Galway paramedic fighting back after mountain fall leaves her paralysed

A fall while climbing Mweelrea Mountain last year changed 28-year-old Olivia Lane’s life utterly – leaving her fully paralysed from the armpits down.

Olivia, from Laraghmore in Turloughmore, was a paramedic with the National Ambulance Service and a keen sportswoman, but the injuries she suffered on that fateful day last October have left her finding a new way forward, after months in hospital and rehabilitation.

To aid her on that journey, members of the local community are running a fundraiser later this month to raise money towards the cost of a motorised wheelchair attachment which Olivia says would make getting around less of a challenge.

Recalling the accident, Olivia says she was halfway up Connacht’s highest peak when tragedy struck.

“I was halfway up from the Doolough Valley side when, unfortunately, I fell off the ramp section as it’s known and fell over 40 metres. Luckily, I hike with a work colleague in the National Ambulance Service who provided whatever assistance she could to me while Rescue 118 Coastguard helicopter was tasked from Strandhill in Sligo,” she explains.

“I was winched onto R118 and brought to University Hospital Galway. I had a massive amount of traumatic injuries which included a subarachnoid brain bleed, basal skill fractures, multiple vertebral fractures throughout my spine, severed spinal cord, pelvis fracture and multiple rib fractures.”

The extent of her injuries left Olivia in cardiac arrest for two minutes at UHG, and it was only when she was stabilised that she could be brought to Beaumont in Dublin for a twelve-hour surgery to stabilise her spine and brain bleeds.

Read Olivia’s full story in this week’s Connacht Tribune, on sale in shops now – or you can download the digital edition from www.connachttribune.ie

An online fundraiser – starring Gift Grub’s Mario Rosenstock – takes place on August 27, to help with Olivia’s ongoing medical costs. Tickets can be purchased at www.turloughmore.com.