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Watts will not require surgery

Doctors say Surrey's mayor suffered no nerve damage in back break.
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Mayor Dianne Watts

Surrey Mayor Dianne Watts will not require surgery and has not sustained any nerve damage as a result of her horse riding accident last weekend.

Watts broke two vertebrae during a horseback trail ride on Saturday.

Watts was vacationing with her husband and two daughters in Kamloops when the horse she was riding began to gallop. Watts was tossed up, and came down hard in the saddle, suffering a compression fracture of two vertebrae in her lower back.

Watts slumped off the horse, falling onto the rear of another horse and then to the ground.

She was airlifted to Royal Inland Hospital where she remains in stable condition.

A CT scan and a subsequent MRI has shown there was no nerve damage, but she continues to be in extreme pain.

Laura Ballance, speaking for the City of Surrey, said more will be known about Watts’ anticipated return to work after the diagnostic tests are complete.

@diakiw