A neck massage left Sandy paralysed - then a miracle happened

A Canadian woman who was left paralysed by a massage has made a miraculous recovery.

Sandy Nette, 46, was left with what’s known as locked-in syndrome after a chiropractor manipulated her neck and tore two arteries, cutting off the blood supply to her brain.

David and Sandy Nette before she was paralysed (PA)

Only able to communicate with her husband David, 56, by blinking, doctors feared she’d never walk, talk or breathe unaided again.

But now, against all the odds, Sandy can move about with the help of a Zimmer frame and hold brief but precious conversations. Something doctors never thought would be possible.

Sandy had been going to a chiropractor for years, to help tension in her shoulder. Then in September 2007, she phoned David after a session.

Sandy before her injury (PA)

“There was a long pause, then a strange, slurring noise. Between stutters and moans, Sandy managed to tell me her vision had gone blurry,” he says.

By the time David had driven Sandy to hospital, her eyes had rolled to the back of her head and she was gasping for air. Following a series of strokes, doctors didn’t know if Sandy would survive.

“It was terrifying,” David remembers. “For 11 days, she lay clinging to life in intensive care. Then came the soul-destroying news that Sandy had locked-in syndrome.”

David and Sandy just weeks before she was injured (PA)

It meant Sandy was completely paralysed, but could see and hear everything going on around her.

“She was isolated in her own living hell,” David says. “All she could do was blink. I wanted to scream, ‘Why us?’ Sandy had always been so fit and healthy. Now it was like she’d been buried alive.”

As David held vigil by his wife’s bedside 14 hours a day, he knew brave Sandy was still there.

Sandy before the injury (PA)

“When I told silly jokes, I saw her eyes glisten,” he said. “And I felt her warmth when I leaned down and placed my cheek against hers.”

The couple gradually learned to communicate too – one blink for yes, two for no. Then, six weeks after she’d become paralysed, David was sitting beside Sandy when he saw her big toe twitch. The doctors could hardly believe their eyes either.

“After that, the miracles kept coming,” David said. “Two weeks later, as I was holding her hand, I felt two of Sandy’s fingers tighten around mine. That movement changed the way we spoke to each other.

Sandy in hospital after becoming paralysed (PA)

“I’d reel off the alphabet and, whenever I got to the letter Sandy wanted to use, she’d clench her fingers around mine.”

David found that emailing friends with updates of Sandy’s progress kept him going.

He says: “I would tell everyone about the hell we were going through and how brave Sandy was.  It became like therapy for me, but it was also a way to celebrate the progress Sandy was making.”

Sandy still in hospital with locked-in syndrome (PA)

After six months, David was able to write the most incredible news – Sandy no longer had locked-in syndrome.

She was transferred to a rehabilitation hospital and needed 24-hour care. Soon, she was moving her whole hand and had an operation to strengthen her legs. But Sandy was still unable to speak when she arrived home in December 2008.

Gradually, she learned to get about, helped by a Zimmer on wheels. And, in time, began to talk again too.

David knew his wife was still there even when she couldn’t move or talk (PA)

“Slowly – and only a few words at a time,” David says. “But my Sandy’s voice was back.”

They sued the chiropractor, and agreed to an out-of-court settlement. He admitted he’d forged Sandy’s signature on a consent form. And now David has turned his heart-felt emails about Sandy into a book.

“I want to tell the world about her incredible journey and how our love got us through the darkest time of our lives,” he said. “And that, no matter how bad things seem, you should never give up.”

Sandy and David now (PA)

Blink: Life After Locked-In Syndrome by David and Sandra Nette, is available from Amazon.