The Foot and Ankle Tribune

An Arizona mother has found herself under fire after posting a video online showing her daughter breaking her feet while jumping off a roof on a dare in a bid to raise money for the injured teen.

Carrie Yunker, of Peoria, created a page on the popular crowdfunding site gofundme.com, asking the online community to help her raise $4,200 that will be used to cover her daughter Nicole Easton's everyday expenses for the next several of months while she recovers from her injuries. 

In a post on the fundraising site, Yunker explained that her daughter just graduated from high school, had a good job and had recently moved into her first home 'as an adult' when disaster struck.

In her online plea for help, Yunker explained that while her daughter did not have health insurance, her father was able to add her to his plan.

The accident landed the girl in a wheelchair, and she is expected to be disabled for the next six weeks, according to her mother. 

Yunker then went on to explain that her daughter not being able to work for a while means that she would be unable to cover her share of the rent and bills, which could result in her losing her home. 

The mother gave a breakdown of her daughter's expenses, writing that she will need $1,800 for rent for half a year and $2,400 for expenses like food, toiletries, phone and utilities.

This is a foolish stunt which could leave this poor unfortunate teen with chronic pain and debilitating arthritis with potentially the need for a triple arthrodesis in the future for both sides. This likely resulted in a calcaneal fracture to both feet, which is perhaps one of the more debilitating injuries sustained from a fall from a height. She was most fortunate to not sustain a spinal injury as well, which could have left he in a wheelchair for much longer than 6 weeks. Any time you are dared to attempt any stunt that could significantly injure yourself, keep in mind you may only get to make a foolish mistake once, with lengthy and difficult longstanding consequences, so you should think before you act.  

We deal primarily in foot and ankle problems, and this sort of pain and arthritic sequelae are commonplace for us to manage. We have a detailed protocol for varying pathology, and are able to manage this post traumatic OA with a variety of modalities until surgery is absolutely required. 

At FFLC we are regularly seeing patients who fall from a height, and most of these individuals are roofers, construction workers, and others with on the job injury. However, if you fall like this Arizona teen, you may be left with significant medical expenses and difficulties walking the remainder of your life.  She may benefit from arthrodesis procedures in her early 20's if the damage is significant, otherwise she may be unable to run, which may or may not impact her for years to come. Life lesson here: Be safe and think before you act.