Sports editor’s note: In the June 26 edition of The Press Times, Brenda Fritz suffered a near-fatal bike accident when she hit a truck on the morning of Sept. 14, 2023.

Fritz went through seven surgeries in a couple of days at Froedtert Hospital in Milwaukee — many of which were performed to save her life.

Part two of her incredible story follows.

SUAMICO – Lying in the ICU at Froedtert after she woke up, Brenda Fritz said she had a conversation with herself.

Clearly devastated and in “more pain than anyone will ever imagine,” she said as a nurse herself, she has seen patients in similar situations give up.

“If you give up, you’ll probably live a miserable rest of your life,” Fritz said. “I chose to fight and not be miserable. I asked myself, ‘What is the fastest way to recovery?’ I knew I had to cut the whole ‘pity party’ thoughts from my mind and move on. I couldn’t dwell on why this happened to me.”

The real work begins

After that conversation with herself and realizing her life was saved, Fritz said that’s when the real work began.

At Froedtert, she said a doctor pulled her husband, Nate, aside and said he could expect his wife to remain at the hospital for three months.

“Essentially, I was out of there in three and a half weeks,” Fritz said. “I think it was because I was in such good shape before the accident. From there, it came down to either going to a nursing home or needing full-time care at home.”

Fritz said this is where she began to witness the power of family and friends.

Setting up a hospital bed in her living room, she said her mom quit her job to offer full-time care.

“The bed was equipped with everything I needed to help me recover and get stronger, including a Hoyer lift,” Fritz said. “I also used a wheelchair for about 14 to 16 weeks. I went to inpatient rehab in December [of 2023], and that’s basically when I first got out of my wheelchair.”

Before she took her first steps after the accident, Fritz said that was a scary time for her because she didn’t know if she’d ever be able to walk again.

With a spinal cord injury, she said doctors also told her they didn’t know what to expect.

In that conversation with herself at Froedtert, Fritz said she also thought about completing her full IRONMAN goal.

As her recovery progressed, she said it became clear that she could walk again, but running was out of the question.

“I wanted to run across the finish line, but with my spinal cord injury, I realized that wasn’t going to happen,” she said. “That’s when I looked into a racing wheelchair, but they are very expensive. I applied for two grants — and received them — which helped offset some of the cost.”

This past winter, Fritz said she received her racing wheelchair.

“It’s way harder than it looks,” she laughed. “Seasoned veterans make it look so easy, but I can tell you it’s not. Some of the professionals in events like the Boston Marathon are doing like three- or four-minute miles.”

With her children active in sports, Fritz said it’s still a challenge for her to walk big distances across a soccer field or two, but when it comes to biking, she feels perfectly normal.

“It’s weird because if you see me out biking, you’d think I was back to normal, but if you saw me walking, you’d ask yourself if it was the same person,” she said. “I can bike 100 miles and feel normal, but walking is another story.”

On the road again

Regarding biking, Fritz said her journey began later in 2023, when she first rode a stationary recumbent bike in her basement.

From there, she said she tried riding her trainer in the basement, but “that didn’t go too well.”

“I couldn’t even get on the bike,” Fritz said. “I kept trying, and eventually, I could do it. I was very happy that first time. I think I rode for like five minutes.”

The next step, Fritz said, was taking her mountain bike outside — with regular pedals — and utilizing the help of her husband.

“With his help, he kind of let go of me, but I was so unsteady,” she said. “I didn’t think there was any way I could ever ride a bike again, but I didn’t give up. A couple of weeks later, we tried it again, and this time, my husband got the bike going for me, and I was able to pedal.”
Though she was able to ride her mountain bike, Fritz said there was another problem that had to be solved.

“I couldn’t get off the bike by myself,” she laughed. “My husband had to help stop the bike, and then I was able to get off. We started by doing 10 miles on the Mountain Bay Trail, but when there was an intersection ahead, Nate had to ride up and make sure no cars were approaching. If there was, he’d have to get off his bike and stop my bike for me [while the cars passed].”

By her own admission, Fritz said she probably pushed it too much, but it also aided in her recovery.

Progressing from her mountain bike and then to her gravel bike, she said the next obstacle was her triathlon bike — a bike built for speed.

“I kept progressing and put in so much work with my physical therapist from day one, hours upon hours,” she said. “I have those special clip-in pedals on my triathlon bike and had also done that with my gravel bike, but it was still scary as heck when I first tried the triathlon bike during the spring of 2025.”

With her triathlon bike requiring more balance and possessing skinnier tires, Fritz said she has to be very mindful out on the road.

“I haven’t had any setbacks or crashes since the accident, so I’m very thankful for that,” she said. “Obviously, I’m way more cautious now and don’t take as many risks. I would say there is a healthy sense of fear now — I still worry about it, though.”

Sports editor’s note: Read the final part of Fritz’s road to recovery in next week’s Press Times.