Grover Beach woman gets fundraiser after ‘miraculous’ recovery

In the wee hours of Thanksgiving Day, while others were dreaming of the feasts they would soon be enjoying, Dawn Mirabelli was dragging herself across the floor of her Grover Beach home, hoping to make it to the side door that could be her only chance of survival.

Roughly four months later, Mirabelli will be the recipient for a fundraiser Sunday that aims to help raise money for what friends call “Dawn’s miraculous story.”

‘I can’t feel my legs’

On Nov. 26, 2015, Mirabelli, 47, woke up sometime before 6 a.m., only to collapse in the bathroom of her one-bedroom home, unable to move the lower half of her body.

“I thought I was having a heart attack,” she said. “I didn’t think of anything else but a heart attack.”

As she struggled to stay calm, Mirabelli realized she couldn’t get to her cellphone, which was charging in a corner of her living room surrounded by chairs and other obstacles.

Unable to call for help, she had to improvise: Mirabelli dragged herself 15 feet from the bathroom to the side door that acted as the entrance for her dog boarding business, Dawn’s Doggie Day Care, where she knew one of her customers would be showing up soon to drop off a pet.

When the door finally opened and the customer looked inside, Mirabelli had managed to pull herself up but collapsed again, breaking her tailbone in the process.

“I just looked up at her above me and said, ‘Call 911 — I can’t feel my legs,’ ” she said.

‘They have to have an answer’

When she woke up in the hospital later that day, doctors informed Mirabelli she had an epidural abscess — essentially a collection of pus the size of a softball — lodged on her spine.

The abscess, caused by a strep infection, had gone septic, causing intense pain and paralysis.

For months before her collapse, Mirabelli said she felt “off,” but doctors couldn’t pinpoint the cause of her discomfort.

In the three days leading up to her collapse, Mirabelli said she was in the emergency room at Arroyo Grande Community Hospital each day because her stomach had begun swelling, and she was unable to go to the bathroom. But she continued to be told that she likely just had a kidney infection, which is treated with antibiotics.

“I kept calling saying, you know, it wasn’t working and I was still in a lot of pain,” she said. “I was like, ‘God, they have to have an answer.’ ”

They found that answer following her collapse on Thanksgiving Day.

She was taken back to the hospital, where a neurosurgeon who happened to be there stopped the emergency room doctor from performing a spinal tap on Mirabelli that could have been fatal if he had ruptured the abscess. It was the neurosurgeon who discovered the large cyst on her spine.

With that discovery, Mirabelli was transferred to Marian Regional Medical Center in Santa Maria, where she underwent emergency spinal surgery to remove the softball-sized abscess.

Though the doctors had finally pinpointed what was wrong with her, by that point it was almost too late — Mirabelli was paralyzed from the waist down, and doctors said she would likely spend the rest of her life in a wheelchair.

“I couldn’t accept that,” she said. “I threw the doctor out of the room, and I said to ‘get the f out,’ because I wouldn’t hear that. I couldn’t accept it.”

‘A scrapper and a fighter and a survivor’

Mirabelli pushed herself to recover. She spent 11 weeks in a rehabilitation facility in Santa Maria, learning to walk again, and slowly regaining control over the lower half of her body.

“I told them I would be out of rehab by the end of February,” she said. “On Feb. 3, I walked out the door.”

Now Mirabelli — sporting a 10-inch scar along her back — can navigate around her one-story home with the help of a walker, and takes daily walks on the block outside her home to help build up her strength. She still has pain in her legs, and is incontinent, which causes her a lot of discomfort, but she isn’t dwelling on that.

“They say I’m a miracle,” she said.

Throughout her healing process, Mirabelli has been unable to return to her dog boarding business, and has been living off savings, she said. (Her medical costs were covered by health insurance.)

To help in her recovery, Mirabelli’s friends have organized a fundraiser at ManRock Brewing Company in Grover Beach on Sunday from noon to 6 p.m. The event will feature performances by 16 local bands, a silent auction and a raffle to raise money for Mirabelli.

“She’s an amazing person,” friend Shannon Fernandez said. “She’s just the type of gal that will make anyone smile.”

Fernandez, a lawyer in Santa Maria, said she has been amazed by Mirabelli’s remarkable recovery.

“She is a scrapper and a fighter and a survivor,” Fernandez said. “I admire her so much.”

Mirabelli said seeing the support she has gotten from her friends in the area — from a neighbor that stops by to do small chores to those who bring food and meals — has been the silver lining in her entire ordeal.

“The high point has been realizing I have a very strong support group of friends around me,” she said. “I have been a complete burden to my friends and they have been amazing. That’s been my high point.”

This story was originally published April 8, 2016 at 4:03 PM with the headline "Grover Beach woman gets fundraiser after ‘miraculous’ recovery."