BOSTON (WHDH) - A local preschool teacher has made a miraculous recovery and is walking again after she smashed into sharp rocks during a 40-foot cliff jump in Italy.
Jamie Brotsky, 29, of Newton, shattered both of her heels and fractured a vertebrae in her spine in 2018.
“I went to jump and then I hesitated. I like knew, like in that split second, that I was going to get hurt,” Brotsky said.
Brotsky documented the faithful day with a video of the incident on her Instagram page, warning users of the graphic nature of the footage.
“Boom, crash…Boom, crash…And then into the water,” Brotsky recalled.
After undergoing surgery abroad, Brotsky says her father had to spend $15,000 to fly her home to undergo treatment at Massachusetts General Hospital.
“We had to go on a regular economy flight. We had to buy six tickets. So what they did was put down the seats on the plane and then they put my stretcher on top,” Brotsky recalled.
Brotsky spent two months in the hospital, three months in a wheelchair, and had to undergo four surgeries.
While some doubted her ability to ever walk again, Brotsky remained focused on making a full recovery.
“I was like, I am going work my butt off to make my life exactly what I want to be. I want to travel again, I want to run again, I want to prove every single doctor that said you might not walk normally, never run again. I was like no, no way, not me.”
Now, four years later, Brotsky says she believes everything happens for a reason.
“I can really handle anything and it just showed me how truly strong outside and inside I can be.”
Brotsky returned to cliff diving in April 2021.
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