A super-fit yoga teacher had been left paralysed from the waist down after a freak accident in a class sent her crashing to the floor on her head.

Lindalva Firme Guedes, 32, had been learning acroyoga, a combination of acrobatics and yoga where partners take turns to balance and stretch on top of each other.

But when she and her partner lost their grip Lindalva, in Domingos Martins, in the Brazilian state of Espirito Santo, fell five feet hard on her head, breaking two vertebrae in her neck.

Now she cannot move her body from the waist down and has only limited muscle strength in her arms, or tetraparesis.

Heartbreaking video footage of the once vibrant athlete shows her confined to a wheelchair while a physiotherapist helps her exercise her arms.

As he pulls and twists her limbs into position Lindalva can be seen grimacing in pain.

Experts said the exercises are expected to strengthen her limbs so she can regain close to full independent movement in them.

Lindalva, a photographer and traditional medicine expert, had been teaching and learning yoga for eight years before the horrific accident on 24th January.

In acroyoga one partner, the base, remains on the floor supporting the other athlete, called the flyer, as they hold yoga poses.

Her carpenter husband Alexandre Brunoro explained. “When she had the accident, she was with another student, being supported.

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“The girl was holding her arms and Lindalva was upside down, with her legs on her lower back.

“There was an imbalance, the pair were unable to support their weight and the fall happened.”

Lindalva knew immediately that she was seriously injured feeling numb and unable to move and instructed the rest of the class not to touch her or try to move her.

After weeks in hospital surgeons established that her spinal cord had not been snapped and that, miraculously, she should regain movement in all her limbs.

Hospital X-rays show surgical braces and screws fixed to Lindalva’s spine during painstaking surgery.

But the healing process could take two years of gruelling and expensive treatment and physiotherapy.

Alexandre said: “Within this period, it is not possible to predict what the evolution will be. It depends on a series of factors and the stimuli received.

“In any case, her condition, until now, is considered a miracle by the family.”

He added: “She did not lose lucidity at any point, she did not need to be intubated.

“According to the doctors, normally those who have this type of injury cannot breathe, they have some type of respiratory and cardiovascular side effects.

“In her case, she did not have that.”

Lindalva’s family estimate the cost of treatment and rehabilitation at BRL 170,000 (GBP 27,000).

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Her husband said: “Every day is a small victory. With physiotherapy, she is gaining more strength.

“She can now move her abdomen, her shoulder blades, and her arms a bit.”

But he added: “She still doesn’t have control of her bladder and bowels, and cannot do smaller movements.”

Alexandre explained: “We investigated how much it would cost for a team specialising in neural rehabilitation in a clinic in Vitoria, with all the equipment, treatments, physiotherapy, psychologist.

“And we arrived at a cost of BRL 170,000 by the end of this year.”

The couple are both self-employed and since the accident, neither of them has been able to work.

Now the family has launched a campaign on social media to raise funds to help with the costs of treatment.

Alexandre said: “The faster we act, the greater and faster the recovery can be.”

He added: “She is very active, very lively, has a thirst for life. She will definitely return to her old self as quickly as possible.”