Mother-of-three Maya, 45, knew on hearing the sickening crunch that her international career was probably over. But she could not possibly have foreseen the physical ordeal that lay ahead.<\/p>\n
Her most recent operation, to repair nerve damage, has been the third on her arm. There have been two major operations on her abdomen because some of the \u2018core\u2019 muscles \u2013 ironically the ones that are supposed to benefit most from Pilates \u2013 were effectively shredded with the force of the fall nearly seven years ago.<\/p>\n
She still uses a wheelchair intermittently because of the risk of tumbling. \u2018I was effectively crippled,\u2019 she says.<\/p>\n
\u2018I\u2019ve seen 100 doctors and been treated in\u00a0London<\/a>, Zurich and California<\/a>. My twin sons were one when it happened. I wasn\u2019t even able to lift them.\u2019<\/p>\n Worse still, however, was the extent to which the accident destroyed her \u2018perfect life\u2019.<\/p>\n \u2018I had a wonderful marriage, a great social life, lots of travel. I was able to be very present with my children,\u2019 she tells me from her New York home.<\/p>\n Maya Meron, a violinist who played with some of the world\u2019s top orchestras, shattered her left elbow when the adjustable bar on a Pilates reformer machine\u00a0slipped out of its setting while she was in the downward dog yoga position<\/p>\n Mother-of-three Maya, 45, knew upon hearing the sickening crunch that her international violinist career was probably over<\/p>\n Her most recent operation, to repair nerve damage, has been the third on her arm<\/p>\n \u2018Suddenly, I couldn\u2019t go out with my family for a walk in the forest. My husband took on the role of breadwinner, as well as doing all the cooking and the childcare.<\/p>\n \u2018He was a wonderful husband. He is a brilliant father. He loved me but our marriage couldn\u2019t survive. It tore us apart, too. This ripped my family apart. If only it was just about an elbow.\u2019<\/p>\n Maya made headlines last week when it was revealed she had won her protracted dispute with Heartcore, an upmarket fitness chain in whose Hampstead, north London, studio she suffered her injuries.<\/p>\n On the eve of a High Court decision, the company \u2013 whose clients have included Meghan Markle and Victoria Beckham \u2013 agreed to pay undisclosed damages in a confidential settlement.<\/p>\n It emerged Maya had to turn detective to compile \u2018evidence\u2019 that one of Heartcore\u2019s fitness machines was to blame, going undercover to take photographs of the mechanisms that, she was convinced, had failed.<\/p>\n She tells me she also spent tens of thousands of pounds on private investigators and even paid her own health and safety experts, outraged that Heartcore was not only denying liability but refusing to engage with her questions about how this could have happened.<\/p>\n \u2018I couldn\u2019t believe the world I ended up in,\u2019 she says, \u2018meeting a private investigator, putting on glasses with cameras in them.<\/p>\n \u2018It was James Bond stuff. I\u2019m a musician but, suddenly, I was creeping about with a flashlight trying to take a picture of some stupid flawed machine.\u2019<\/p>\n While Maya was single-handedly fighting a seven-year legal battle she was also going to war with the medical profession.<\/p>\n She says her abdominal injuries were so complex it took years to pinpoint the damage that had been done \u2013 but, at one point, it was dismissed as \u2018psychosomatic\u2019.<\/p>\n \u2018I laughed,\u2019 she says, recalling the moment a Swiss doctor told her the physical symptoms she described must be in her head. \u2018I thought, this is Kafka-esque. I was told they recommended me being admitted to a psychiatric unit.\u2019<\/p>\n This diagnosis \u2013 proved incorrect when Maya was finally operated on in the US, revealing massive internal injuries behind the outer layer of abdominal muscle \u2013 had a devastating impact.<\/p>\n \u2018But the more I cried, the more I was painted as a hysterical woman who could not cope with the loss of her career and her life,\u2019 she says.<\/p>\n Amid the trauma, the detective work, the pain and the debt she got into funding her investigation, her marriage crumbled.<\/p>\n She says that her husband Stefan-Peter Greiner, one of the world\u2019s leading violin-makers, was at a loss over how to cope \u2013 with her and with the strain of shouldering all responsibilities.