NEW ORLEANS (WVUE) - On Friday (June 23) Touro held a graduation ceremony for MacKenzie Maier, a Louisiana Tech University nursing student recovering from injuries she received after a severe car accident just days shy of her graduation ceremony.
Senator Bill Cassidy, M.D. presented Maier with the diploma in the 4th-floor rehab gym of Touro’s campus.
Maier said she and her friend, who was not sober, were leaving an off-campus party when their vehicle crashed.
“My friend was driving. She went off the side of the road into some trees,” Maier said as she recounted the accident. “I was in the backseat I had fallen asleep.”
The accident caused damage to her spinal cord, and she would have to be airlifted to Ochsner in Shreveport for emergency surgery.
“I couldn’t move my legs,” she said. “I could not move my hands, and I was like this isn’t good.”
She was transported here to New Orleans where she has been in rehab for over 2 weeks. Her family says they have had to stay strong throughout the entire process.
“It’s something that doesn’t happen to you,” said Mallory Ashmore, MacKenzie’s sister. “You don’t expect this to happen to you so obviously, it was very shocking very upsetting.”
MacKenzie’s health issues started long ago. She was diagnosed with stage 4 Neuroblastoma at 4 years old and was given a 30% chance to live.
Senator Cassidy said there is one lesson that can be learned from this ceremony.
“Giving people support as they push through adversity, celebrating their success, pays huge dividends. Not just for the person but for all of us,” Cassidy said. “It is a reminder to us to help that struggling person. They will push through, and they will come back and bless us all.”
Maier said It was not the ceremony she expected, but she is blessed to be alive to see it.
She said her dreams of becoming a nurse are still alive.
“I can fight to get better to regain as much function as I can to get myself walking again, because I will be walking again.”
She is expecting to be discharged from Touro in two weeks, to return home to her native Ville Platte, Louisiana.
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