Back pain: how a life-changing work injury led flight attendant to search for alternative relief – from EFT tapping and Pilates to yoga

Sujal Mahbubani broke her tailbone on a flight from Hong Kong in 2001, leading to years of pain medication and therapy, a ground job and eventually dismissal

After taking up Pilates, and the emotional freedom technique to wean her off painkillers, she became a yoga teacher and tried energy healing techniques

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After overcoming the pain from a tailbone fracture through Pilates, yoga and other therapies, Sujal Mahbubani became a yoga teacher and now holds classes at the United Services Recreation Club (above) in Jordan, Hong Kong. Photo: Jonathan Wong

Published: 11:15am, 19 Nov 2023

In February 2001, on a flight from Hong Kong to Japan, Sujal Mahbubani suffered an injury at 35,000 feet (10,700 metres) that set her on course for a lifetime of chronic pain.

Working as a flight attendant, Mahbubani – then aged 33 – was about to sit on a jump seat when it suddenly flipped up. She landed hard on the floor of the airliner, breaking her tailbone. She was unable to move without pain, the bone pushing on a nerve in her leg.

To this day, what happened in that split second has impacted India-born Mahbubani, who has called Hong Kong home for more than 30 years.

In the first few years after the accident, her daily routine was shaped by painkillers and physiotherapy. Her mind also suffered.

Sujal Mahbubani injured her back while working as a flight attendant. Photo: Jonathan Wong

“I had counselling for pain management and depression and was prescribed Prozac, and Valium for insomnia,” she says.

She also battled suicidal thoughts. “The cocktail of medicine I was taking led to weight gain, depression and worries about whether I would ever get better.”