Man is left unconscious and paralysed from the neck down after simply blowing his nose

A man has been left paralysed after fainting in his bathroom while blowing his nose and hitting his neck.

Kirsty Bronner, 34, from Sydney has told how she heard a “loud bang coming from their bathroom” and found her partner lying on the floor of their home in Australia.

She said that he was lying unconscious after fainting and hitting his neck as he fell.

Kirsty told of the shock for the family as it came to terms with his paralysis, following the incident on January 2 last year.

“I rushed in and found my partner lying unconscious on the floor. He had hit his neck and dislocated it causing a C6/7 spinal cord injury. He had blown his nose and fainted, hitting his neck on the bathroom bench,” Kirsty reportedly said.

The man, who did not want to be named, is now using a wheelchair (The Booty Co)

Kirsty is juggling her job and bringing up her children (The Booty Co)

Covid restrictions at the time meant that she was not allowed into the hospital and had an agonising wait to hear an update on her partner’s condition after six hours of surgery.

"I was so sick with worry. Eventually they rang and said he had a neck dislocation from hitting the bench, which had caused a spinal cord injury and wouldn't know the extent of the injuries until they had done surgery and done tests," she told the Daily Mail.

Kirsty said she now has the “chills” about the way her partner, who does not want to be named, spoke the day before the accident about the way he felt “something bad was on the way”.

Kirsty's partner has a slim chance of making a full recovery (The Booty Co)

Her partner spent the next six months in hospital and rehabilitation while Kirsty cared for their four children - Lucas, 16, Valentina, 7, Viktoria, 5, and Vitalia, 18 months - as well as running her business The Booty Co.

Now more than a year on and her partner who used to go running each day has T1 level paralysis which means he can’t stand.

"The emotional and mental stresses caused was so severe that I could not tend to the business at all," said Kirsty of the period following the accident.

She has been helped by her sister Felicity, who is also a director of the business, looking after the children.

Kirsty said it has been the "toughest time" of her life and now dedicates all her spare time to her business with her partner's chances of a full recovery unlikely.