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What happened in Frida Kahlo’s 1925 bus accident?

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Frida Kahlo stands at an easel, holding a paintbrush and working on a portrait of a woman in a white dress, looking toward the camera. — Frida Kahlo Mexican artist Frida Kahlo painting a portrait of Jean Wight in 1931; the work depicts the wife of artist Clifford Wight, who assisted Diego Rivera, Kahlo's husband, when he was painting a number of murals throughout the United States.

In 1925, 18-year-old Frida Kahlo was traveling home from the National Preparatory School in Mexico City when the bus she was riding collided with an electric streetcar. The impact was catastrophic, crumpling the wooden bus and resulting in several fatalities.12

Kahlo sustained severe, life-altering injuries, including multiple fractures to her spine, ribs, collarbone, pelvis, and right leg. Additionally, her shoulder was dislocated, her right foot was crushed, and she was impaled by an iron handrail that punctured her abdomen and uterus.123

These injuries caused chronic pain that plagued her for the rest of her life and necessitated more than 30 medical procedures. During her long, bedridden recovery, Kahlo began teaching herself to paint, often using a mirror attached to her bed canopy to create the self-portraits that would eventually define her artistic legacy.123