Falling Up : My Wild Ride from Victim to Kick-Ass Victor by Dana Liesegang read ebook TXT, DOC, EPUB
9781401946340 English 1401946348 Sometimes an unexpected fall can lead a person to reach for magnificent heights. Dana Liesegang was a lively, athletic, 19-year-old engineman in the U.S. Navy when she was sexually assaulted by a fellow sailor, thrown off a cliff, and left for dead. She survived--but woke up in a hospital hours later paralyzed from the neck down, with doctors giving no hope for recovery. They underestimated the spirit and stubbornness of their patient. In "Falling Up: My Wild Ride from Victim to Kick-Ass Victor, " Dana recounts her agonizing and sometimes comical struggle from total dependence to doing the "impossible"--walking again. In the process, she learns the importance of forgiveness, discovers the awe-inspiring power of belief and perseverance, and transforms herself from silent victim to outspoken advocate and inspiration for people everywhere., When I opened my eyes, 1 couldn't move, I couldn't talk. I couldn't breathe on my own ... I didn't remember a thing. I didn't know that the night before, I had plummeted 75 feet off a cliff to the sand and rocks below. When my parents first saw me in the hospital with tubes stuck all over my swollen body and oxygen being pumped into-my throat and lungs, they didn't recognize me. ... I had broken my neck and critically injured my spinal cord, had lacerations to my liver and spleen, and suffered severe traumatic brain injury. "She'll be lucky to live through the night," one specialist told my mother. "If she does survive, she'll most likely be paralyzed from the neck down and never breathe on her own and could possibly be brain damaged. She'll be a vegetable." My mother gave the doctors her own prognosis-the correct one, according to her: "I was told by a higher source that she's going to be fine.... You don't know the spirit inside that little girl," she told the doctors. "I do. That girl can do the impossible...." Mom had it from a higher, source that I was going to be fine, and the more I thought about it, the more I believed her. I knew that higher source was me. I wanted to walk and swim and climb and fly free on my bike again. I will not spend the rest of my life in this prison. The doctors didn't have faith in much recovery for me, and the Navy wanted to sweep my "accident" under the rug and pretend what really happened didn't. But as Mom had tried to tell everybody-myself included-they had no idea who they were dealing with. Book jacket., When I opened my eyes, I couldn t move. I couldn t talk. I couldn t breathe on my own . . . I stared at the cracked paint on the ceiling and thought, How did I get here? What happened? I didn t remember a thing. I didn t know that the night before . . . I d plummeted 75 feet off a cliff to the sand and rocks below. When my parents first saw me in the hospital with tubes stuck all over my swollen body and oxygen being pumped into my throat and lungs, they didn t recognize me. In those first 18 hours I had been heavily sedated, drugged and unconscious. But in my mind, I d been lost in a fuzzy, limbo space between reality and imagination. I remember hearing nurses moving around the room clattering objects and talking about me, saying things like, Those are strangulation marks on her neck . . . I had broken my neck and critically injured my spinal cord, had lacerations to my liver and spleen, and suffered severe traumatic brain injury. She ll be lucky to live through the night, one specialist told my mother. If she does survive, she ll mostly likely be paralyzed from the neck down and never breathe on her own and could possibly be brain damaged. She ll be a vegetable. My mother gave the doctors her own prognosis the correct one, according to her: I was told by a higher source that she s going to be fine. . . . You don t know the spirit inside that little girl, she told the doctors. I do. That girl can do the impossible. . . . Mom had it from a higher source that I was going to be fine, and the more I thought about it, the more I believed her. I knew that higher source was me. I wanted to walk and swim and climb and fly free on my bike again. I will not spend the rest of my life in this prison. The doctors didn t have faith in much recovery for me, and the Navy wanted to sweep my accident under the rug and pretend what really happened didn t. But as Mom had tried to tell everybody myself included they had no idea whom they were dealing with. "
9781401946340 English 1401946348 Sometimes an unexpected fall can lead a person to reach for magnificent heights. Dana Liesegang was a lively, athletic, 19-year-old engineman in the U.S. Navy when she was sexually assaulted by a fellow sailor, thrown off a cliff, and left for dead. She survived--but woke up in a hospital hours later paralyzed from the neck down, with doctors giving no hope for recovery. They underestimated the spirit and stubbornness of their patient. In "Falling Up: My Wild Ride from Victim to Kick-Ass Victor, " Dana recounts her agonizing and sometimes comical struggle from total dependence to doing the "impossible"--walking again. In the process, she learns the importance of forgiveness, discovers the awe-inspiring power of belief and perseverance, and transforms herself from silent victim to outspoken advocate and inspiration for people everywhere., When I opened my eyes, 1 couldn't move, I couldn't talk. I couldn't breathe on my own ... I didn't remember a thing. I didn't know that the night before, I had plummeted 75 feet off a cliff to the sand and rocks below. When my parents first saw me in the hospital with tubes stuck all over my swollen body and oxygen being pumped into-my throat and lungs, they didn't recognize me. ... I had broken my neck and critically injured my spinal cord, had lacerations to my liver and spleen, and suffered severe traumatic brain injury. "She'll be lucky to live through the night," one specialist told my mother. "If she does survive, she'll most likely be paralyzed from the neck down and never breathe on her own and could possibly be brain damaged. She'll be a vegetable." My mother gave the doctors her own prognosis-the correct one, according to her: "I was told by a higher source that she's going to be fine.... You don't know the spirit inside that little girl," she told the doctors. "I do. That girl can do the impossible...." Mom had it from a higher, source that I was going to be fine, and the more I thought about it, the more I believed her. I knew that higher source was me. I wanted to walk and swim and climb and fly free on my bike again. I will not spend the rest of my life in this prison. The doctors didn't have faith in much recovery for me, and the Navy wanted to sweep my "accident" under the rug and pretend what really happened didn't. But as Mom had tried to tell everybody-myself included-they had no idea who they were dealing with. Book jacket., When I opened my eyes, I couldn t move. I couldn t talk. I couldn t breathe on my own . . . I stared at the cracked paint on the ceiling and thought, How did I get here? What happened? I didn t remember a thing. I didn t know that the night before . . . I d plummeted 75 feet off a cliff to the sand and rocks below. When my parents first saw me in the hospital with tubes stuck all over my swollen body and oxygen being pumped into my throat and lungs, they didn t recognize me. In those first 18 hours I had been heavily sedated, drugged and unconscious. But in my mind, I d been lost in a fuzzy, limbo space between reality and imagination. I remember hearing nurses moving around the room clattering objects and talking about me, saying things like, Those are strangulation marks on her neck . . . I had broken my neck and critically injured my spinal cord, had lacerations to my liver and spleen, and suffered severe traumatic brain injury. She ll be lucky to live through the night, one specialist told my mother. If she does survive, she ll mostly likely be paralyzed from the neck down and never breathe on her own and could possibly be brain damaged. She ll be a vegetable. My mother gave the doctors her own prognosis the correct one, according to her: I was told by a higher source that she s going to be fine. . . . You don t know the spirit inside that little girl, she told the doctors. I do. That girl can do the impossible. . . . Mom had it from a higher source that I was going to be fine, and the more I thought about it, the more I believed her. I knew that higher source was me. I wanted to walk and swim and climb and fly free on my bike again. I will not spend the rest of my life in this prison. The doctors didn t have faith in much recovery for me, and the Navy wanted to sweep my accident under the rug and pretend what really happened didn t. But as Mom had tried to tell everybody myself included they had no idea whom they were dealing with. "