Cassandra DeSanti is making the most of a bad situation that left her with a cast on her foot this summer.

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VERNON - Cassandra DeSanti never thought a video of herself coming out of anesthesia would be watched by more than a few people.

She was wrong.

The video, which involves a hilarious prank by her dad, has been viewed more than 250,000 times, prompting numerous news stories and even an inquiry from the Ellen DeGeneres Show.

It all started when the 28-year-old Calgary woman broke her foot during a boating incident on Shuswap Lake. She tried to help bring the boat up to a dock by putting her leg out but ended up getting her right foot crunched in the process.

After an initial trip to the hospital in Revelstoke, DeSanti had to decide if she wanted to go home to Calgary for surgery, or have it done in Vernon and continue her vacation in the Shuswap.

She opted for Vernon Jubilee Hospital and went into surgery the next day.

She doesn’t remember much about waking up after the surgery, just that she was really happy, thought she was better, and was insistent on getting out of there. She vaguely remembers the nurses having to hold her down because she thought she was ready to get up.

“I was trying to act normal but I was so out of it,” she says.

Seeing the opportunity for a laugh, her dad pranked her by marvelling at the amazing job her surgeon did — on her left, uninjured foot that is.

“Wow, it works like brand SPANKIN new,” DeSanti says in the video taken by her husband, Spencer DeSanti.

She laughs hysterically while admiring her foot and proceeds to praise her doctor and the Canadian healthcare system overall.

"Just look at it. Take that America. My foot is new," she says, later adding, “Vernon was the right choice.”

DeSanti doesn’t remember the prank at all. The first time she saw the video was a few hours later after she fully came to.

“I was cry-laughing. I was so embarrassed,” she says. “I was very… what’s the word? Animated.”

Her husband suggested they post the video on YouTube, and DeSanti didn’t really think much of it.

“I said ‘I don’t care. I don’t think anything will come of it,’” she says. “I thought, it will be funny if I get a few people laughing. That’s all I thought.”

The video quickly began to pick up likes and comments, soon reaching more than 100,000 views.

DeSanti has been entertained by the comments left by viewers, including those who seem to think the video was staged.

“If I was going to fake a video, I probably would’ve brushed my hair,” she says. “This was real. I wish it wasn’t.”

Despite being embarrassed, DeSanti is glad something positive came from her broken foot.

“I guess if I’m going to break my ankle, people may as well get a laugh,” she says.

Her family has been laughing along with everyone else, and DeSanti says her nieces and nephews call everything “brand spankin’ new” now. Her husband — who says he could barely contain his laughter while shooting the video — says he’ll be replaying it for years to come.

“It will be fun to show our kids in the future and say ‘why is mom acting so weird?’” he says.

Even though the surgery wasn’t quite as amazing as she’d initially thought, DeSanti says her care at Vernon Jubilee Hospital was top notch.

“Vernon really was the right choice,” she says, chuckling. “We’re so amazed at how fast it was and the nurses and doctor were so good.”

And thanks to her family, the treatment came with the best medicine of all — laughter. 

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