When Alicia Kissick fell through a wooden plank at a party in Canada while on her OE, she could not have known how far her journey to recovery would be. The 25-year-old is now battling to stand upright, and eventually walk again.
An operation transferring muscles from her forearms to her hands is pegged to be a game-changer for 25-year-old Whangarei tetraplegic Alicia Kissick.
Ms Kissick fell through a wooden plank at a party in Vancouver while on her OE last year, injuring her spinal cord and rendering her a tetraplegic.
On Tuesday February 18 she's heading off to Christchurch for bilateral tendon transfer surgery, with the goal of increasing grip and flexion in her hands.
The surgery, and most of her other costs associated with her injury, is now funded by ACC. Initially, when she arrived back in the country in March last year, her case was declined on the basis her injury was overseas. After extensive media coverage, and proving to ACC that Ms Kissick was a New Zealand citizen on her OE who had not permanently migrated, her case was approved on July 13 last year.