Undiagnosed injury leaves woman on life support

A Ballito woman was discharged from hospital with an undiagnosed shattered vertebra in her neck that 11 weeks later has left her on life support, unable to move her arms or legs.
Jill Loud, who used to write the Courier’s children’s activities column Jilly’s Junction, rolled her car on the N2 while she was returning home from work at the Grandstand Bar in October.
Gail and Neil Thompson, Loud’s parents, have flown from Australia to be with their daughter.
“According to a witness who was driving behind her, she had overtaken a car and overcompensated when returning to the slow lane. Her car rolled twice,” said Gail.
Loud was able to walk out of the wreckage and was taken to hospital.
She was taken for X-rays and was diagnosed with a broken collarbone, a broken nose and whiplash. Three days later she was released from hospital in a neck brace and her arm in a sling.
After three weeks she had the braces removed. That was when things started to go wrong. Loud’s left arm became paralysed.
“She went to a chiropractor thinking her neck was out of place but after two session it did not get better and she was referred back to the hospital,” said Gail.
The doctors then realised Loud’s C2 vertebrae had been broken in the accident.
She was transferred to King George V Hospital in Durban and an MRI revealed that her spinal cord was exposed and the break was worse than originally believed.
Doctors used bone from her hip to reconstruct the shattered vertebrae.
After two operations Loud is on a ventilator and she cannot move her arms or legs. As the swelling around the area subsides, doctors believe she should be able to breathe on her own and begin the road to recovery.
Although she is anxious, Gail takes heart in her daughter’s “never say die attitude”.
Loud’s three daughters Shannon (11) and twins Megan and Jemma (8) are being looked after by their father Kevin while she recovers.
“We are all Christians and we are just trusting that she will get through this,” said Gail.
For now they are taking it one day at a time while their daughter makes a slow recovery.