OKLAHOMA CITY, Jan. 28 (UPI) -- A Texas teen remained in an Oklahoma hospital following a weekend skydiving accident in which she plummeted about 3,500 feet to the ground, her family said.
"The whole thing that's keeping us going is because she's still alive and really she shouldn't be," said Meagan Wethington, sister of Makenzie Wethington of Joshua, who plunged to the ground Saturday when something went wrong with her parachute.
Makenzie Wethington's family said the 16-year-old suffered broken vertebrae in her back and a broken pelvis, is experiencing bleeding in her brain, lungs and liver and other injuries related to her fall, KXAS-TV, Dallas-Fort Worth, reported Tuesday.
Recuperating at the Oklahoma University Medical Center in Oklahoma City, Makenzie has wiggled her toes and has been able to communicate with her family and "she's breathing on her own," Meagan Wethington told KXAS. "[It's] spectacular."
Related
Makenzie and her father went to Chickasha, Okla., Saturday so the high school sophomore could experience her dream of skydiving, sister Meagan said.
"I wanted to be behind her, you know, in case something happened, I could be behind her," father Joe Wethington told KXAS. "But that couldn't happen because of the weight of the plane and the people, so I had to be first. She had to be last."
Her father said one side of the parachute didn't completely open. He said the instructor didn't leave the plane to assist his daughter because another jumper decided not to jump, KXAS said.
"And then the guy, the instructor, flew with the plane. He never came out of the plane because of the coward that wouldn't come out ahead of her, that didn't go. I shouldn't say that, but the guy ahead of her didn't go. He had to ride the plane down with him," the father said.
"When you got a parachute in trouble, and the instructor or the jump master has to ride the plane down because someone wouldn't go out the door, it just doesn't seem right," he said.
