BEMIDJI, Minn. — A Bagley woman who was hit in the head by a tree in a Bemidji park remains partly paralyzed almost two weeks after the incident, her boyfriend said.

Alyssa Pfannenstein and Justin Janssen were watching Pfannenstein’s daughter play in Diamond Point Park on Sept. 3. The couple had unwittingly attached their hammock to a rotted tree, which uprooted and fell, breaking Pfannenstein’s neck.

“Before you know it we were kind of sitting on the ground and we thought the straps might have gave way,” Janssen said. “It pulled a rotten tree down, a rotten tree that was in the park. Down it came on top of her and hit her in the neck.”

Once Pfannenstein realized what happened, she told Janssen to call an ambulance. She was taken to Sanford Bemidji Medical Center, then to Hennepin County Medical Center in Minneapolis.

“She was very calm,” Janssen said. “She calmed me down and she calmed her daughter down. She said, ‘Mommy’s going to be all right,’ you know, and the ambulance came.”

At HCMC, the couple learned that the tree had crushed Pfannenstein’s C5 vertebrae. Janssen said he was told by doctors that Pfannenstein could not move anything from her neck down. But once she was out of surgery, Pfannenstein was able to move her arms. Since the surgery, feeling has returned to about 95 percent of her body.

“She had movement after the surgery, more movement than she had going in,” Janssen said. “She can feel her toes and which toe you’re touching, and she can move her arms … She can’t wiggle her fingers or move anything below her waist, but her spirit is the most positive I’ve ever seen.”

Pfannenstein and Janssen plan to head to a Courage Kenny center for rehabilitation once Pfannenstein’s small fevers and low blood pressure resolve.

Pfannenstein’s family created a GoFundMe page to help with medical bills and expenses.

The couple want their experience to help other families stay safe.

“The incident sucks,” Janssen said. “But she just wants it to serve as, like, a warning to families … We go to parks all the time, we’ve done this a thousand times.”