{"id":45978,"date":"2021-07-01T11:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-07-01T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/durango-woman-takes-first-few-steps-8-months-after-jeep-rollover\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T03:28:40","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T09:28:40","slug":"durango-woman-takes-first-few-steps-8-months-after-jeep-rollover","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/durango-woman-takes-first-few-steps-8-months-after-jeep-rollover\/","title":{"rendered":"Durango woman takes first few steps 8 months after Jeep rollover"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><figure class=\"wp-block-image naviga-inline-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/imengine.public.prod.dur.navigacloud.com\/?uuid=85a9bf7a-cfc0-528c-a4a5-ef4d1a7c5975&amp;function=cover&amp;type=preview&amp;source=false&amp;width=2000\" width=\"1440\" height=\"1440\" alt=\"After months of physical therapy, Suzie Rhodes is able to stand on her own and take a few steps. Rhodes suffered a spinal cord injury when the Jeep she was in rolled off Black Bear Pass above Telluride on Oct. 10. (Courtesy of Suzie Rhodes)\" class=\"naviga-image\" loading=\"lazy\"><figcaption><span class=\"caption\">After months of physical therapy, Suzie Rhodes is able to stand on her own and take a few steps. Rhodes suffered a spinal cord injury when the Jeep she was in rolled off Black Bear Pass above Telluride on Oct. 10. (Courtesy of Suzie Rhodes)<\/span><span class=\"credit\">cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><p>Suzie Rhodes never lost consciousness on Oct. 10 when the Jeep she was riding in slid off Black Bear Pass above Telluride, leaving her with a spinal cord injury between her T6 and T7 vertebrae in the middle of her back.<\/p>\n<p>In April, she was able to stand with the aid of a walker for the first time since the rollover, and since then she\u2019s been able to take a few steps, again assisted with a walker.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cRight now, I am enjoying where I\u2019m at,\u201d she said in a telephone interview last week. \u201cSo back in October, I had less than a 5% chance of getting anything back in my lower body.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Rhodes considers herself lucky that her spinal cord was only bruised, not torn, but she still doesn\u2019t know if she\u2019ll ever be able to walk normally again.<\/p>\n<p><figure class=\"wp-block-image naviga-inline-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/imengine.public.prod.dur.navigacloud.com\/?uuid=da9cff4c-d282-5e78-8488-a696b6c61c71&amp;function=cover&amp;type=preview&amp;source=false&amp;width=2000\" width=\"1440\" height=\"1440\" alt=\"After months of physical therapy, Suzie Rhodes is now able to stand on her own and to take a few steps. She suffered a spinal cord injury Oct. 10, when the Jeep she was in slid off Black Bear Pass onto Bridal Veil Road near Telluride. Her black Lab, Becker, suffered only a scratch to a leg during the rollover. (Courtesy of Suzie Rhodes)\" class=\"naviga-image\" loading=\"lazy\"><figcaption><span class=\"caption\">After months of physical therapy, Suzie Rhodes is now able to stand on her own and to take a few steps. She suffered a spinal cord injury Oct. 10, when the Jeep she was in slid off Black Bear Pass onto Bridal Veil Road near Telluride. Her black Lab, Becker, suffered only a scratch to a leg during the rollover. (Courtesy of Suzie Rhodes)<\/span><span class=\"credit\">cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><p>\u201cI would love to walk again,\u201d she said. \u201cWill I always need braces? I don\u2019t know. \u201d<\/p>\n<p>She said spinal cord injuries are \u201clike snowflakes,\u201d quoting from a friend. \u201cAnd it\u2019s so true,\u201d she said. \u201cYou never know how a spinal cord injury is going to heal.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Rhodes was on Black Bear Pass with her boyfriend, Rich Saler, when he stopped to help an off-roader behind him, who had just bought a new Jeep.<\/p>\n<p>Saler shut the Jeep off, engaged the emergency brake and stepped out of the Jeep to help the off-roader behind him.<\/p>\n<p>But the Jeep began sliding off the road, carrying Rhodes and her dog, Becker, and Saler\u2019s dog, Ripley, with it.<\/p>\n<p>Rhodes estimated the Jeep tumbled 20 times before she was ejected.<\/p>\n<p>The driver of an off-road vehicle traveling a lower portion of the mountain pass happened to be capturing video as the Jeep came crashing down, missing the driver by mere feet.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video wp-block-embed-youtube naviga-video-embed\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/2R5cLghSWGQ\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>She doesn\u2019t know if she was injured while bouncing around in the Jeep or when she was ejected and finally came to rest outside the vehicle.<\/p>\n<p>The Jeep is estimated to have dropped about 1,000 feet before coming to a stop.<\/p>\n<p>Rhodes\u2019 dog, Becker, escaped with only a scratch on a leg, and Ripley, a puppy at the time, was uninjured.