NAPLES, Fla. (WTXL) — A Florida State University freshman may be permanently paralyzed after a swimming accident in Naples.
Eden Schroeder, 18, was visiting friends in Naples while on winter break from FSU before going home to Georgia to be with her family, according to a GoFundMe page set up to help cover the family’s medical expenses.
According to ABC 7 in Southwest Florida, Schroeder dove into the water from a boat near Keewaydin Island on Nov. 27 and hit her head.
“She jumped in head first and after a while they [her friends] noticed she wasn’t moving,” her sister Peyton told ABC 7.
Schroeder’s friends then pulled her back into the boat, and she told them that she was in pain and could not feel her legs. She was then airlifted to Lee Memorial Hospital in Fort Myers, where she underwent emergency surgery.
She is currently paralyzed from the chest down after suffering a severe spinal injury from the dive. Her family and friends said that she has gained some feeling in her arms, and she is able to speak. She is still in the ICU receiving care.
Her GoFundMe has raised more than $90,000 as of Tuesday. To see her GoFundMe page, click here.
