Georgia teen paralyzed after swimming accident on holiday break in Florida

NAPLES, Fla. — A Georgia teen is in the intensive care unit in Florida after an accident left her paralyzed from the chest down.

Family friends of Eden Schroeder set up a GoFundMe account for the teen, which described the “severe” injury.

On Nov. 27, the Florida State University student was on Thanksgiving break visiting friends in Naples, Florida when there was a boating accident. Schroeder suffered severe spinal injury when she went for a swim off the boat, according to the GoFundMe page.

ABC-7 in Fort Myers spoke to Schroeder’s sister who said the 18-year-old dove head first.

“She jumped in head first and after a while they [her friends] noticed she wasn’t moving,” her sister Peyton told ABC-7.

She was life-flighted to the hospital and underwent emergency surgery.

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After surgery, Eden has some movement in her upper extremities, but currently has no feeling from her chest down, which doctors believe could be permanent, the GoFundMe page said.

The GoFundMe page is raising money to help pay for her medical bills and to help transport her to a spinal cord injury rehabilitation center in Georgia. So far, more than $100,000 has been raised.

Schroeder’s uncle posted on his public Facebook page that she is “facing an unbelievable challenge.”

As of Tuesday, doctors put a feeding tube in Schroeder but her breathing is slowly improving.

Cox Media Group