[{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org\/","@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/share-dev.upmc.com\/2019\/09\/paula-story-50ph\/#Article","mainEntityOfPage":"https:\/\/share-dev.upmc.com\/2019\/09\/paula-story-50ph\/","headline":"Ryan Shazier’s 50 Phenoms: Learning to Cope After a Devastating Crash","name":"Ryan Shazier’s 50 Phenoms: Learning to Cope After a Devastating Crash","description":"Paula Franetti was driving to work on a typical Tuesday morning when a speeding driver ran a red light, blindsiding her. The crash left her with severe injuries, both physical and emotional. But Franetti became the driver in her own recovery. Learn more about Paula's story.","datePublished":"2019-09-05","dateModified":"2023-04-17","author":{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.upmc.com\/","name":"UPMC","url":"https:\/\/www.upmc.com\/","sameAs":"https:\/\/share-dev.upmc.com\/upmc\/","parentOrganization":"UPMC"},"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"UPMC HealthBeat","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/share-dev.upmc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/UPMC-HealthBeat-Logo.png","url":"https:\/\/share-dev.upmc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/UPMC-HealthBeat-Logo.png","width":600,"height":60}},"image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/share-dev.upmc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/paula.jpg","url":"https:\/\/share-dev.upmc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/paula.jpg","height":867,"width":2000},"url":"https:\/\/share-dev.upmc.com\/2019\/09\/paula-story-50ph\/","about":["Family Health","Living and Wellness","UPMC Stories"],"wordCount":1432,"keywords":["Ryan Shazier's 50 Phenoms","Ryan Shazier\u2019s 50 Phenoms Season 1"],"articleBody":"Hear the Whole Story from Ryan Shazier. Listen to the 50 Phenoms Podcast for More.Paula Franetti needed to grab the steering wheel as she recovered from a severe car accident.Except this one didn\u2019t guide a car. It controlled her life.The image came upon Franetti as she lay in her bed in the intensive care unit at UPMC Mercy in September 2016, just days after a car crash sent her car \u2013 and her life \u2013 into a spin. She realized that to regain control and start getting on the road to recovery, she needed to take the wheel.\u201cI think it was right after I realized how many injuries I was dealing with,\u201d Franetti says now, nearly three years after the crash. \u201cI started thinking, how am I going to live my life, what am I gonna do? I got to a point where I really started worrying, and it got darker and darker and darker.\u201cBut then there was a point where I realized I have the best medical care that\u2019s going to put my body back together, but my life, the life that I want to live, is something they can\u2019t do for me. I think I had that moment where I realized I\u2019m the only one that can get me well, and being well to me meant being able to be as active as I was before the accident. So I decided right then and there, it\u2019s like, I\u2019m going to get well.\u201dThe 63-year-old Regent Park resident continues to steer her own life, and she\u2019s come a long way in three years.\u2018I Literally Thought I Was Dead\u2019Franetti was driving her normal route to her Uptown Pittsburgh office on the morning of September 13, 2016. Traveling on Jumonville Street, she had a green light as she approached the intersection with Forbes Avenue.But as Franetti navigated her Honda CRV through the intersection, a car traveling at a high rate of speed on Forbes Avenue ran the red light. The vehicle collided directly with Franetti\u2019s driver door, \u201cblindsiding\u201d her \u2013 she never saw it coming.Franetti\u2019s car spun across Forbes Avenue and struck a rowhouse before coming to a rest on Jumonville. She had extensive injuries, but she didn\u2019t know that at that moment.Instead, she had a vision of herself, sitting on her car seat \u2013 gripping the steering wheel.\u201cI literally thought I was dead, I had died, because I had no pain,\u201d she says. \u201cI was in a really peaceful place, and nothing around me made any sense. Like, my car wasn\u2019t even there.\u201dBystanders, including a nurse who lived nearby, helped pull Franetti from her wrecked Honda. An ambulance transported her to the trauma center at UPMC Mercy, just blocks away. Within the all-important first hour after the accident, Franetti was getting treatment for her injuries.\u2018Sometimes I Just Relive It\u2019The crash left Franetti with seven pelvic fractures, five spinal fractures, a ruptured diaphragm, a punctured bladder, internal bleeding, and a concussion.\u201cOn that first day, it was really about trying to save her life because she was bleeding to death,\u201d says Gele B. Moloney, MD, an orthopaedic trauma surgeon who was part of Franetti\u2019s care team. \u201cShe had severe injuries in her chest and pelvis, among other things. Certainly I never meet anyone on their finest day, but she was in a pretty rough spot.