'INDESCRIBABLE PAIN'
‘I felt my back break,’ says mum, 40, paralysed from the waist down after gym move went wrong in split second
Doctors told her it is rare to be able to regain sensation in the spine after suffering an injury like hers
A MUM has been left paralysed after slipping while doing a squat, causing a 120kg barbell to crush her spine.
Henrietta Paxton was working out at her gym like normal and was in the middle of a set of squats when the barbell started to slip backwards.
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“That was probably the most terrifying point of my entire life,” the PE teacher from Wiltshire in Salisbury said.
“I knew what was happening, and there was nothing I could do to stop it as well, so it was awful."
The 40-year-old still tried to catch the bar and readjust it to bring it back onto the top of her shoulders again.
But she overcompensated and instead knocked it forward which left her crushed under the 120kg weight.
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“The pain was indescribable, there's nothing I can compare it to,” she said, recalling the event.
"I think deep down I knew," she added.,"I heard and felt my back break."
Some girls who were in the gym heard the commotion and rushed over to help pull the bar off Henrietta while a member of staff called an ambulance who took her to Southampton General Hospital.
After MRI and CT scans, she was told she had broken and dislocated part of her spine at her T11 and T12 and had suffered a complete spinal cord injury meaning she is paralysed from the waist down.
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Doctors told her it is rare to be able to regain sensation in the spine after suffering an injury like hers.
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The following day, the mum-of-two underwent an operation where five of her vertebrae were bolted together to stabilise her spine.
However she has been left unable to get around her own home so has now launched a JustGiving page in the hope of raising some of the £230,000 that is likely to be needed to convert her three-story house.
"I should have been using squat safety bars and I have every other time I've squatted up until I started using this particular gym," she said.
LIKELY NEVER WALK AGAIN
The accident happened on 29 May and after spending six weeks in Southampton General, Henrietta was moved to the Spinal Treatment Centre in Salisbury where she is still receiving treatment.
Doctors have told her it is unlikely she will ever walk again.
However, she is determined to do everything she can to regain movement in her legs including using a standing frame every day to keep her lower body strong.
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Henrietta still experiences a lot of discomfort with an aching back but is continuing her regular gym sessions where she works out her upper body.
She has always had a passion for sport and even competed in the pole vault at two Commonwealth Games before retiring in 2017 following a knee injury.
GETTING USED TO A NEW LIFE
She is hoping to be able to return to work in January for the start of the new school term and said she is thinking about taking up a new sport such as wheelchair basketball or wheelchair rugby.
Henrietta said: "I just always knew I wanted to be an athlete, I wanted to go to the Olympics and be an athlete. That's all I wanted to do.
"On the whole you've just got to get on with it because life goes on and it'll go on with or without you so I'd rather be involved."
She said there are days which are "really hard," but she continues to believe that everything she can to recover.
"A lot of the rehab is more centred around getting used to life in a wheelchair and being able to manage that, getting in and out of the wheelchair and daily living.
"But I believe that I'm doing everything I possibly can for my spinal cord to be able to regenerate in the best way it can.
"I'm doing everything I can to make sure if it's going to happen, it's going to happen to me.
For Henrietta, even simple things like putting on clothes takes a lot of effort.
"You know, pulling shorts up and down, there's just so many little things that you're like, nothing's quick anymore is how I'd describe it. You can't just pop to the loo", she said.
"I used to be a person who was a million miles an hour and impatient so this has been a learning curve, being forced to slow down,"; she added.
Can you recover from a broken back?
Breaking your back might sound like a life-altering event - but recovery is possible.
If you’ve suffered a break, your treatment might start with some rest and a supportive brace to keep things in place.
For the pain, the NHS will likely prescribe some medication to keep you comfy and on the mend.
As you heal, physical therapy will become your new best friend. You will work to strengthening the muscles and boost flexibility to get you back in action.
In more severe cases, surgery might be needed to get everything back in line.
Source: NHS
The teacher said she needs a platform lift fitted outside of her house because there are steps up to her front door and a through-floor lift fitted inside so she can get between floors in addition to adapting a bathroom so she can use it.
She said she hopes the work will be done in the next six weeks and then she can be discharged from the hospital and return home.
Henrietta said: "It's a big target but I'm feeling hopeful."
The mum has two small boys who she wants to get home to.
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"I just want to be back with my family. I don't want their lives to be affected by my mistake and my accident," she said.
"I don't want it to affect their opportunities or the things we do as a family."
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