Falling Up

by Dana Liesegang

My Wild Ride from Victim to Kick-Ass Victory

From the time Dana Liesegang could walk, she was out looking for adventure, and she never stopped. As a fearless child in the Pacific Northwest, she climbed trees, caught frogs, and held her own with any boy in town. She brought that true-grit, fire-in-her-belly attitude to the Navy . . . and to her recovery from the unthinkable. At the age of 19, she was sexually assaulted by a fellow sailor and thrown off a cliff, left for dead. She survived—but woke up in a hospital hours later paralyzed from the neck down, with doctors giving no hope for recovery. They underestimated the spirit and stubbornness of their patient. In Falling Up: My Wild Ride from Victim to Kick-Ass Victory, Dana recounts her agonizing and sometimes comical struggle from total dependence to doing the “impossible”: walking again. With equal parts humor and rawness, she brings us along on her wild ride, as she navigates her new world, hurtles through rocky relationships, deals with family secrets, and returns to her love of sports and the outdoors. In the process, she learns the importance of forgiveness, discovers the awe-inspiring power of belief and perseverance, and transforms herself from silent victim to outspoken advocate and inspiration for people everywhere. After all, sometimes an unexpected fall can lead a person to reach for magnificent heights.