Skip to playerSkip to main content
  • 2 days ago
WOMAN'S CLOSE CALL IN ACCIDENT LEAVES HER IN HALO BRACE
WITH VID AND PIX 
BY KIARA WELLS & SHANNON PICKETT
After a terrifying car accident she doesn’t even remember, 25-year-old Jordyn Shea from Phoenix, Arizona, USA, is navigating a painful and complicated recovery.
She revealed that it involves multiple fractures, heavy bruising, and a full spinal halo brace screwed into her skull.
She said: “I honestly don’t get a lot of sleep right now.
“I sleep in increments of two to three hours.”
Jordyn told how the crash left her with no memory of the days before, during, or immediately after it happened. 
There were no witnesses, and she didn’t hit anyone else. What she does know, and what she wants to warn others about, is wearing her seatbelt. 
She believes it's the biggest reason she ended up with such severe injuries, and the reason she’s now sharing her story.
Her airbags deployed and 'saved her life'. Even with that lifesaving moment, the impact left her with multiple facial fractures, cut lips, a bruised cheekbone and frontal lobe, and a large laceration requiring 25 stitches. 
Her neck suffered the worst of it with fractures to her C3, C6, and C7 vertebrae, along with extensive bruising down her left side, including her arm, wrist, palm, shoulder, and knees.
To keep her neck completely immobilised while it heals, Jordyn now wears a spinal halo brace with six screws anchored into the first layer of her skull. 
The device wraps around her head, stops behind her ears, and holds her in place at all times. 
She’ll be wearing it for three months while doctors monitor whether her neck can heal naturally, though there’s a chance she may need a spinal fusion if it doesn’t.
Sleeping has become its own battle. Jordyn spends her nights upright on her couch, carefully arranging pillows under her arms, knees, and side just to find something that resembles comfort. 
Even then, she wakes often. She describes mornings as feeling like she has 'bricks' weighing her down.
Still, she’s only on day four of the halo brace and is determined to get through the long journey ahead.
She said: “I honestly feel like I have bricks on me when I wake up.
“I sleep completely sitting up straight.
“This is all I’ve found to be somewhat comfortable.
“They say you should be able to sleep however you want, but that does not work for me yet.

“Airbags saved my life.
“I’m a walking example of why you should wear your seatbelt.
“I’ll have this on for three months… wish me luck.”
ENDS

Category

🗞
News
Transcript
00:00I'm a walking example of why you should wear your seatbelt and I'm lucky to be walking. This is
00:05called a spinal halo brace. I was in a car accident. The details of the car accident are slim to none.
00:12I don't have any memory of the days leading up, the day of, and kind of like the day after. I was
00:17not wearing my seatbelt. Airbags saved my life. I'm going to show you guys exactly how I've been
00:23sleeping lately. Honestly, don't get a lot of sleep right now. I sleep kind of like in increments
00:28of two to three hours. What I've found to kind of work right now, I don't have any pillows behind
00:33me. I find it's easier to sleep completely sitting up straight and then I usually pull a really big
00:42comfy pillow to the side here. Sometimes I put a pillow under my knees like this and then I take
00:49one more big fluffy pillow. This is it. I sleep just like this. I find that I can't lean back too much
00:55yet because it is uncomfortable. That's what I do. Injuries resulted in multiple fractures in my
01:01nose. I split my lip so I'm still dealing with some swelling. Bruised bone. I had a few cuts here
01:07that have healed. I had bruised my frontal lobe. I broke my C3, my C6, and my C7. Multiple bruised
01:18bones on the left side of my body because that was the side my car hit on impact. It's healing now.
01:25But I got some pretty nearly bruising all the way around, up through my hand, all here,
01:31and then up my wrist, through my palm here. So as far as my knees go, do some right bruising
01:37on my knees, all here, all around here. I have six pins, screws, in the first layer of my skull.
01:48So there's two here and then two each behind my ears. I can do like a full turn. This brace
01:53does stop right behind my ears. And essentially what this is doing is mobilizing my neck. The goal
02:00of this is that my neck is going to heal on its own and I'll have full range of motion. I'll have
02:04this on for three months, full range of motion, and then hopefully be 100% healed. I do with my case have
02:11a chance of that not happening. So in about three months, I will have another CAT scan and we'll see
02:17if I need a spinal fusion where I will lose range of motion. That's kind of my journey right now. I'm on
02:23day four of my spinal halo and I have quite a few more days to go. Wish me luck!
Be the first to comment
Add your comment

Recommended