Survival story
It was the kind of late spring day that hinted at youth and freedom.
The sun was out and warm and Tiana Schaffner, a Butler High School senior, was ready for adventure at McConnell's Mill State Park.
She, her cousin and a friend were going on a hike to Hell's Hollow Falls deep inside the park and Schaffner was excited.
With a backpack stuffed with full water bottles, they headed out on their trek.
Little did Schaffner know it would be a journey that would change her life forever.
Schaffner, an avid athlete and basketball player, reached the falls and decided to edge her way out along its upper edge.“I was a wild child,” she said. “I was very fearless. I would do anything.”Her daring and boldness endeared her to her friends and she didn't hesitate to walk along the precarious cliff.Then she slipped.She reached out in an attempt to grab something — anything — but failed.The fall seemed to happen in slow motion.Visions of her life flashed into her consciousness. Her mom. Her dad. Her music. Basketball. Everything she loved cascaded into her mind on the drop. The feeling she was about to die gripped her.She hit the rocks, which jutted of the water like tombstones, head-first.That alone should have killed her, but that backpack stuffed with water bottles cushioned the impact and kept her neck from snapping.She laid on the rocks, staring at the darkening sky. Her pelvis was shattered and one side ripped away from the spine. Her left elbow was in pieces and her arm was mangled. A lung had collapsed and she strained to draw in breaths.Her cousin and friend scrambled to find cell phone service. Schaffner's legs went numb and she was slipping into shock.She was terrified.But determined.“I just remember thinking, 'I'm not going to die here,'” Schaffner said.She didn't know how she did it, but she balled up her fists, dug them into the rocks and rolled over. She pulled herself up the embankment to get closer to the trail and even managed to stand.She screamed from the agony.After 30 minutes, police, firemen and EMTs arrived and she was eventually transported by medical helicopter to UPMC Presbyterian hospital in Oakland.“They couldn't believe I was alive,” Schaffner said.<h3>Back on the Court</h3>Schaffner takes a jump shot eight months after her ordeal.The sound of the basketball ripping through the net brings a roar to the crowd.She hits for 20 points and also grabs 12 rebounds as the Butler County Community College women's basketball team rolls to a lopsided win over Pitt-Titusville Monday.The Butler High graduate and freshman for the Pioneers wasn't even supposed to be alive. She wasn't supposed to be able to walk again, let alone play the sport she loves.“It was indescribable,” Schaffner said. “After everything, the pain, the hurt, I felt like I was normal again. For so long I couldn't be myself and I so badly wanted to be myself. It was a relief to feel that way again.”It came at the end of an arduous recovery.Not long after she was transported to UMPC Presbyterian, she underwent extensive surgery to repair her significant injuries.A nine-inch rod was installed into her pelvis and two plates, 12 screws and a cadaver bone was placed in her left arm and elbow to stabilize it.The doctor gave Schaffner some sobering news.He told her he didn't know if the surgery would work and that she may never walk normally again.Playing basketball, he said, was, of course, out of the question.“Watch me,” Schaffner told him.As it turned out, fortune once again smiled on her.Instead of placing the rod from one end of her pelvis to the other to reattach it to her spine, the surgeon only had to attach the one side.“Had he had to put it all the way through, I never would be able to walk like normal again,” Schaffner said.When asked why he didn't, the surgeon said, “God is a better healer than I am.”Schaffner, who has a strong faith, was comforted by that comment and it made her even more determined to not only resume a normal life, but to play basketball again.But first, she had to overcome demons both physical and mental.<h3>I Remember Everything</h3>Schaffner remembers everything about her ordeal May 16.She suffers from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and still has intense nightmares.“It's still a struggle,” she said. “I still have physical pain and probably will for the rest of my life. I also have mental pain. At first — I'm a very independent person and I want to do everything for myself — I didn't want to accept I had PTSD. Once I accepted it and got help, things changed.”Schaffner also felt guilty.She shouldn't have lived after a fall like that — head first onto rocks from 25 feet — but she did. And she asked herself, “Why?”“I don't know why I was saved,” she said. “I honestly don't know. It blows my mind. I hope I can inspire people. I want people to know it's OK to feel how I felt. It's OK to be mad that it happened and to accept that it did. The doctor said I was a miracle.”Schaffner has embraced that.She spent nearly a month confined to a bed, lying flat and unable to move and unable to eat solid food. She spent another two months in a wheelchair before she was finally allowed to take her first steps.Schaffner spent some of her time in the wheelchair shooting a basketball at a hoop set up in her driveway.“I was not going to give up on playing basketball,” Schaffner said.When it came time for her to walk again, she was understandably nervous and anxious.Her doctors prepared her for the worst.But Schaffner stood from her wheelchair and took a step. And then another. And then another.“They said I was a miracle, that all the odds were stacked against me,” Schaffner said. “They said that out of the 1,000 patients they have had that have had pelvic breaks, they had never seen someone get up and walk like I did.“Maybe because I have four older brothers, but I'm tough,” Schaffner said. “The doctors and nurses all had tears in their eyes. They never thought I could do it. They thought I'd have to learn how to walk again in physical therapy, but I was walking. It was another miracle.”<h3>Feeling Normal</h3>Schaffner wondered if she would ever feel normal.Then Monday came.When she joined the Butler County Community College basketball team in November, there was trepidation on both sides.Even the doctors were wary.Schaffner, though, had one thought bouncing around in her head.You're a miracle.“My first home game, I was diving on the floor for a loose ball and my mom and grandma got so mad,” Schaffner said. “I had a fire in my heart.”Schaffner also had a strong support system led by her mom, Michele, and father, Steve.Steve still has the backpack, filled with water bottles, that most likely saved his daughter's life.Michele was with Tiana around the clock throughout her recovery.“I have the most amazing mom in the world,” Schaffner said.Despite her desire to be normal, Schaffner realizes she never will be again. Not really.She's changed. Trauma and near-death has a way of doing that to someone. Instead of fearing it, Schaffner has now embraced it.“My dad said to me, 'It was weird, when you fell, when you hit, you grew up 10 years,'” Schaffner said.Schaffner is no longer as impetuous and is much more prudent.Her life goals have also changed. A talented musician, Schaffner has decided to chase that dream with the vigor and determination she did while recovering from her significant injuries.“When I was laying in the hospital bed, I took complete stock and re-evaluated everything in my life. Everything,” she said. “What I truly want to do is music. It's what I love.”And she wanted to play basketball again.She did that, too.“You know, I wouldn't change what happened to me,” she said. “It made me who I am today and showed me how strong I am. It's a struggle sometimes, but it's worth it.”
