The doctor fell 300 meters from a mountain while he had hiking but survived (exclusively)

• During a 2024 hike in Switzerland Dr. Shirlee Xie fell 300 meters on a mountain
• “I was walking in front of my husband. And the route let go, then I started to fool,” he tells people
• Her lesions left her -to -chest paralyzed – and while physical therapy was heavy, Xie is determined to return to the medicine

Five months ago, Shirlee Xie, doctor from Edina, Minn., And her husband, John Kriz, visited Switzerland for a hiking trip. It was the fourth time that the mother of the two visit visited the European country.

“We make a trip a year that is only for adults and is usually a big hiking trip,” says Xie, 40. “Children are good hikers but I can’t do it everyday.”

On September 10, 2024 – the second day of their journey from Switzerland – Xie fell about 300 meters from a mountain. Miraculously, he survived, but suffered multiple wounds, including fractures at the spine that left it completely paralyzed from the chest.

Although Xie continues to progress, she does not yet have a definitive memory of exactly what happened that day.

Xie says the accident took place between the verbier and the louvie cottages.

“It was up in the mountains, but it was a more flat part of the route. I was going in front of my husband. And the route gave up, then I started to slam, “she continues.” There was nothing to stop me. ”

What she learned later was that her 44 -year -old husband John went down after her and then appealed for help. A helicopter arrived at the scene and transported Xie to a nearby hospital. There, she suffered 20 hours of surgery. A few days later, she regained consciousness and was surrounded by her husband, her parents and a few friends.

After waking up, the doctors revealed that he had suffered a traumatic brain injury, broken ribs, a crashed lung and multiple fractures on her vertebrae.

Although the full processing that it was paralyzed lasted a “very long time”, when the doctors told the news for the first time, he remembers that it is “very important about it”.

“I knew nothing could be done to reverse it,” she explained. “I think it was exactly that:” That’s it. ” –

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The two children of the couple – Maddie, 9 years old and Oliver, 11 years old – were not told by their father about their mother’s accident until the day before leaving Switzerland, not to worry.

Xie was re -published before flying back to Minnesota, where she was taken to UCI at Abbott Northwestern Hospital. After staying there for more than a week, was transferred to Abbott’s Courage Kenny Institute of Rehabilitation. Xie describes the rehabilitation that came as intense.

“It was at least three hours a day of physical, occupational and speech therapy,” she remembers. “Many of them only learned how to put the clothes again, learning how to take a shower, learning how to wash my teeth. Kinetotherapy focused a lot on helping me regain my hands, because I lost a lot in my hands and learned how to push myself into a wheelchair. “

As a doctor, Xie spent his career helping others, especially at Hennepin Healthcare where he works. From the accident, she was again at the workplace, but this time for the schedules as a patient. “It’s a little weird,” she admits.

Born in China, Xie moved to Minnesota with her family. He always wanted to pursue a career in medicine. “I do not remember a period when I did not want to be a doctor, so he was always part of the life plan,” she says, adding: “Initially, I thought I would be an er. Then I realized after I did ER rotations as a student at Med, that’s not what I wanted to do. So internal medicine is more my speed. ”

Xie served on the first front lines with other health workers at the height of the Pandemia of 2020 Covid and discussed the crisis during a occurrence CNN at the time.

“I would cry on the way to work,” Xie tells people. “I would cry on the way home. When you arrived at the hospital, there was a point where 100% of my patients had Covid and, every day, someone went to UCI or died. It was so challenging. What was harder was that I was always responsible for other people’s lives, but this was indeed every day with life and death at work. –

What Xie has obtained through Calvar is the support he received from the family and collaborators at Hennepin Hospital. An Xie’s friend set up a GoFundme to help pay for his medical and recovery expenses; Starting on Wednesday, February 12, the benefit has generated about $ 100,000.

“I am truly humiliated by how much the supporters offered,” she says about raising online funds. We are so grateful to everyone who has contributed to it. ”

After her download from Courage Kenny last month, Xie is rehabilitated at her temporary apartment in Edina, while her family’s regular work continues until the summer. He also hopes to return to work as a doctor.

“I take some time to rehabilitate, let the body become stronger, let my brain become stronger,” she says. “And then the goal will be to return to a kind of medicine until summer, I think. I don’t imagine that my life does not practice medicine. I don’t know what else I would do. “