Cheerleader Lands on Head. Docs ‘Said It Was Fine’, But She’d Fractured Her Spine

A woman was in “excruciating pain” after she landed on her head doing a somersault — but said doctors dismissed her concerns, until she got a private scan that showed she’d fractured her spine.

When she’s not working as a pediatric nurse, Brooke Bowen, 21, is a cheerleader. She and a friend had gone to a private facility to practice on April 22 when Bowen, who hails from the English city of Wakefield, did a somersault into a foam pit.

“I got upside down and I knew I wasn’t going to make it round and fell down on my head,” Bowen said, according to Daily Mail. But she didn’t hit the foam bricks; Bowen said she’d hit the floor at the bottom of the pit. “It was the worst pain in the world,” she said.

She went to a local emergency room — and even showed staff a video of her accident — but claims she was told it wasn’t “traumatic.”

“I’m a nurse so I told them I couldn’t go to work in this kind of pain,” Bowen said. “In the end they ended up doing an x-ray as I fought for it, but they said it was fine, and they sent me home.”

Over the next two months, she said she kept having to go back to the doctor for medication as she was in “excruciating pain.” But since doctors told her she was okay, she continued going to work and cheerleading practice. 

Still in pain, on June 20, Bowen sought out a private scan — which discovered that she’d fractured the C3 and C4 vertebrae in her neck. She was later told she had two more injuries, and bruising, on her spine.

When she woke up with arm cramps and the sensation that her legs had fallen asleep, Bowen was admitted to the hospital for 10 days. ”I could still walk but I couldn’t go to the toilet. I just thought the worst and thought I was going to be paralyzed,” she told the outlet.

While she says doctors told her that her symptoms were “in her head,” Bowen says she’s been left with “left-sided weakness in my arm and leg, and my legs hardly got any power.”

Bowen now uses a wheelchair when she leaves the house; She attends hydrotherapy sessions and says she’s been told her fractures will heal. Stil, he’s worried about long-term effects, as she’s been told “I could lose all my ability [in my legs] or I could get it all back and just need to learn to live my life like this. It is scary to think that one day I could be paralyzed. As it’s been so long, I think my injury is worse now as it didn’t get treated initially.”

“I’ll always think that if I was treated at the start I wouldn’t be in this position now.”

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