"I woke up at age 15 in a hospital and didn't know what a fork was"

Sarah Partosh, 19, shares in an interview how she woke up at age 15 paralyzed and without memory after jumping from a height of 16 meters at a boarding school. She was diagnosed with complex post-trauma and borderline personality disorder following sexual abuse in her childhood. For four years she hid the truth and said she was injured in a car accident, until six months ago she revealed the real story on social media and became a source of inspiration for thousands of young people.

Sarah Partosh, 19, shares her difficult life story in an interview with C14. At age 15, she woke up in a hospital paralyzed from the chest down and without memory, after jumping from a height of 16 meters from emergency stairs at the boarding school where she studied. Her spine was broken, her spinal cord was torn, and five vertebrae shattered. Doctors told her family she would never feel half her body. The story begins years earlier: at age 11, she began dealing with complex post-trauma and borderline personality disorder following ongoing sexual abuse she experienced in her childhood. For four years, Sarah hid the truth and said she was injured in a car accident, until six months ago she gathered courage and revealed the real story on social media. Today she is hospitalized again, undergoing lengthy rehabilitation including physical therapy, occupational therapy, and speech therapy. Alongside the physical struggle, she has become a source of inspiration for thousands of young people on social media, some of whom come to visit her in her hospital bed. She tells about the friendship formed with another patient in the spinal department, and the support of her mother who cares for her. Her message: "I choose life, even when it's complex and full of drama."