SALT LAKE CITY - “I hope you know you're super lucky because you should have been dead or paraplegic.” Brook Baker said doctors told her she is lucky to be alive, after a freak accident at a bounce house in West Jordan.
“All my weight went down head first onto my neck,” Baker said.
Having four screws drilled into her skull, Baker underwent several surgeries and enduring excruciating pain. She is starting a long road to recovery, but despite all this, “I felt like I was super, super blessed,” Baker said.
Baker was at a bounce house with her son and boyfriend, when she saw what looked like a gymnastics class off to the side of the bounce house. She went to do some flips on the mats.
“I started with one back handspring, then two three four five and once I got to the sixth one, I felt my feet hit the very edge,” Baker said.
She crashed to the ground, landing on her neck.
“My son, six-years-old sees everything, [says] 'mommy are you okay,' and at this point I couldn't feel anything I couldn't feel my toes, my legs my fingers weren't moving,” Baker said.
Baker was rushed to a nearby hospital, and then to the University of Utah where her family got heartbreaking news from a doctor.
“He let them know there was a 96 percent chance I would be a quadriplegic or I would be dead,” she said.
Baker said her x-rays show her C-1 vertebrae fractured in 4 separate places.
“They say usually one fracture will leave you paralyzed. the fact I had four of them and I was still moving my arms, they were amazed they said I was a miracle,” Baker said.
Something she heard time and time again while in the hospital from doctors and nurses.
Days later, brook walked out the hospital doors and got into the car with her sister.
“She's like I can't believe I’m driving you home,” Baker said.
She hopes when you go to bounce houses and gymnastic places you use extra caution.
Now overwhelmed with medical bills and still wanting to do Christmas for her son, Baker said she will be out of work for months. Her loved ones have set up a GoFundMe account to help her during this time.
