Shooting victim shows determination even though COVID-19 shut down her therapy sessions
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KANSAS CITY, MO (KCTV/KSMO) — Dani Tapia was the innocent victim of a drive by shooting last October. Despite not being able to go to therapy for more than a month, she’s now back on her feet!
Squats aren’t easy for anyone, but the fact that Dani Tapia is doing them at all is nothing short of a miracle.
Tapia and her friends were just returning home from a night out on the town last October when it happened.
“We noticed there was a sketchy car coming toward us,” Tapia said.
Tapia was standing in the alley behind her friend’s house when a car full of strangers pulled up.
“They just started shooting,” Tapia recalled. “And there were multiple shots. They emptied their whole clip on us.”
Tapia was hit in the stomach and the bullet exploded and fractured three vertebrae.
“When I saw the blood I immediately passed out. I blacked out,” Tapia said.
Tapia woke up in the ICU on a ventilator. She would stay in the hospital for more than a month before being moved to rehab. Doctors told her she’d likely never walk again, but Tapia had other plans.
She says she’ll never forget when she was able to just barely move her leg on her own, and from there, she took off.
“I was in a wheelchair and then in my mind I said I want to go to a walker, and then I wanna go to crutches and that’s where I am now,” Tapia said.
A recent ankle injury and the pandemic shutdown may have sidelined Tapia temporarily, but for her, it’s just a blip on the radar. The senior in college says she has a solid goal for this time next year.
“I see myself graduating college and walking the stage, that’s how I see myself one year from now,” Tapia said.
Tapia’s insurance only covered 20 therapy sessions at Ability KC. She says she wants to thank the people who have donated to the Falling Forward Foundation for helping her continue her critical therapy.
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