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Dallas Friday is shown recovering at a hospital in Singapore in a photo taken Wednesday. (Courtesy of Robin Friday Sr.)
Wakeboarder Dallas Friday attends the 12th Annual ESPY Awards in Hollywood, California. (FRAZER HARRISON, GETTY IMAGES)
Singapore -- "I feel like I'm the luckiest girl right now," champion wakeboarder Dallas Friday said Wednesday from her hospital bed in Singapore. ". . . I'm just blessed to be alive and have so many people who care. I almost died."
Friday, recovering from a severely fractured left femur and severe breathing problems that put her in intensive care at Changi General Hospital, said in a telephone interview that she is "doing way better, way better."
The 20-year-old from Orlando, injured Oct. 1 when she crashed during the final event in the 2006 Wakeboard World Cup series, said friends and fans from all over the world had sent her e-mails and prayers.
Considered the world's greatest women's wakeboarder, Friday said she hopes to compete Memorial Day weekend in Georgia at the 48th Masters Water Ski and Wakeboard Tournament, which she has won five years in a row.
"I'm going to be recovered, and I am going to wakeboard again one day," Friday said.
In fact, on Sunday, when doctors took her off the respirator and removed her breathing tube, one of the first questions Friday asked her father was, "Dad, would you mind if I continue to ride?"
Yet even Friday and her father, Robin Friday Sr., who is in Singapore with her, acknowledge the recovery will take time.
On Wednesday, a doctor at the hospital showed her an X-ray of her left femur for the first time since she broke it while performing a complex jump called a "whirlybird."
When Friday crashed, she screamed and held her leg, which she said felt like "Jell-O."
"Once I got to the dock, everybody was shaken up," Friday said. "I kept my cool. I held my leg together. I stayed calm, and then I went into surgery. I don't remember the next five days after that."
On Wednesday, a doctor told her that she sustained at least seven fractures in her leg.
"It [the X-ray] looks like a Christmas tree -- like a modern-art Christmas tree," Robin Friday Sr. said. "It just branches out into every different direction imaginable."
Her voice still sounds raspy from the tube that helped her breathe for six days.
But signs of progress have lifted the family's spirits. On Wednesday, Dallas Friday walked with the aid of crutches for the first time since her crash.
"Her color is good; her mind is thinking clear; her appetite is great," Robin Friday Sr. said. "To see her big, brown, beautiful eyes looking at me again is just a joy beyond description."
Dallas now has a private room in the hospital's general ward. Get-well cards and flowers -- including a recently arrived bouquet of three dozen pink and white roses -- have lightened the mood. Her father also has sung her hymns, as well as one of their favorite songs, "Edelweiss."
Dallas has felt homesick, but she may be able to leave Singapore and return home as early as Tuesday.
"I'm hanging in there," she said. "And I just want to thank God and everyone for praying for me and keeping me in their hearts. I can't even describe how much I appreciate it and how much it means to me.
Reader Comments
8 people have commented so far.Dallas, you are in our prayers. Thank you for spending time with my son and his two friends in Fort Worth at Worlds. Your caring attitide is what makes our sport special. No matter what your future holds, I know God has more special things in store for you.
- Scott Cain · Cleburne, USA · Nov 10, 2006 @ 5:47pm
Your neighbor on Lake Holden are praying for you successful return. God Bless You! A Frame House Kur and Carol
- Kurt Bickel · Orlando, USA · Feb 26, 2007 @ 10:11am
Get well soon - Mo town Loves you!!!! hope to see you on the h2o very very soon lOl you are an insperation to me and the way many people who ride in modesto! I look up to you Laura
- Laura · USA · May 23, 2007 @ 9:05am
Dallas you are my favorite! i'm glad to see that your getting better! keep going and don't ever give up!!!! Caryn
- Caryn · springville,usa · Sep 19, 2007 @ 6:55pm
you are my idol and I feel so bad that you got hurt but i know how it feels i just want you to know you will always be in my prayers and thoughts.
- Stephen Gilliland · Flower Mound United States of America · Dec 4, 2007 @ 11:10am
Dallas, you are my idol! I have a wakeboarding compitition tomorrow, and I will be thinging about you the whole time!
- Emma · Virginia, USA · Jun 27, 2008 @ 8:15pm
A truly inspiring career and a top athlete. I hope you don't mind me using you as a example to other athletes.
- Mathias Statham · Auckland, New Zealand · Oct 31, 2008 @ 12:22am
she only broke her leg
- matt · london · Nov 13, 2009 @ 3:47am