A classmate pranked her by pulling the chair from underneath her. 12 years later, and she’s still dealing with the aftermath

A schoolmate pulled a prank on Hannah Lee (@hannah.lee155). What was supposed to be a silly, childish gesture had lasting medical consequences twelve years later.

“On October 17th, 2014, twelve years ago today, I got a traumatic brain injury by a student pulling a chair up from underneath me and me hitting my head twice on the chair and the cement on the ground,” Lee explained on TikTok. She explained that after she had been pranked, she still experienced the medical consequences twelve years later.

“One of the biggest things that has still impacted me to this day is the fact that I can’t poop,” Lee said. She claimed that she was officially diagnosed with dyssynergia, wherein even if her brain signals that she needs to relieve herself, her pelvic floor muscles may tighten, preventing the passage of stool. Lee attributes the condition to her traumatic brain injury. Despite her struggle with her bowels, Lee shared that she has recently found medication that works for her. Nevertheless, she’s still learning how to poop.

“Second one, which I think is the most insane, is that I was diagnosed with retrograde amnesia,” Lee said. She claimed that before the prank, she didn’t remember anything. Lee was only twelve when it happened, and she said she’d forgotten everything before then.

The prank left her with other lasting injuries

“Another one is vision loss. When I hit my head, I couldn’t see five to six feet in front of me without being doubled and blurred,” Lee claimed. She said she also had poor peripheral vision. Although her vision has improved and she can now see farther without double vision, Lee still wears prism glasses to correct her lazy eye. This is an improvement, as she used to wear an eyepatch and went to vision therapy to relearn how to use her right eye muscles.

Aside from poor vision, Lee claimed that she also has hearing loss in both ears. Lee claimed that she didn’t know she had hearing loss until COVID. Because people were wearing masks, it became harder for her to lip-read. She went to the doctor, and then she found out that she has 60% hearing loss in both of her ears.

Mental health issues and fears

Some pranks go viral on social media for their absurdity, like this Texas man who faked a wedding to get his family to stop asking him about settling down. But Lee had to deal with several conditions after the childish prank and reported that she also now deals with anxiety.

“37% of people with traumatic brain injuries end up with anxiety. I don’t know if I would’ve gotten it anyways; I’m not really quite sure,” Lee shared. Nevertheless, she claimed that she has been diagnosed with the condition. Moreover, she has also developed a fear of chairs, stairs, and driving. She feared falling out of chairs, and with stairs, Lee said her legs would start shaking.

Although she hasn’t been in a car accident, unlike this woman who tumbled off a cliff after swerving away from a deer, Lee is still fearful of driving. She couldn’t imagine losing more years of her life to another potential brain injury. Nevertheless, she can drive and prefers being behind the wheel rather than as a passenger.

Even her schooling was affected

Lee believes she has poor English grammar and writing skills because she was excused from seventh to eighth grade. Moreover, because she lost her memories at age twelve, she had to relearn formal English.

“If I don’t write something down, I will forget it,” she said of her memory. Lee shared that in college, she would forget she had meetings and left tasks unfinished. She relied on Google Calendar to remember everything and planned every hour of her day through the app. When she started working, Lee felt anxious because she had more time than she did in college. She wasn’t used to having blocks of vacant time.

But lastly, to this day, she still suffers from headaches and migraines. Lee mentioned, “When I get migraines, the first thing that will go away is my vision. I lose my right eye pretty quickly when I start to get a migraine.” Although she now has medication to deal with the frequent pain, Lee advised against pulling pranks on people.

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