<\/p>\n<p><figure class=\"wp-block-image naviga-inline-image naviga-align-left alignleft\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/imengine.public.prod.dur.navigacloud.com\/?uuid=d3c78aec-dfc4-44ef-9292-4432b9d3005b&amp;function=cover&amp;type=preview&amp;source=false&amp;width=2000\" width=\"2000\" height=\"2667\" alt=\"Suzie Rhodes\u2019 boyfriend had stepped outside his Jeep to direct a driver around a tight turn on Black Bear Pass near Telluride when the Jeep rolled off the pass eventually landing on Bridal Veil Road. In April, for the first time since the rollover, Rhodes was able to stand with the help of a walker. Rhodes tumbled an estimated 200 to 300 feet in the falling Jeep before being ejected. (Courtesy of San Miguel County Sheriff\u2019s Office)\" class=\"naviga-image\" loading=\"lazy\"><figcaption><span class=\"caption\">Suzie Rhodes\u2019 boyfriend had stepped outside his Jeep to direct a driver around a tight turn on Black Bear Pass near Telluride when the Jeep rolled off the pass eventually landing on Bridal Veil Road. In April, for the first time since the rollover, Rhodes was able to stand with the help of a walker. Rhodes tumbled an estimated 200 to 300 feet in the falling Jeep before being ejected. (Courtesy of San Miguel County Sheriff\u2019s Office)<\/span><span class=\"credit\">du1-i-syn<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><p>Rhodes, 24, takes her recovery day by day. Her most immediate goal is to be able to leave her wheelchair behind and get around with the assistance of a walker.<\/p>\n<p>A fallback goal is to be able to use the walker half the time and a wheelchair the other half.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat\u2019s what we\u2019re working toward now,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>Now, Walker said her favorite part of the day is when she stands and takes a few steps with the walker.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt helps stretch my body after sitting all day,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>Rhodes considers herself lucky.<\/p>\n<p>She\u2019s heard of other cases similar to hers in which people have taken 10 to 15 years before they take their first steps.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI am one of the few lucky ones,\u201d she said. \u201cI got a lot back really fast, and I have that on my side, but it\u2019s going to be a while before I\u2019m fully able to walk on my own. It\u2019s a work in progress.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Balancing while she is standing is currently the most challenging part of her physical therapy, she said.<\/p>\n<p>She compared trying to maintain her balance with keeping a baseball bat balanced while placing a bowling ball on top of it.<\/p>\n<p>Rhodes still doesn\u2019t have normal sensation in her legs, but the pain she was in initially has receded to the point she can tolerate it with only Advil or Tylenol.<\/p>\n<p>Another win for Rhodes was the ability to return to work as a teller at TBK Bank.<\/p>\n<p><figure class=\"wp-block-image naviga-inline-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/imengine.public.prod.dur.navigacloud.com\/?uuid=3b1f5d42-6d0c-463b-a1de-2a82b50cb513&amp;function=cover&amp;type=preview&amp;source=false&amp;width=2000\" width=\"1522\" height=\"1064\" alt=\"Suzie Rhodes, who was a star volleyball player with Bayfield High School, says returning to work at TBK Bank is a win since she suffered a spinal cord injury in a Jeeping accident on Black Bear Pass above Telluride on Oct. 10. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald file)\" class=\"naviga-image\" loading=\"lazy\"><figcaption><span class=\"caption\">Suzie Rhodes, who was a star volleyball player with Bayfield High School, says returning to work at TBK Bank is a win since she suffered a spinal cord injury in a Jeeping accident on Black Bear Pass above Telluride on Oct. 10. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald file)<\/span><span class=\"credit\">du1-i-syn<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><p>Returning to work, she said, has given her a sense of self-independence again, and she said TBK has been amazing working with her to make the accommodations she needs to return to work.<\/p>\n<p>Besides her health insurance from TBK, friends have started a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gofundme.com\/f\/helping-suzie-heal\" id=\"link-496c5ff98cfd1d5dcb8eadd2011c64a8\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">GoFundMe page, Helping Suzie Heal<\/a>, to help with Rhodes\u2019 medical expenses. The page had raised $71,995 as of Wednesday. The goal is to raise $200,000.<\/p>\n<p>Rhodes considers the incident \u201ca freak accident,\u201d and she said she and Saler will go Jeeping again.<\/p>\n<p>In fact, they\u2019re hopeful Suzie will be strong enough to take an off-roading trip this summer.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019ve talked about that day, but at the end of the day, accidents happen,\u201d she said. \u201cIt was a freak accident. We were out there living life and having fun, and you can\u2019t regret doing that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em id=\"emphasis-ae02c7d28c3fed76cc6e11a0c5475528\"><a href=\"mailto:parmijo@durangoherald.com\">parmijo@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>occurred on Black Bear Pass above Telluride: \u2018We were out there living &#8230; you can\u2019t regret doing that\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":45979,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,2666,3815,254,97],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-45978","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-health-treatment","tag-medical-conditions","tag-road-crash","tag-telluride"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45978","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45978"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45978\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":86701,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45978\/revisions\/86701"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45979"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45978"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45978"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45978"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=45978"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}