A woman who was told she would never walk again after falling from a balcony has revealed the moment she made the “conscious decision” to let go and fall seven floors.
Tominey Reid, 21, was video chatting with her boyfriend, who was on holiday in Europe, when she dropped her phone from her seventh-floor apartment in Melbourne in July 2023.
She watched as her phone fell onto the neighbor’s balcony and, after knocking on the door without success, decided to reach down from her own balcony to retrieve her phone herself.
However, Ms Reid slipped and clung to her balcony railing for five minutes, feeling her false nails break one by one, before finally letting go.
“I was hanging from the balcony… I made a conscious decision to let go because I was getting too weak to hold on any longer,” he said. A current issue Thursday.
Ms Reid fell 70 feet and crashed into a glass fence, which probably saved her life by cushioning her fall.
His long list of horrific injuries included a torn heart 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 apartment balcony in July 2023.
Ms Reid (pictured last year) held on to her balcony railing for five minutes as she felt her false nails snap before deciding to let go.
However, he had already defied all odds by surviving a seven-story fall, which has a 90 percent mortality rate.
Ms. Reid once again did the impossible this year when she began walking with only the aid of a brace on her right leg.
Last year, Ms Reid told Daily Mail Australia she was determined to prove her doctor wrong and learn to walk again.
“The doctor told me there’s a good chance I’ll never be able to walk again and that it could take three to four years for my nerve to grow back,” she said at the time.
“It’s heartbreaking. I felt very upset about that day.
‘But “I’ve thought about it a lot and I’m determined to prove that doctor wrong. I’ve defied all the odds so far, so I’d like to think there’s a good chance I’ll be able to walk again in the future.”
A year after her life-changing accident, Ms Reid hopes her mistake can serve as 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 about the decisions you make because this has impacted my life forever and phones are replaceable.’
Speaking for the first time about her accident, Ms Reid previously told Daily Mail Australia last year that she “immediately regretted” the decision to take her phone back.
“I don’t remember falling, but I do remember slipping and just… my heart sank,” she said.
“I could see my phone on the sixth floor balcony. I could see the light and thought I could reach his balcony from ours.”
Tominey had not been drinking: it was, he said, a “freak accident” brought on by a “foolish” decision that he would regret for the rest of his life.
The sickening impact of his fall was heard by a retired police officer who lives in the same building and immediately called the emergency services.
Tominey had landed partially on a glass fence, breaking it in the process, which may have cushioned his fall.
Ms Reid (pictured) has proven her doctor wrong by learning to walk again after suffering a torn heart artery, a broken femur, a broken kneecap, torn ligaments and multiple brain bleeds.
Ms Reid had dropped her phone from her balcony (pictured) onto her downstairs neighbour’s and fell when she tried to retrieve it.
A year after her accident, Ms Reid (pictured) has learned to walk again with only the help of a brace for her right leg.
His right femur, the strongest bone in the human body, had been broken in half and protruded 11 centimetres from the back of his thigh.
“I broke my sciatic nerve in the same leg, which is why I am currently in a wheelchair,” Tominey said.
‘I broke my left kneecap, anterior cruciate ligament (ACL), medial collateral ligament (MCL), other ligaments, and I broke my tibia.
“I had multiple brain hemorrhages, a tear in my heart and a break in my spine from my neck to my chest.”
But he would only find out about this later.
Doctors at the 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 her brain swelling.
“I had about six surgeries before I woke up and I lost 11 litres 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 said it was a miracle I survived because the survival rate is 10 percent between seven floors and I survived without being paralyzed or even suffering brain damage,” Tominey said.
Supporters have donated nearly $55,000 to a GoFundMe Page Created by Tominey’s aunt to help ease 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 ward where specialists reconstructed her knee.
He also had nerves removed from his left leg to help repair the damaged sciatic nerve in his right leg.
In total, Tominey underwent about ten surgeries.
“I have no feeling or movement beyond the knee and the sciatic nerve can take up to four years to grow back,” he explained.
Despite the intense agony caused by his injuries, Tominey hid the extent of his pain in an attempt to convince doctors and nurses to discharge him before he turned 21.
Her plan worked: after spending five weeks in hospital, she was given a 16-page discharge summary on September 1 and had a special get-together at a local pub with friends and family on Saturday.
“It was very emotional,” he said. “My dad and my father gave a speech.”
Ms Reid (pictured last year) previously told Daily Mail Australia: “I have no feeling or movement beyond my knee and the sciatic nerve can take up to four years to grow back.”
Ms Reid (pictured) hoped her accident could serve as a lesson to other young Australians that “they are not invincible”.
Tominey’s only message to other young people was to “be happy with what you have” and appreciate your health.
‘I used to hate my legs. ‘I used to think I looked better in pants and rarely wore shorts or a skirt,’ she said.
“Now my legs are shattered. I have scars all over and a rod in my leg where they repaired my femur.”