Survival story

Third-grade teacher vows to return to the saddle after a riding accident

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On April 17, Nancy Camero set out with her friend to enjoy a peaceful horse ride in Lovell Canyon. By the end of the day, Camero was lying in University Medical Center wondering whether she would ever walk again.

"There had been a heavy rain a few days before and the water washed out some of the ground," Camero said from her Enterprise home.

She and her friend Patty Woodall were ascending an uphill grade on their horses. Camero was behind Woodall when the ground beneath the back legs of Camero's horse gave way.

"I felt him scrambling," Camero said of her horse Sky. "I fell backwards, and when I hit the rocks I felt my back break, like a pop, and my legs went numb."

Sky also fell backwards, but luckily had landed next to Camero, not on top of her.

"I felt my horse's body next to me," she said.

"When I turned around, I thought they were both knocked out," Woodall said. "And her leg was still in the saddle. And I knew when Sky woke up, he would drag her if I didn't move her leg."

As carefully as she could, Woodall removed Camero's leg from the saddle, and soon enough, Sky came to and started flailing about, getting himself back on all fours.

"And the whole time he just stood there watching Nancy. He looked so scared," Woodall said.

Woodall said Camero quickly awoke and started telling her what was wrong. Camero correctly diagnosed her broken back.

She had suffered a fracture of the L1 vertebrae along with three broken ribs and a punctured lung.

"I remember one of the first things I said was 'I'm a paraplegic.' I don't know why. It just came out," Camero said. "But I had everything diagnosed. I don't watch 'ER' for nothing," she joked.

Woodall immediately tried calling for help from her cell phone, but there was no signal from inside the canyon.

Woodall proceeded to ride to the main road to try to call from there, but there was still no signal. However, a car drove by and the couple inside stopped to help.

"It was like, 'Oh my God,' " Woodall said. "No phone service, the road in the canyon had been washed out. Then the Jeep stopped, but it was still a waiting game."

The driver of the Jeep left his passenger with Woodall, and drove toward town until his cell phone was operable.

The accident occurred between 3 and 3:30 p.m., and as Woodall recalled, the paramedics arrived nearly one hour later, and the emergency helicopter came soon thereafter.

Camero immediately underwent a six-hour surgery to have her back mended with metal hardware.

"When I asked whether I'd be able to walk again, they told me they would assess me in 18 months," Camero said. "It was really scary when they said it."

Although frightened, Camero said all of her family and friends were so supportive that it helped her focus on her determination to recover and walk again.

Camero spent nine days in the hospital and was transported to HealthSouth Rehabilitation Hospital, where she spent eight weeks.

"I couldn't do anything for myself. Every single thing had to be done for me," she said. "I couldn't even sit up. But then I'd wake up one morning and my toe would move. And the next morning I would be able to move something else, and it kept happening."

The only real setback Camero experienced was that the hardware in her back slipped, so she had to undergo a second surgery to correct it.

On Jan. 17, exactly nine months after her accident, Camero returned to teach her third-grade class at Roberts Elementary School.

Because of fatigue, she is teaching only half of the day, but hopes to be back full-time before the next school year begins.

"She was so determined to walk, so stubborn, and she did it," Woodall said.

Woodall recalled that although Camero placed an order for her own wheelchair, she decided not to purchase it because she knew she would manage to walk again.

"On Sept. 1, I walked unassisted on my own," Camero said, grinning. "It was such an exciting day."

Camero and Woodall now go for daily walks together. Camero walks just as she used to, without a limp.

As for getting on a horse again, Camero said she'd be back in the saddle.

"I'm just waiting until I get my core strength back and my balance is better," she said. "But I go out and feed and brush them, take them for walks through the horse park," she said of Sky and his mother, Breezy.

Sky is a 6-year-old cremello horse. His coat is white, he has pink skin and strikingly light blue eyes.

Camero was present at Sky's birth and has a photo album devoted to him, covering the birthing process to present day.

"Since I was a child, I have been asking for a horse for my birthday," Camero said while standing next to Sky. "When I hit 40, I kind of realized no one was going to get me one, so I got one for myself. Of course I'm going to ride again."