Abby Weiss, 32, suffered the catastrophic injury in San Diego, California on June 21 while performing a mid-air maneuver in her practice, which combines yoga and acrobatics, her family told 10News.
“She’s scared out of her wits. She said the other day it feels like she’s in a straitjacket. She can’t move,” her father, Rory Weiss, told the outlet.
Weiss, who works as a pediatric speech therapist, was passionate about acroyoga and had been practicing it for four years before her life-altering mishap, according to her dad.
He added that his daughter loved being active outdoors, which is what made her current condition so difficult to swallow.
“She said you have to live life,” Rory Weiss said. “She pushed the envelope a little too far, I think.”
Weiss ended up spending several weeks in intensive care on a ventilator — unable to breathe or speak on her own — after the accident, according to a GoFundMe page tracking her road to recovery.
She has since undergone a slew of spinal fusion surgeries.
Weiss has since been transferred to a rehab clinic in Chicago close to where her parents live.
“I really didn’t know what it was like,” her dad said of the possible dangers associated with the sport.
“Had I known the type of maneuvers she was doing, I would have told her not to do it, but I don’t think she would’ve listened.”