\u201dThree surgical procedures followed in the days after the crash. Trauma attending surgeon Garth Elias, MD, repaired her diaphragm the first day. Dr. Moloney and urologist Ronald Benoit, MD, operated on her pelvis and bladder, respectively, the next day.After nearly two weeks at UPMC Mercy and two-plus weeks at UPMC\u2019s Seneca Place skilled nursing facility, Franetti returned home \u2013 a month after she left it. Confined to a wheelchair, Franetti remained on the first floor of her house.With a cousin from Italy living with her, plus more family and friends, Franetti had all the help she needed. But that proved difficult at times for someone who was so active and independent before the injuries.\u201cLosing all of my independence, and really having to rely on other people, I would typically be the person taking care of other people,\u201d she says. \u201cJust knowing that I couldn\u2019t do the simplest thing and that I had to let other people help me or otherwise it was going to hurt me in the long run \u2026 I would get depressed and I would get frustrated because I had to keep asking.\u201cI hated the fact that I had to keep asking for help. You go back and forth between being angry that you\u2019re in this situation and angry that you have to do this, and then it\u2019s feeling bad because you\u2019re taking it out on people who are taking care of you.\u201dFranetti spent 57 days without standing. After nearly two months, her doctor told her she could leave the wheelchair behind \u2013 and not only that, Franetti was instructed to take some steps around a hospital room using a walker.With her cousin filming on a phone, Franetti took some of the biggest steps of her recovery \u2013 moving a rather unsteady 20 feet.\u201cBeing able to regain verticalness was just astounding to me,\u201d she says. \u201cI remember that moment. Sometimes I just relive it, just looking down and seeing how tall you are from being vertical.\u201d\u2018It’s Just Overwhelming\u2019The recovery didn\u2019t go completely smoothly. Shortly after moving from the walker to crutches in mid-November 2016, Franetti\u2019s left knee experienced strong swelling.A doctor\u2019s visit revealed yet another injury: knee ligament and cartilage tears, bone bruises, and microfractures in her left leg.The setback was crushing at first for Franetti, but she didn\u2019t give up \u2013 a crucial factor in her recovery.\u201cShe really took ownership of her injuries from the very beginning,\u201d Dr. Moloney says. \u201cShe had high expectations for her recovery, and rather than focusing on setbacks she was always looking forward and pushing toward her goals.”Continued rehab, taking everything slowly, helped Franetti overcome her knee injury. But another setback cropped up shortly after she was cleared to drive in January 2017. A short trip to the grocery store became a scary experience for Franetti, who hadn\u2019t driven since the accident.\u201cI really didn\u2019t expect it to be this traumatizing because I thought, I know how to drive,\u201d she says. \u201cI thought this is going to be a little scary. \u2026 People were beeping their horn, and trying to pass me, and there\u2019s the little manholes you\u2019re hitting \u2013 all this stuff, and it\u2019s just overwhelming.\u201dMore doctor\u2019s visits revealed vestibular dysfunction, which affects balance and eye movements, and in Franetti\u2019s case her peripheral vision. She also was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and later began psychotherapy treatment with Nancy Mramor, Ph.D.\u2018I\u2019m Going to Make It\u2019On the advice of Dr. Mramor, Franetti returned to the scene of her crash on the one-year anniversary. She re-enacted the situation to the minute: stopping at the red light, waiting for it to turn green, then going through the intersection.This time she made it safely, later visiting Dr. Mramor to discuss her success.\u201cI just knew that I\u2019ve got to conquer this fear,\u201d she says. \u201cI\u2019m not going to let that intersection hold me back. I didn\u2019t want to live that way.\u201dA fourth surgical procedure, in December 2017, fixed an issue that cropped up in her diaphragm. Now, three years post-crash, Franetti lives the active life she had before that fateful morning. She runs 5Ks. She competes in the National Senior Games, and her basketball team placed fourth at the Games in June 2019 in Albuquerque, N.M.Franetti, who earlier worked in orthotics and prosthetics and later cardiac rehab and exercise physiology, also created a new business in August 2018. She aims to help people who are recovering from their own life-changing health issues by using the power of positivity.\u201cIf you let (negative thoughts) fester, they can take you to a really, really low place and make you think, \u2018What\u2019s going to happen to me?\u2019 or make you afraid,\u201d says Franetti, who also is a public speaker and wrote a book about her experiences. \u201cBut somehow, you find that inner spirit, that inner motivation to say, \u2018No, I am going to start all over again and I\u2019m gonna make it.\u2019\u201dEditor's Note: This video was originally published on September 5, 2019, and was last reviewed on April 11, 2022."},{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org\/","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"2019","item":"https:\/\/share-dev.upmc.com\/2019\/#breadcrumbitem"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"09","item":"https:\/\/share-dev.upmc.com\/2019\/\/09\/#breadcrumbitem"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Ryan Shazier’s 50 Phenoms: Learning to Cope After a Devastating Crash","item":"https:\/\/share-dev.upmc.com\/2019\/09\/paula-story-50ph\/#breadcrumbitem"}]}]