A woman suffered severe injuries in a parasailing accident earlier this month in Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco, when a storm came up, flipped the tow boat and snapped the towline.

Katie Malone was celebrating her 29th birthday in the Pacific coast tourist destination when the freak accident occurred during the 10-minute parasailing excursion.

After an approaching storm brought strong winds and turned the boat over, Malone spent the next 45 minutes being whipped through the air at the mercy of intense gusts of wind.

Malone’s brother Brendan said in an interview that the men operating the boat quickly took off.

“We’re beyond unhappy,” he said. “Those guys left the scene of the crime. They flipped the boat back over and . . . bailed while my sister was floating away.”

When Malone finally crash-landed near the city’s airport, she suffered cuts to her face, a fractured pelvis and skull, four broken ribs and a collapsed and bleeding lung.

“It’s one of those calls you never want to take and of course you’re thinking the worst,” said Katie’s father, Kelly Malone, when he received the news.

An online fundraising campaign was created to help pay for an air ambulance back to the United States and as of this morning, nearly US $50,000 had been raised.

Former U.S. Rep. Duncan L. Hunter also helped make financial arrangements for the family.

“Once we got him involved, everything just went real smooth. He had some contacts. I believe he even contacted the consulate in Washington D.C. and then after that everything just went really, super fast,” Kelly Malone said.

After undergoing several surgeries and spending the last few weeks in a Jalisco hospital, Katie Malone was flown to San Antonio, Texas, on Tuesday, where she will undergo further treatment.

Doctors believe she will make a full recovery, but she isn’t expected to walk again for months.

“She is a miracle, she is progressing way quicker than most people expected her to, on so many levels,” her brother said. “She’s great, she’s a fighter, and she is not giving up.”

The parasailing company hired by Malone is currently under investigation by the state Attorney General’s office.

Source: WLKY (en), Vallarta Independiente (sp)