Woman left paralyzed from horror ATV crash after hospitals made wild cash demand before treating her
Topics: Travel, Mexico, GoFundMe, Los Angeles
Kiesha Dosanjh
Featured Image Credit: GoFundMe
Topics: Travel, Mexico, GoFundMe, Los Angeles
A Los Angeles woman's birthday trip in Cancun, Mexico turned in to a nightmare when she was almost left paralyzed after falling from a 22 feet bridge.
Nina Bakhshi, and her boyfriend were riding in ATVs, on a guided tour, when her boyfriend's tire got stuck in the wire of a bridge. After the vehicle flipped over, Nina’s boyfriend got stuck in the wire, however, she unfortunately fell all the way down, fracturing her spine and neck.
She was carried for 30 minutes and then driven to the hospital in the back of a truck, as there were no ambulances available.
In the video, which was posted on social media, Nina's boyfriend can be heard screaming her name as she falls to the ground.
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Speaking to ABC 7 News while wearing a neck brace from a hospital bed in Cancun, Nina said: “I was awake the whole time. You know how you sleep sometimes and you fall in your dream and you wake up? It was like that.”
However, KTLA reports that doctors in Mexico refused to see Nina unless she paid 420,000 Mexican pesos, which equates to roughly $24,000. Due to this, she told the outlet that the worst part of her fall was ‘getting to the surgery’ due to the number of obstacles.
To pay for the emergency back surgery, Nina, who had no travel insurance, said she received help from friends and family and also maxed out credit cards.
She began the operation 28 hours after her fall, with doctors telling her she was ‘extremely lucky’ to have landed on leaves.
“I remember my brother was begging the doctors there that we pay the price for the pain medicine, ‘just give her the pain medicine,’ because I was screaming from pain, and they would just say ‘no,’” she told the outlet.
The outlet says that Nina should be able to return home to Los Angeles within the next few weeks.
Nina will be in physical therapy to help her to walk properly again, and it is said her neck brace will be on for around five months.
Despite this, the 29-year-old is looking on the bright side, as she told the outlet she was ‘grateful to be alive’ and now ‘has a different perspective on life’.
A GoFundMe page has been set up to fund Nina’s medical expenses, and at the time of writing, almost $50k has been raised.
On the site, Nina confirms she still has 'untreated fractures in her neck, ongoing medical expenses, physical therapy, follow-up appointments, medications, and a long healing journey ahead'.