After a snowboarding accident damaged her spine and left her with limited feeling in her legs, a local woman is seeking financial support as she begins her long road to recovery.

Lucy Randleas of Pocatello was out with her friends on Sunday enjoying a fun-filled day at Pebble Creek Ski Area in Inkom when a sudden accident almost left her permanently paralyzed.

“Visibility was a little bit low,” Randleas said. “We were going down a run and I hit one jump and didn’t know that the landing of it was straight into another jump. When I tried to slow myself down, I ended up kicking both of my feet up and landing straight on the small of my back. When I landed, I immediately didn’t have any feeling in my legs. We thought maybe it was a slipped disc and I just needed a minute.”

After some time, Randleas and her friends realized that the situation might be more dire and contacted the ski patrol.

Randleas said, “I was able to flex my knees and they ended up getting me all the way down the mountain in the toboggan and then sent me off in an ambulance to (Portneuf Medical Center in Pocatello). They realized I had fractured two of my vertebrae and I had stretched my spinal cord. The vertebrae that were broken are right next to some pretty big nerves in my back, so relearning how to walk is going to be a big challenge, but that’s the goal.”

Thankfully Randleas is expected to eventually be able to walk again but it could take a year of rehabilitation. She only has slight feeling in her legs below her knees and she’s working on trying to be able to wiggle her toes. Randleas needed to be put into a back brace to help her sit up.

“It sounds like I’ll be going to rehab at a spinal specialist center in Salt Lake City,” Randleas said. “They’ll continue working with me and my back, hopefully to regain some more movement in my legs, walk, maybe use a wheelchair and just kind of get as far as I can with rehab.”

While the plan is to get treatment at the Craig H. Neilsen Rehabilitation Hospital in Salt Lake City, Randleas remains at PMC for now, where her medical bills have already exceeded $55,000.

Randleas said, “It adds up quickly. I am grateful for insurance, but at the same time, it’s not going to cover everything that we need it to cover, especially where rehab is such a specialized process. A lot of things are still up in the air unfortunately for us and it’s just me and my husband.”

A GoFundMe online fundraiser has been started to help Randleas pay her medical bills and other accident-related expenses. Donations can be made at gofundme.com/f/lucys-recovery-from-spinal-cord-injury.

Randleas is also struggling financially because she hasn’t been able to work since the accident and therefore the couple’s surviving solely on husband Ricky’s salary.

Randleas said she hopes that her accident helps to raise awareness among winter sports enthusiasts that hitting the slopes can be dangerous, so definitely take precautions to stay safe.

“I love snowboarding,” Randleas said. “It’s one of my favorite things to do, but I want to definitely make sure that people are safe. If anything, I want to bring awareness to people that are going to be on the mountain and snowboarding.”

Randleas expressed gratitude for the support provided by her friends and family as well as her employer Idaho Central Credit Union.

She also thanked the Pebble Creek Ski Area staff and ski patrol members for personally checking in on her following the accident.

“I’m so grateful for everything that everyone’s done,” Randleas said. “I’m definitely thankful for my friends and family in the community. The community has been awesome, even just in the last few days, reaching out and helping out with what they can.”