Pennsylvania Nurse Paralyzed in Auto Accident Vows to Walk Down the Isle
It takes a certain type of character to help someone in need, even if it means putting your own life at risk, that is what happened to a 22-year-old female Pennsylvania nursing student who was paralyzed after being struck by a truck last winter. She is now determined to walk down the aisle at her upcoming wedding despite the odds that are against her.
ABC News reported that Alissa Boyle, a nursing student at Waynesburg University, was weeks away from graduating when on Feb. 20 she headed to Ruby Memorial Hospital in Morgantown, W. Va. She and a few others stopped to assist 21-year-old Derek Hartzog, who had rolled his Jeep on Interstate 79 in a car accident.
With a team effort, they managed to pull the man from the vehicle, when someone let out a loud cry. They were yelling that a truck was barreling down the road towards the direction of the help.
Boyle told WTAE, “when I turned around, there was a semi right there and not stopping,”
Boyle, fellow nursing student Cami Abernethy and Hartzog had no choice but to leap over the railing over the edge of the overpass, which was 40 or 50 feet above the ground. Out of the three, Boyle was the most seriously injured. She was knocked unconscious and taken to the hospital.
“When I did wake up, I just remember being in pain. I remember just being in pain, and it was the worst pain in my life,” Boyle said. “They told me I’d never walk again. The doctor told me right away that I had a 1 percent chance of walking,” she said.
After being release from the hospital, she began a lengthy recovery at western Pennsylvania. All she could think about, however, were her wedding plans to marry Nathan, who was stationed at Fort Bragg in North Carolina, and had just proposed to her prior to the accident.
Nathan was very supportive of her, despite her current physical situation. “At first, when it happened, I was worried that he was going to leave, and he never left my bedside. He told me, ‘You’re not going to walk. You’re going to run again,’” said Boyle. He filled her with hope.
At a second visit to a different doctor, the medical professional noticed something else. Boyle’s spinal cord was not completely severed, as the first doctor had told her. Nathan had been right, she would one day be able to walk again.
Since then she has a new sense of determination when she attends physical therapy, and she is resolute in her decision to be able to walk down the aisle at her upcoming wedding at the Avion on the Water in Canfield, Ohio. She says she’s out to prove to the world that she will walk once again.
If you or someone you know were paralyzed in an auto accident and are looking to obtain medical compensation, contact our auto accident attorneys today!
Reviewed by Chris H. in 2012.