 In 1980, at her first Marine Corps basketball training session, she fell on the court and another player stepped on her back, rupturing two discs in her spine.This in turn led Madsen to undergo surgery to her back, but a string of errors resulted in her suffering a L1 incomplete spinal cord injury and paraplegia.The US military refused to pay for Madsen's medical bills following the accident, and, in the dispute that followed, Madsen lost her home and her marriage fell apart.