Jennifer Petrie never knew sunburn could be so dangerous, but after falling off a twelve foot balcony then danger was very clear.

“I heard her get up, she said she was getting Advil, so I didn’t do anything. Then I heard a crash then saw her laying 12 feet below,” her best friend Andrea Ayers said.

Jennifer’s grandmother, Penny Petrie called an ambulance. Then Jennifer was rushed to Stephenville’s local hospital.

 “My friend Suzy opened her bedroom door right as I was falling. She actually saw me fall, out of everybody; she had to be the most shocked,” Jennifer said.

Jennifer doesn’t remember that after Stephenville Hospital, where they didn’t do much, or when she was driven by an ambulance to Cook Children’s Hospital in Fort Worth.

 “I don’t remember anything but walking into the hall at the house and seeing the stairs,” Jennifer said.

What actually happened, no one knows, but what was concluded is that Jennifer’s sunburn made her dehydrated. Since she was severely dehydrated she fainted at the top of the stairs. She then fell 12 feet over the banister and upon impact fractured her skull. Because she was unconscious her body was very relaxed and her body tense as she fell and none of her bones were broken.

Jennifer returned to school after missing only one week and TAKS testing.

“I still have a headache, and I’ve finally got the sticky things they put on me off but I do feel better,” Jennifer said.