Danielle Drummond, Oregon woman left paralyzed from the waist down after piano falls on her in freak accident as she fights to reclaim her life.
Picking up the pieces… A Cleveland, Ohio woman left paralyzed from the waist down after a grand piano fell on her in a freak accident has opened up about the incident which forever changed her life as she now seeks the chance to walk again.
Danielle Drummond, 28, who had moved to Eugene, Oregon to make a ‘fresh start’ was helping a friend last month move the piano when the friend lost her grip and dropped the ‘whole upright piano’ on top of her, WOIO reported.
Drummond was rushed to the hospital for emergency surgery, where doctors discovered the accident ‘severed’ her spinal cord and left her ‘paralyzed from the waist down.’
Contending with a new reality
‘I’m trying to keep like in high spirits because I know this is my life now, but it’s hard,’ she told the outlet. ‘As of right now, I need a lot more physical therapy. I need to rebuild my strength.’
Following the injury, Drummond said she would need extensive rehab and a home health aide — presenting more difficulties since she was living in her van with her dog Lotus.
The 28-year-old has no family in Oregon to care for her and is currently looking for a place to live.
Returning home to her native Cleveland also seems impossible in her current condition.
‘I don’t even know like how I would get home, let alone like how to transfer all the medical stuff, and I don’t feel like I’m able right now to do like that far of a car ride or a trip in an airplane,’ Drummond told the outlet.
Her older sister, Rosie Hayne, has set up a GoFundMe to help her sibling find a place to live and pay for her medical expenses.
A new reality and hope for the future
‘Our hearts are completely broken, My baby sister means the world to me,’ Hayne wrote.
‘Such a strong and wise woman, down to earth and humble, her aura reflects her beautiful soul. We will get through this with lots of prayer and positive guidance. This is in God’s hands now, please wrap them around her tight!’
Hayne revealed that her sister fractured her T11 and T12 — the two lowest vertebrae in a person’s Thoracic spine.
In surgery, doctors also needed to perform a fusion ‘from T10-L2’ in Drummond’s spine to improve her spinal stability.
In an update on May 1, her older sister wrote that Drummond is ‘getting around really well in the hospital wheelchair’ but still needs to find one of her own and a place to live.
‘She wants to make it clear that she is not expecting to ever walk again. She has accepted the reality of her situation. But she has an amazing spirit and an overall positive outlook, focusing on what she can do.’
While the accident has left her in a wheelchair for the remainder of her life, Drummond said she’s ‘hopeful’ that medical advances in the future may grant her the ability to walk again.
‘I hope that people who are going through this don’t give up,’ added Drummond.
