The Tribune

By LYNAIRE MUNNINGS

Tribune Staff Reporter

lmunnings@tribunemedia.net

GABRIELLE “Gabby” Lord was 25 when a car ride with her grandfather changed her life forever.

Just after 7pm on January 3, 2016, the vehicle she was in flipped on Shirley Street, just outside Doctors Hospital. Seated in the back, she was thrown from the car. Her spinal cord was fractured. Her neck was broken. She wasn’t breathing when first responders found her.

Now 34, Ms Lord is paralysed from the neck down. Her days are shaped by immobility, sleepless nights, and long stretches of isolation. She hasn’t left home in over a year, except for one annual outing her father arranges each September to mark her birthday.

“Just being in bed all the time and being dependent on people, it’s been hard, extremely hard,” she said. “Some days, I just break down.”

Her sister, also in the car that night, suffered a fractured pelvis. Her grandfather sustained a head injury. Ms Lord’s injuries were the most severe.

Nearly a decade later, road safety remains a national concern. Traffic fatalities rose from 51 in 2023 to 66 in 2024, and 15 people have already died in crashes this year, according to officials. Authorities say the upward trend highlights the urgent need for more responsible driving, especially near schools and other high-foot-traffic areas.

“I didn’t wake up at the scene,” Ms Lord said. “I was told that when they found me, I was lying outside the vehicle, motionless.”

Since then, she has required full-time care. She said her father takes on most of the burden — managing her physical needs and the financial strain.

She described the emotional toll of life after the accident: persistent anxiety, depression, and an inability to sleep through the night.

“Mentally, emotionally, sometimes my focus is off,” she said. “I just cry all the time, but it’s like I would cry to myself.”

She said her grandfather was remorseful and would try to help her.

She still dreams of reclaiming basic independence — not full mobility, but the ability to feed herself, sit up, and relieve her father of some of the daily burden.

“Even if I would still need someone, at least I would be able to do the majority of things,” she said. “I’ll be less dependent and more independent.”

Each year, she hopes the next will bring change. “Every year what came around, I would always be hopeful that, you know, this year is my year... and then the year would just go by.”

Faith, she said, is what carries her through. “I pray every day, every night. I read my Bible. I know that God brought me from so far,” she said.

She and her family are raising funds to pursue medical treatment in Cuba, where doctors believe therapy may help her regain some mobility. She can be reached at 809-3048.