Freedom Chair All-Terrain Wheelchair Brings 'Limitless' Opportunities To Paralyzed Woman

BOSTON (CBS) – Dianne Vitkus' life changed in an instant last July.

The 28-year-old surgical physician's assistant had just taken in a sunset on the roof of her apartment in New York state. She was climbing down a ladder when she slipped.

"I fell 15 feet on my back, and I was immediately paralyzed," she told WBZ-TV. "My legs – I felt like they were in the air and I looked at them and they were all crumbled underneath me."

It was a full break of her C-6 vertebra. Dianne was paralyzed from the chest down and has spent the past nine months in and out of surgeries in Boston and undergoing rehab at Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital in Charlestown.

"You can face adversity and you can go down a spiraling dark circle, or you can choose to step up to the plate and just accept the challenge and have fun with it along the way," Dianne said.

Despite that positive energy, the former college lacrosse star at Brown University says she misses a lot about her old life, especially her independence and hiking.

"It's really hard to accept that, when you're paralyzed, you can't really go on trails," she said. "Your wheelchair can't really go that many places. It gets stuck in the pavement, stuck in the grass."

Enter the "Freedom Chair," an off-roading wheelchair designed by MIT grads at the Boston-based GRIT company. We were there as Dianne, through a grant from the Challenged Athletes Foundation, received a brand new one.

The technology is simple. There's a lever on each side that connects to a bike chain and allows Dianne to propel the bike. It also has heavy-duty tires and a front wheel for stability.

"That front wheel out there is a balance point, so she's really safe," GRIT's Mike Halpert said. "Dianne's smile today is worth everything."

Dianne asked her friend Mary to help her test just how safe the Freedom Chair is. She cruised downhill at the Paul Revere Landing Park in Charlestown – and made it down safely.

"It was so smooth," Dianne said. "I'm very excited and I feel like my opportunities are limitless now with this chair."

To learn more about GRIT, click here.

And you can learn more about the Challenged Athletes Foundation and how to donate here.