyfriend can be heard yelling her name as she falls.
Talking to ABC 7 News from a hospital bed in Cancun while wearing a neck brace, Nina said: “I was awake the whole time. You know how you sleep sometimes and you fall in your dream and you wake up? It was like that.”
According to KTLA, Nina said doctors in Mexico would not treat her unless she paid 420,000 Mexican pesos — about $24,000. She told the outlet that the hardest part after the fall was ‘getting to the surgery’ because of the hurdles she faced.
Without travel insurance, Nina said she relied on support from friends and family and used credit cards to cover the cost of the emergency back surgery.
She ultimately underwent the procedure 28 hours after the accident, and doctors told her she was ‘extremely lucky’ to have landed on leaves.
“I remember my brother was begging the doctors there that we pay the price for the pain medicine, ‘just give her the pain medicine,’ because I was screaming from pain, and they would just say ‘no,’” she told the outlet.
KTLA also reports that Nina is expected to be able to return to Los Angeles within the next few weeks.
She will need physical therapy to support her recovery and help her walk normally again, and it’s believed she will have to wear the neck brace for about five months.
Even with a long road ahead, the 29-year-old said she is ‘grateful to be alive’ and that the experience has given her ‘a different perspective on life’.
A GoFundMe has been created to help cover her medical bills, with nearly $50,000 raised at the time of writing.
On the page, Nina confirms she still has ‘untreated fractures in her neck, ongoing medical expenses, physical therapy, follow-up appointments, medications, and a long healing journey ahead’.