OC nurse home after suffering severe spinal cord injury during freak accident in Costa Rica
"I know that I have a good team here and that my injuries ... I am positive that I can overcome them," she said.
MISSION VIEJO, Calif. (KABC) -- An Orange County nurse is finally home after suffering a near-fatal spinal cord injury during a freak accident in Costa Rica.
Deanne Niedziela, executive director of nursing at Providence Mission Hospital in Mission Viejo, was on a trip with her husband Ken when 5-foot tree limb came crashing down from towering trees overhead and crushed her.
"All of a sudden I heard a huge crash," Ken said. "It was like a bolt of thunder, or thunderclap. This thing came slamming to the ground ... was momentarily stunned. What is this? And I looked over and saw Deanne laying on the ground."
Niedziela suffered severe spinal cord injuries. She underwent a 9-hour surgery, but the injury left her paralyzed from the chest down.
Niedziela returned home to Orange County over the weekend, where she's being treated at the same hospital she works for.
"I know that I have a good team here and that my injuries ... I am positive that I can overcome them, at least to a point where I can come back," she told Eyewitness News from her hospital bed.
Doctors will treat Niedziela's injuries over the next couple of weeks before she begins rehab where she hopes to make a full recovery.
Staff coordinated Niedziela's return with the help of a GoFundMe fundraiser that was created for her. They hope to use some of that money to help get the nurse to a rehab center in Colorado.
The nurse said she's simply grateful.
"The outpouring of the community from people I don't even know and a lot of people I do know, it's just been massively overwhelming," said Niedziela.
