Joanna was snowboarding at Mount Hood with her boyfriend at the time of her injury. She was trying to race him to the bottom because of her competitive nature. Unfortunately, the conditions made the snow very icy that day. Joanna was going too fast for her skill level and ended up inadvertently vaulting off a snow covered rock, upsetting her balance enough that she crashed on her back. She immediately felt a sharp pain but kept tumbling over and over. When Joanna finally came to a stop she was on her back, and couldn’t feel below her waist. She had previously trained as an EMT and knew immediately that she was paralyzed.