Kristina Andrews was hanging lights on her balcony when she fell four stories, an accident that left the 32-year-old Riverview mother paralyzed from the neck down and now relearning to walk from inside a Dunedin nursing home. She spent about a month paralyzed entirely, unable to move, before slowly regaining motion in her arms and fingers. Today she attends rehabilitation three times a week, chasing a goal that once seemed unreachable: standing on her own two feet to hold her 3-year-old daughter, who lives in Texas.
Andrews was uninsured when she fell, according to Tampa Bay 28, which first reported her story. She spent roughly a month in the hospital undergoing surgeries and fighting to stay alive, the station reports. According to the Tampa Bay Times, Andrews sustained an ASIA B spinal cord injury at the C6 vertebra after striking the pavement at an estimated 50 mph on June 18, 2025, an impact that also broke her ribs, shoulder, hip and pelvis.
Her path through the healthcare system since the fall has been anything but smooth. Per her own GoFundMe campaign, Andrews spent a month at Tampa General Hospital before receiving two months of hospital-funded intensive therapy at NeuLife Rehabilitation Center in Mount Dora — only to be mistakenly transferred for 10 days to a Miami psychiatric facility that offered no spinal cord rehabilitation at all. She was eventually moved to a nursing facility in Dunedin, where the station’s report notes she is now the youngest resident in the building.
A $280-a-Session Fight, One Workout at a Time
Andrews is covered by Medicaid, but the program only covers a certain amount of acute intensive rehabilitation, and patients must meet specific criteria to qualify, per the same account. Dr. Bill Hennessey said one key criterion is that the patient must be expected to go home. On days without scheduled therapy, Andrews works out on her own in her bedroom, determined not to lose ground. She currently pays around $280 for each rehabilitation session, funded by a grant from the nonprofit Walking With Anthony, which is covering her sessions for now…