School Bullies Left Me Paralysed | BORN DIFFERENT
20-YEAR-OLD Chelsea was the victim of severe bullying all the way through high school - and it was often physical. Chelsea was first attacked by "two boys who were older than me" at the age of 14 - they punched her in the face and broke her jaw. A year later, while walking her dog in the park, Chelsea came across a group of teenagers and was confronted by a girl who accused her of "flirting with [her] boyfriend". As Chelsea turned to walk away, she felt the girl jump on her and remembers feeling "her elbow going into the side of my face". Both incidents resulted in jaw surgery - with doctors fixing screws and wires into Chelsea's jaw to hold it in place. Worse was still to come though, as the attacks had left her jaw weak and vulnerable. Just a couple of years later, when Chelsea went to spend time with her best friend Katie and the two started play-fighting, Katie's knee accidentally caught Chelsea in the side of her face. She immediately headed to hospital to prepare for her seventh surgery on her jaw - but she could never have predicted how "all Hell would break loose" post-surgery. Chelsea remembers how she woke up in her hospital bed and "couldn't feel my legs, it was like nothing was there" - and soon she was paralysed from her neck down. She was diagnosed with Functional Neurological Disorder (FND) - a life-changing condition that affects how the brain sends messages to the rest of the body. Chelsea underwent months of grueling rehabilitation and gradually regained mobility, but with some lasting symptoms. She continues to experience seizures, fatigue, chronic pain and her left wrist is affected by functional dystonia, leaving her with the use of only her finger and thumb on that hand. And when Chelsea took to TikTok to post about her situation and quickly gained a following, she was once again on the receiving end of negativity, with people accusing her of "faking it, attention-seeking". Through it all though, Katie has stuck by Chelsea, who feels that the "whole experience has made us closer". However, even after all these years, Katie still feels guilty for her part in Chelsea's life-changing diagnosis - and Truly filmed the pair talking about the accident for the first time on camera. Does Chelsea blame her friend at all for what happened, or will she finally be able to put Katie's mind at ease?
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FunTranscript
00:00 I was picked on by other kids in school and when it got physical my life changed forever.
00:10 When I was 14 I got targeted by two boys and took a blow to the face. My jaw was broken.
00:15 A year later a girl in a park jumped me from behind, dislocated my jaw and I had to have
00:21 surgery. When I was 17 my best friend Katie accidentally knocked my jaw. I went in for
00:26 jaw surgery. I woke up and couldn't feel my legs. I was paralysed.
00:36 School was extremely difficult. I would just dread going in because every time I did it
00:41 was just... I started getting picked on when I was 11 and that just carried on until the
00:47 age of 15. Everyone when they get into secondary school they all hit puberty, they start wearing
00:51 make-up and I never really changed and I think that's what made me different from everyone else.
00:56 It was just one girl at the start, one girl turned into a group, one group turned into
01:01 many groups and not long after it became physical.
01:06 My first time getting properly physically hurt was when I got punched in the face by
01:10 these two boys that were older than me. I had to have a surgery to realign my jaw. It
01:15 was completely over to the side. Doctors used screws and wires to put my jaw back into place.
01:20 A year later I walked past a group of teenagers and they wanted to abstract my dog. We started
01:26 talking. The young lady there, she got a bit aggressive and she started saying that you
01:30 flirt with my boyfriend and I said no. She wanted to fight but I didn't want to do that
01:35 so I got my dog, I turned around and I just started walking back. From behind she jumped
01:40 on top of me. I can still remember her elbow going into the side of my face. I had to have
01:44 three different surgeries from that incident and it was constant pain. My jaw was severely
01:49 weakened by those incidents. I've been friends with Katie since September
01:54 of 2018 when we first met in college. We were both very shy and it took us a while to come
02:00 out of our shells but after that we'd go around, we'd get up to mischief. It was really fun.
