Woman who was paralysed after friend pushed her into pool says she'll 'never get over it'
A bride-to-be who was paralysed after her friend pushed her into a swimming pool on her hen do has said she'll never 'get over it'.
Rachelle Chapman, from North Carolina, US, was paralysed from the chest down after the incident in 2010, which saw her friend push her into a pool.
But the joke turned into disaster when Rachelle, who was 24 at the time, hit her head at the bottom of the pool and became quadriplegic.
Rachelle has since set up a TikTok account, @rachelles_wheels, where she documents her journey. In one of her videos, Rachelle explains she'll never 'get over' what happened:
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The tragic accident occurred when Rachelle was in Virginia with some friends for her hen do.
After a night out, they were by the pool at her best friend's home when Rachelle was pushed into the water.
“The water was chilly so I hesitated but just then, my friend pushed me into the pool and I ended up going headfirst,” she told 7News.
“I was pretty conscious through all of it. I heard my neck crack and my body went stiff. I couldn’t move anything.
“I knew I broke something. I knew I was paralysed.”
Sadly, Rachelle is no longer in contact with the friend who pushed her, although they did remain close in the beginning.
In 2016, she told People: "In the beginning, she was there for me and I was there for her. She was distraught and depressed about what happened.
"But as the years passed, she didn't make the effort, it was just going through the motions and every time we spoke, I just felt like I was remembering the accident and going into the pool and I had negative feelings.
"I didn't feel that way in the beginning, but that's what's been happening over the last three years. I had to actually cut ties with her and end the friendship. I had to tell her that we couldn't be friends because she just wasn't there for me anymore.
"One of the things that happens when you have this kind of injury is that you lose people, and I felt like I wasn't being truthful anymore because I did lose some relationships. It's sad and it's complicated, but she wasn't there for me when I needed her."
Rachelle has since set up a GoFundMe page to help fund a new specialised, wheelchair accessible vehicle after a car accident left her previous van no longer roadworthy.
You can donate here.
Lucy Devine