A man now suffers from devastating paralysis simply from blowing his nose.
His wife Kirsty Bronner, 34, revealed to The Daily Mail that she and her family were at home on January 2, 2022 when they heard a loud bang coming from their bathroom.
Kirsty - who hails from Sydney - told the outlet: "I rushed in and found my partner lying unconscious on the floor. He had hit his neck and dislocated it causing a C6/7 spinal cord injury [...] He had blown his nose and fainted, hitting his neck on the bathroom bench."
On New Year's Day, Kirsty's partner apparently told her that he "had a feeling that something bad was going to happen," with the mother-of-four saying that the comment gives her "chills" now that she looks back.
Unfortunately due to COVID restrictions, Kirsty was unable to visit her husband, 43, in the hospital amid a traumatizing six-hour surgery. "I was so sick with worry. Eventually they rang and said he had a neck dislocation from hitting the bench which had caused a spinal cord injury and wouldn’t know the extent of the injuries until they had done surgery and done tests," she told The Daily Mail.
The stress of her husband's accident caused Kirsty to fall into a depression, which in turn caused her business The Booty Co - a popular skincare company that sells skin-tightening creams - to suffer.
"The emotional and mental stresses caused was so severe that I could not tend to the business at all," Kirsty admitted, adding that she acted as a single parent for her children while her husband was in hospital for six months. "We had a third-party warehouse to send out but everything else was completely halted."
Kirsty explained that her sister Felicity had to come in and help out at home, adding: "I was so mentally strained I struggled to tend to my kids as best I could so Felicity would come and do a lot of housework and help with the kids, leaving her unable to do her part in the business as well."
Kirsty's husband is yet to make a full recovery, but doctors have sadly revealed that it is "highly unlikely" he ever will. She is continuing to build her business while also supporting her family, saying: "I don't really have downtime for myself anymore at all. I put every spare minute into the business I try and do things that make it a little easier such as order most things online like groceries, make sure I’m organized for the days the night before and get help where needed."
