13-05-2025
The horrifying moment personal trainer gets life-threatening injury from exercise mistake - doctors said she may never walk again
A backflip gone wrong left a personal trainer with 'car crash' injuries—and fearing she would never walk again.
Rosie Gorman, 22, was warming up for a cheerleading competition when the life-changing accident occurred.
The dancer hit a three-foot-high barrier while attempting her fourth and final backflip during a routine she said had become 'second nature'.
Doctors compared her injuries to a car crash—and said she was suffering from compartment syndrome, where swelling cuts off blood flow to muscles.
This can cause permanent damage and in extreme cases can lead to amputation or, worse, life-threatening infections.
Ms Gorman was warned her legs 'wouldn't function the same', forcing an end to her 10-year cheerleading career.
Shocking footage shared to TikTok shows the moment she crashed into the wooden barrier.
It has since gone viral attracting more than 319,400 views.
In the clip, Ms Gorman successfully completes three backflips before her shins smash into the wooden backboard while completing the final one.
After being rushed to hospital doctors revealed she had compartment syndrome from the knee down in both of her lower legs.
Doctors said the extent of her injuries meant she would never return to cheerleading, and it was unlikely her legs will function in the same way they did before.
She was sent home after a few days, where she remained bed bound for several weeks.
Ms Gorman, who hails from Manchester, said: 'It breaks my heart [watching the footage back]. I feared I would ever walk again and I was so terrified. Everything was taken away.
'It was just a normal day and I went to a different training centre to get some extra training in. It was my warm up session.
'It was on the fourth [backflip] that my shins hit the backboard. I just hit the wall with such force.
'It's something I'm so confident in and it's like second nature to me. It's such a shame that something so simple to me ended that cheerleading career.
'It's been a long road to recovery. I have been left with severe muscle and nerve damage. A lot of the feelings I've actually never grown back and it's very sensitive.'
Defying the odds, she was remarkably able to backflip again just five months later, with the help of intense physiotherapy.
Now she encourages other athletes who have suffered life-changing injuries to 'persevere'.
The personal trainer believes that she was lucky to have avoided worse long term injuries.
'I've been strength training and have a strong build, and that is what saved me,' said Ms Gorman.
'It took me five months to regain the same skills I had before I was injured.
'Everything's telling you not to do it and that it's a bad idea, but I've done it so many times before and you've got to believe in yourself you can do it.
'I would rather push through that pain than never be able to do it again.'
Earlier this month she completed the Manchester marathon — less than two years after suffering the horrifying injury.
'I was bursting with happy tears and I was over the moon [after running the marathon]. I just ran a whole marathon after being told I should not be able to run,' she said.
'I think knowing what it did to my family and how upsetting it was for them seeing me in that way is what drove me to get better and work hard.'
Ms Gorman added: 'To athletes who have grown up in a certain sport and wanted to do it for the rest of their life and for whatever reason that's been cut short — it feels like the worst thing in the world.
'You've got to really persevere and find something else out there that's for you and that you will love.
'It's believing that you can overcome it.
