A woman who was told she would never walk again after falling from a balcony has told of the moment she made the “conscious decision” to let go and plummet seven stories to her death.
Tominey Reid, 21, was on a video call with her boyfriend, who was on holiday in Europe, when she dropped her phone from their seventh-floor apartment in Melbourne in July 2023.
She saw her phone land on the neighbor’s balcony and after knocking on the door in vain, she decided to pick up her phone from her own balcony.
However, Mrs. Reid slipped and held on to the railing of her balcony for five minutes, feeling her fake nails break off one by one before she finally let go.
“I was hanging over the balcony… I made a conscious decision to let go because I was getting too weak to hold on any longer,” she said. A current case on Thursday.
Mrs Reid fell 70 feet and hit a glass fence, probably saving her life by breaking her fall.
Her long list of horrific injuries included a ruptured coronary artery, a broken femur, a shattered kneecap, torn ligaments and multiple brain hemorrhages.
Tominey Reid (pictured in hospital after her fall) fell seven stories from her balcony in July 2023
Mrs Reid (pictured last year) held on to the railing of her balcony for five minutes as she felt her fake nails breaking off before deciding to let go
Yet, against all odds, she had survived a fall from seven floors, which has a 90 percent chance of fatality.
Mrs Reid achieved the impossible again this year when she began walking with only a brace on her right leg.
Last year, Ms Reid told Daily Mail Australia she was determined to prove her doctor wrong by learning to walk again.
“The doctor said there was a good chance I would never walk again and that it would take three to four years for my nerve to grow back,” she said at the time.
It’s heartbreaking. I was really upset about that one day.
‘But “I’ve thought about it for a while and I’m determined to prove that doctor wrong. I’ve defied all odds so far, so I think there’s a good chance I’ll be able to walk again in the future.”
A year after the life-changing accident, Ms Reid hopes her mistake can be a lesson to other young Australians.
“I think it’s a good message for young people to know that they are not invincible,” she told A Current Affair.
“Think more carefully about the decisions you make because this will have a lasting impact on my life and phones are replaceable.”
Ms Reid first spoke about her accident when she told Daily Mail Australia last year that she “instantly regretted” her decision to get her phone back.
“I don’t remember the fall, but I remember slipping and… my heart sank,” she said.
“I saw my phone on the sixth floor balcony. I saw the light from it and I thought I could reach their balcony from our balcony.”
Tominey had not been drinking: it was, she said, a “freak accident” caused by a “stupid” decision that she will regret for the rest of her life.
A retired police officer who lived in the same building heard the terrible bang of her fall and immediately called emergency services.
Tominey landed partially on a glass fence, causing the fence to break. This may have broken her fall.
Mrs Reid (pictured) proved her doctor wrong by learning to walk again after suffering a ruptured coronary artery, a broken femur, a broken kneecap, torn ligaments and multiple brain haemorrhages.
Mrs Reid had dropped her phone from her balcony (pictured) onto her neighbour’s balcony and fell as she tried to retrieve it.
A year after her accident, Mrs Reid (pictured) has learned to walk again, with only the help of a brace on her right leg
Her right femur, the strongest bone in the human body, was broken in half and protruded 11cm from the back of her thigh.
“I broke the sciatic nerve in the same leg, which has left me in a wheelchair,” Tominey said.
‘I shattered my left kneecap, tore my anterior cruciate ligament (ACL), my medial collateral ligament (MCL), other ligaments, and fractured my tibia.
‘I had multiple brain hemorrhages, a tear in my heart and my spine was torn from my neck to my chest.’
But she would only find out that later.
Doctors at the Alfred Hospital kept her in an induced coma in intensive care for four days because they feared they would have to drill a hole in her head to stop the swelling in her brain.
“I had about six surgeries before I woke up and I lost 11 pints of blood,” Tominey said.
Her next real memory is waking up in intensive care and seeing several family members next to her, some of whom had flown in from Townsville.
“Everyone called it a miracle that I survived because on seven floors I have a 10 percent chance of survival and I survived without being paralyzed or even having any brain damage,” Tominey said.
Benefactors have donated nearly $55,000 to a GoFundMe Page founded by Tominey’s aunt to help ease the financial burden of being unable to work for the foreseeable future.
After a week in intensive care, Tominey was transferred to the neurotrauma unit, where specialists reconstructed her knee.
They also removed nerves from her left leg to repair the damaged sciatic nerve in her right leg.
In total, Tominey underwent about ten surgeries.
“I have no feeling or movement past my knee and it can take up to four years for the sciatic nerve to grow back,” she said.
Despite the intense pain she suffered from her injuries, Tominey tried to hide the severity of the pain, trying to convince doctors and nurses to discharge her before her 21st birthday.
Her plan worked: after five weeks in hospital, she received a 16-page discharge letter on September 1. On Saturday, she had a special gathering at a local pub with friends and family.
“It was really emotional,” she said. “My dad and my dad gave a speech.”
Ms Reid (pictured last year) previously told Daily Mail Australia: ‘I have no feeling or movement beyond my knee and it can take up to four years for the sciatic nerve to grow back’
Ms Reid (pictured) hoped her accident could be a lesson to other young Australians that they are ‘not invincible’
Tominey’s message to other young people was: ‘be happy with what you have’ and appreciate your health.
‘I hated my legs. “I used to think I looked better in pants and rarely wore shorts or a skirt,” she said.
“Now my legs are completely destroyed. I literally have scars everywhere and I have a rod in my leg where they repaired my femur.”