Added: Jul 29, 2010

From: STEPBYSTEP2010

Duration: 4:35

AN ANNUAL mother-daughter Bali adventure turned into a nightmare for Eltham's Rhiannon Tracey, who is left wondering if she will ever walk again. The 21-year-old broke her neck and three vertebrae after inadvertently diving into the shallows of a hotel pool two months ago. Rhiannon is confined to a wheel chair and is recovering at the Royal Talbot Rehabilitation Centre in Kew. But despite regaining the use of her arms and right leg - but not in her fingers - doctors cannot guarantee she will walk again. "I just can't believe it," Rhiannon said. "Just last month I was the life of the party and now I am like this." Rhiannon was in the last days of the holiday with her mother Sharon and best friend Rebecca when she misjudged the depth of the pool and smacked her head at the bottom. She recounted the horror of being paralysed and lying face down in the water while those near the pool thought she was joking around. That was the first of two times where she thought she would die that night. "I couldn't move, I thought I was going to drown here in the pool," she said. Later as she lay in the intensive care unit in hospital, Bali's biggest recorded earthquake struck - measuring 7.2 on the Richter scale - sending everyone in the hospital rushing out of the building. The earthquake caused the local surgeon to arrive hours late for the life-saving operation to repair her spinal chord. Her insurance company brought her back to Melbourne in an air ambulance. Rhiannon hoped her experience would act as a warning to those considering travelling overseas without insurance. She said immediately after her accident, other young holidaymakers from the same resort frantically phoned home for insurance cover, with most flying home straight away after finding out travel insurance couldn't be bought retrospectively. "If you go to another country without any travel insurance, then you are taking a huge risk", she said. Her family and friends have banded together for a community fundraiser next week at the Lower Eltham Cricket Club to help pay for ongoing rehabilitation. Rhiannon wants to walk again RHIANNON Tracey still finds it hard to adjust to life in a wheelchair. Tears come easily to the Eltham resident's eyes at the frustration of using the hand toggle to turn around her motorised wheelchair in her room. But she is working hard to remain positive. Rhiannon was allowed home for the day to celebrate her 21st birthday this month. Get-well cards and 21st birthday cards are stuck on the wall around her bed. The self-help book, You Can Heal Your Life, by Louise Hay, is on the table nearby. She is in her fourth week of rehabilitation at Kew's Royal Talbot Centre, but plans to take on another rehabilitation challenge called Project Walk. It is a 12-month intensive physiotherapy program specialising on stimulating damaged nerves and muscles. The Brisbane-based program is aimed at getting people up and walking again. But her family needs to come up with the $30,000 to pay for the program and also find the addition-al money for accommodation interstate. One thing she was adamant about was she would walk again, and get back to her old life as a vet nurse. ``I don't give up as easily, you know,'' she said. ``My mother and stepdad have been my rock I would not have survived without them. I am confident that I will get better and walk again.'' Rhiannon has just completed a 8 week stint @ Project Walk and is fundraising to return for further treatment! Check out STEP BY STEP on Facebook for more information

Channel: Nonprofit

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