Woman left paralyzed when husband fell on top of her after dropping her down the stairs
Thomas Bamford
Featured Image Credit: SWNS
A disabled woman was left paralysed from the shoulders down after her exhausted husband dropped her while carrying her downstairs, and then landed on top of her.
Kelly Stuart, 44, had lived with fibromyalgia and non-epileptic seizures for 18 years and had used a wheelchair for many years before the incident. But on May 17 2025, as her husband Simon was carrying her downstairs so the couple could head out to a stage show, he missed a step.
The pair tumbled down seven stairs, with Simon, 45, landing on top of his wife at the bottom. The couple believe exhaustion played a significant role.
They had spent three weeks at the hospital with Simon's dying mother, Janet Stuart, 75, in the lead-up to the fall, attending every day while also grieving.
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"He was trained to carry me like that but he was so tired from us going to the hospital every day, and grieving," Kelly said.
At the bottom of the stairs, Kelly had her first full tonic-clonic seizure, which doctors later attributed to the fall itself. She initially appeared to recover, but soon began experiencing numbness that medics said they would monitor.
Three months later, she woke up unable to move.
Kelly had developed functional neurological disorder (FND) and functional movement disorder, conditions in which the brain struggles to send and receive signals correctly.
She now has no feeling in her arms, torso or legs, is unable to feed herself or sit upright, and requires daily carers.
She was kept in hospital for eight and a half months, during which she had 500 seizures while neurophysiotherapists and occupational therapists worked to reactivate movement and feeling in her body.
Progress has been slow. "I struggled not having control over my body or life," she said. "I was depressed and ended up getting support from mental health nurses."
Kelly was discharged last month and the couple have since moved into a new bungalow with adaptations including a ramp and a wet room conversion. She is now focused on rebuilding her life, with hopes that physiotherapy and muscle stimulator devices will help her regain some movement over time.
Simon, who has been consumed by guilt since the accident, said the couple are simply adjusting to their new reality. "With the fall, I had a lot of guilt around that, although I feel better than I did, now she's home," he said.
"We just have to adjust to this new life for her."
Kelly, a former tech worker, said she holds no resentment toward her husband. "Simon blames himself but I could never blame the person I love. He is my world and it could so easily have been the other way around."
The couple are now fundraising for further physiotherapy, muscle stimulator devices and a wheelchair-suited car.
Their GoFundMe can be found here.