Gabrielle Carteris (Andrea From '90210') Opens Up About Partial Paralysis

Entertainment Tonight sat down with Gabrielle Carteris Thursday morning in New York City for the actress's only television interview, to air on Thursday, March 6th and Friday, March 7th.

Carteris tells ET about the life-changing injury that occurred in 2006 while she was shooting a scene for a TV movie, "We were filming an attack scene. I remember being pulled up by my chin over and over again." The 5'1" Carteris was working with a 6'6" tall actor in a scene which was "not properly rehearsed" and included 4-5 hours of being dragged down a set of stairs.

According to Carteris, the symptoms began almost immediately, "I was jerking around, I lost my speech and was having spasms. My face was doing wild things and I couldn't feel my hands and was having headaches." She says she took two days off and when she returned, "was crying and in so much pain." Eventually, Carteris did not return to the set and her role was reshot with another actress.

Recovery has been long and difficult for Carteris, "Sometimes I look in the mirror and cry. Sometime I look and laugh." Carteris says for an entire year she did not attend any public events. Today her condition is managed with acupuncture, physical therapy and Klonopin three times a day.

Carteris says she is coming forward to set an example for her daughters and to send a message to others that it is ok to speak out, "I refuse to be the victim. At one point I thought this would be for life. My life changed in a moment."

Comments

[ShockandAutism]

08:46 AM on 03/08/2008

Sounds like her career was paralyzed long before her face.


What do you expect when you work on B movies in Canada where you get choked and dragged down stairs. But hey, at least she can do a mean Edward G Robinson impersonation now.

[Bobleblah1]

08:25 PM on 03/07/2008

This article does not explain anything well.

Can she walk?
Did she ever lose the ability to walk?
Is her paralysis as bad today as in the past year?
Her symptoms?
What was the name of her injury?
What was the name of the actor who she was working with when this happened?
Coming forward as an example of what?
It doesn't even say whether she overcame the injury?
What hardships has it caused her to face,other than staying out of the spotlight for a year?

I mean Jesus, what the hell is this supposed to be?

[rini]

10:25 PM on 03/08/2008

Yeah,

I agree,

There is no info.

[rini]

10:27 PM on 03/08/2008

Looked it up.

Her face was partially paralyzed, temporarily.

[CapitalistTool]

03:50 PM on 03/07/2008

My God, she is so brave.
Gabrielle, you are an inspiration to women (and even men) everywhere. Thank you for coming forward.
(In the future you should avoid filming movies in south america - especially ones with Ron Jeremy).
God Bless!
CT

[BatMasterson]

01:55 PM on 03/07/2008

If she thinks acupuncture is going to help anything she's going to be hurting for a long time...

When are people going to wise up to BS pseudoscience?

[aristippe]

04:22 PM on 03/07/2008

Actually AP works. I have had personal experience.

[katandmoon]

04:31 PM on 03/07/2008

So have I. And for that matter, my acupuncturist is a highly regarded hematologist (i.e. REAL DOCTOR) as well as a practicing acupuncturist. Anyone who calls acupuncture "BS pseudoscience" is showing ignorance and prejudice.

[BatMasterson]

04:38 PM on 03/07/2008

That's called anecdotal evidence.
What counts is empirical evidence. Sorry :(

[MrWampler]

05:53 PM on 03/09/2008

You know, the Chinese (and Indian, and Hebrew, etc) are ancient civilizations with healing techniques all their own. Just because The West hasn't "discovered" them, doesn't mean they don't work. Your little 20-year "empirical evidence" study simply can not compare to 5,000 years of trial-and-error. Don't forget, "empirical evidence" has shown numerous lawsuits & recalls in the past several years.

[BatMasterson]

08:48 AM on 03/10/2008

I'm sure there are healing techniques that the West doesn't know about but modern medicine has progressed the equivalent of the last 5,000 years in the past couple centuries. And even if acupuncture does treat certain conditions it doesn't work because it makes Qi flow better or aligns the 12 meridians.

[Neocon187]

11:41 AM on 03/07/2008

No wire work , no stunt people?

[kellygrrrl]

09:07 PM on 03/06/2008

Wow! How horrific this must have been!

I do hope that people get the message that it is their responsibility to say STOP! YOU ARE HURTING ME!

Stay Strong, Ms. Carteris.