02:07 That is Katie there and that is also Katie there with my cross eyes. Me and Katie are
02:12 both quite goofy sometimes. I had gone to Katie's house and I don't even know why we
02:17 got into a play fight. Her knee accidentally caught the side of my face. I heard it crack
02:23 and she was like, "Oh my God," and I was like, "My jaw's gone." That was my seventh surgery
02:27 that were all hell broke loose. I realised that something was different after the surgery
02:32 as soon as I woke up. I couldn't feel my legs, it's like nothing was there. And then soon
02:37 I was completely bed bound and I was paralysed from my neck and I lost the ability to swallow.
02:42 I was just helpless. I was just laying in bed. I just couldn't do anything. I couldn't
02:47 talk. I was diagnosed with functional neurological disorder and I remember them saying that there's
02:52 currently no cure and I was like, "Oh my God." It was like a nightmare. FND affects me in
02:59 many different ways. It causes me to have seizures, weakness, chronic pain, a lot of
03:06 anxiety as well. It's a pain to live with. I was in the hospital for three months. Eventually
03:12 when I was discharged, my hands were blocked. This one did eventually get worse. I've now
03:19 got functional dystonia, which is slowly turning into contraction. So my tendons under here
03:25 have now shortened, which pulls my wrist down and my fingers have also contracted into like
03:30 a fist kind of way. I've only got my thumb and my finger, which I call my pincers. It's
03:35 funny. It's like a hook. I was called Captain Hook when I went into rehab. Katie really
03:44 does feel guilty about knocking my jaw. I know that she still feels guilt. She tells
03:49 me all the time. I've been friends with Chelsea for over five years. My first impression was
03:59 I just wanted to be friends with her. I thought she was kind, caring. Let's go. I felt like
04:09 really bad because obviously after what happened, I felt like it was my fault. Do you ever blame
04:18 me for what happened? I would never blame you, not in a million years. Do you still
04:24 feel guilty about what's happened? I still do sometimes, but then I'm starting to learn
04:31 that you have forgiven me and it was just an accident. To be honest, in my eyes, I didn't
04:38 even have to forgive you because to me, you never even did anything wrong. It was an accident
04:43 and we were both acting like idiots. But I love you so much and I don't ever think I
04:49 would be able to see you doing anything wrong. You're just too cute. I joke about it and
04:57 say, "Oh, you paralyzed me," but in reality, I think this whole experience has made us
05:01 closer and I couldn't have gotten through any of this without her by my side. She's
05:05 been so understanding, so supportive, and she's done everything that she possibly can
05:09 to help me and she's kept me smiling the whole way and I'll forever be grateful for her.
05:17 Me and Katie have made lots and lots of TikToks. Today, Katie and I are going to record a TikTok
05:21 together. I posted a first TikTok about my FND in 2022. I just thought, "Hey, this is
05:28 funny. Let's post it." I didn't really think anything of it, but of course, the views started
05:32 going up and then within a couple of weeks, it hit over a million. I posted another explaining
05:38 what actually happened and it got over 4 million views and it was mad to see all these people
05:44 sending their support and showing all sorts of experience they've been through themselves.
05:48 It was absolutely incredible. I've had people accuse me of faking it, attention seeking.
05:55 I've had people say, "I saw your leg move," and I'm just like, "Good for you."
06:03 That's it. My hope for the future is I want to be able to get my handwork in, hopefully
06:12 back to normal. I'm hoping that my mental health will also go up with me and I'm hoping
06:18 that I will be able to do more stuff with Katie as well.
06:22 I am so proud of how far she's come, the progress she made and how she got through it, but she
06:28 still will come out stronger.
06:29 I'm hoping that on my platform in the future, I will be able to spread more educational
06:36 videos for my condition and I also want to be able to go around to different places and
06:41 explain why picking on others just has such a negative impact on this world.
06:45 If you're thinking of picking on someone, my story is an example of what can happen.
06:50 [END]
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