Tominey Reid, 21, fell seven storeys from her Melbourne balcony. Doctors say it was ‘a miracle’ she survived.  Here is her harrowing story… and the valuable life lesson for everyone

EXCLUSIVE

Instant regret, and then darkness.

Tominey Reid remembers little of the few horrifying seconds she fell through the air from a seven-storey balcony after slipping while reaching for her phone.

The fact that the 21-year-old Melbourne hairdresser lived to tell the tale is: her doctors agreenothing less than a ‘miracle’.

When falling from a height of seven floors, approximately 21 meters, there is a mortality rate of more than 90 percent.

Although she suffered a horrific list of injuries – including a broken femur, a shattered kneecap, torn ligaments and multiple brain bleeds – Tominey somehow survived without becoming permanently paralyzed or suffering brain damage.

Now she is opening up for the first time about the horrific accident – ​​and her determination to prove doctors wrong by walking again.

“It was horrible, I immediately regretted it,” Tominey told Daily Mail Australia, her voice attacking the memory.

“I don’t remember the fall, but I do remember slipping and it… my heart just dropped.”

Tominey sat on the balcony of the seventh-floor flat she shares with her boyfriend Kyle in inner-city Melbourne shortly after midnight on July 29.

The couple were FaceTiming – Kyle had left for a holiday abroad the day before – when Tominey accidentally dropped her phone on the balcony below.

“I went downstairs and knocked on their door and they didn’t answer,” Tominey said.

‘I could see my phone on the sixth floor balcony. I could see the light from it and thought I could reach their balcony from our balcony.”

Tominey had not been drinking: it was, she says, a ‘freak accident’ caused by a ‘silly’ decision she will regret for the rest of her life.

The sickening impact of her fall was heard by a retired police officer who lived in the same building and immediately called emergency services.

Tominey had partially landed on a glass fence, breaking it, which may have broken her fall.

Her right femur, the strongest bone in the human body, was broken in half and protruding from the back of her thigh.

“I broke the sciatic nerve in the same leg and that’s why I’m currently in a wheelchair,” Tominey said.

‘I shattered my left kneecap, tore my ACL (anterior cruciate ligament), my MCL (medial collateral ligament), other ligaments and broke my tibia.

‘I had multiple brain haemorrhages, a tear in my heart and my spine was torn from neck to chest.’

But she would only learn this later.

Doctors at Alfred Hospital placed her in an induced coma in intensive care for four days, fearing they would have to drill a hole in her head to stop the swelling in her brain.

“I had about six surgeries before I even woke up and I lost 11 pints of blood,” Tominey said.

Her next real memory was waking up in intensive care and seeing several family members by her side, some of whom had flown in from Townsville.

“Everyone called it a miracle that I survived because the seven-story survival rate is 10 percent and I survived without being paralyzed or even suffering brain damage,” Tominey said.

Enthusiasts have donated nearly $55,000 to one GoFundMe page founded by Tominey’s aunt to help alleviate the financial burden of not being able to work for the foreseeable future.

After a week in intensive care, Tominey was transferred to a neurotrauma unit where specialists reconstructed her knee.

They also removed nerves from her left leg to help repair the damaged sciatic nerve in her right leg.

In total, Tominey underwent approximately ten operations.

“I have no sensation or movement beyond my knee and it can take up to four years for the sciatic nerve to grow back,” she said.

Despite the intense pain of her injuries, Tominey masked the extent of her pain in an attempt 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 summary on September 1 and had a special gathering at a local pub with friends and family on Saturday.

“It was really emotional,” she said. “My father gave a speech and so did my father.”

The support of her family and friends has been crucial: her mother, Sarah, quit her job as a hairdresser and moved from Phillip Island to Melbourne to care for her full-time.

Nurses come every weekday to provide occupational therapy and rehabilitation.

“Now it’s a waiting game of waiting for my nerves to grow and a lot of rehab,” Tominey said.

But shortly before speaking to Daily Mail Australia, Tominey received devastating news.

“The doctor told me there is a good chance I will never walk again and that it could take three to four years for my nerves to grow,” she said.

‘It’s heartbreaking. I was really angry that one day.

‘But I’ve thought about it for a while and I’m determined to prove that doctor wrong. I have defied all odds so far, so I think there is a good chance that I will be able to walk again in the future.’

Despite her grit and determination, Tominey acknowledges that “some days are really good and some days are really bad.”

“It’s actually worse being in a wheelchair at home than in the hospital because it feels a lot more realistic,” she added.

‘I need full-time care. There is always someone with me. I can’t go to the toilet alone. I can’t shower. I need to have a sponge bath on a commode, which is basically a waterproof wheelchair.

‘It’s terrible and very humiliating that you can’t be independent. I used to be very independent, walk to work and very social.’

Tominey hoped to complete her hairdressing training in June next year and dreamed of eventually opening her own salon.

But she’s slowly coming to terms with the fact that the long hours in her chosen career may not be possible.

“The doctor said that even if I were to walk again, I would have a lot of pain in my legs and would have quite a limp,” she said.

Tominey’s one message to other young people is to ‘be happy with what you have’ and value your health.

‘I used to hate my legs. “I always thought I looked better in pants and would rarely wear 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.”

Click to donate to her fundraiser here.