<\/p>\n \u2018What was my husband to do, faced with doctors saying \u201cpsychosomatic\u201d? Of course, he believed the doctors and I don\u2019t blame him for that. The pressure on both of us was overwhelming.\u2019<\/p>\n She shows me images of a family portrait commissioned from an artist friend several years ago.<\/p>\n \u2018It took a year to complete and by the time he was finished my husband and I had separated,\u2019 she says. \u2018If I had been believed about the accident in the first place, and supported, the stresses would not have been so vast.\u2019<\/p>\n Pictured: The type of machine Maya was using when it slipped out of its setting sending her arms in one direction and her legs in another<\/p>\n Why is Maya speaking out today? She reveals that in negotiations with Heartcore, she was asked to sign a non-disclosure agreement. She refused, agreeing only to keep financial specifics secret.<\/p>\n \u2018They wanted to gag me. No way. I want to speak about the impact it can have on a person\u2019s life when something goes wrong with these machines,\u2019 she says.<\/p>\n \u2018This is a multi-billion pound industry but so much about it isn\u2019t regulated. There are still so many questions. Who is responsible for ensuring these machines are safe? Is it the council? Is it health and safety? I came up against all this.\u2019<\/p>\n Born in Israel, Maya started playing violin at seven and went on to study at the Royal Academy of Music in London.<\/p>\n She met Stefan-Peter, a German, when he designed a violin for her. He had a studio in London, where they moved in 2013 with their toddler daughter. Their twin boys were born in 2018.<\/p>\n Like most professional musicians, Maya treated her body like an athlete. She ran regularly and did Pilates classes because it \u2018strengthened the core\u2019.<\/p>\n Since 2015, she had been to \u2018about 150 classes\u2019 run by a variety of instructors. Around 40 of them were after her twins were born.<\/p>\n \u2018They specifically advertise about being suitable for women postpartum,\u2019 she says.<\/p>\n Then disaster struck on March 11, 2019. Reformer machines incorporate a sliding carriage on which you perform a series of exercises, which can be done lying down, kneeling or standing.<\/p>\n Resistance is provided with springs that can be added, and there are pulleys and straps to perform leg or arm movements.<\/p>\n There is also a bar that can be adjusted to different heights. Sometimes called the foot bar, it can support the hands for leaning positions, as in Maya\u2019s case.<\/p>\n Midway through a class with a stand-in instructor it was this adjustable bar that gave way, sending Maya crashing down.<\/p>\n \u2018I\u2019ll never forget the sound of bone breaking,\u2019 she says. \u2018I knew then my career was probably over. I was also aware of enormous force, almost like a punch, to my abdomen, but I couldn\u2019t understand it because nothing made contact with my body.\u2019<\/p>\n She lost consciousness. When she came to, she was being helped to her feet. Then she recalls being ushered from the room. The class continued without her.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u2018I believe they tried to cover it up from that moment,\u2019 she says.<\/p>\n \u2018There were only two other people in the class and I didn\u2019t know them. I only knew the first name of the instructor. I remember asking for an accident report \u2013 refusing to leave before I had one.\u2019<\/p>\n With a bad break confirmed to her elbow, Maya had no option but to cancel all orchestral bookings.<\/p>\n Then, two days after the accident and before she\u2019d considered legal action, she had a call from Heartcore\u2019s owner Jessica Schuring (also known as Jessie Blum) \u2018telling me they were not accepting liability. This was without any investigation. She was aggressive. There was no \u201cHow can we help?\u201d. I was treated like a nuisance.\u2019<\/p>\n She tried to contact potential witnesses. \u2018It took me months to find 15 teachers I\u2019d had classes with,\u2019 she says. \u2018One agreed to talk. He told me that this had happened before with those machines and explained what it was \u2013 the bar not clicking into place correctly.\u2019<\/p>\n Maya took her findings to a legal adviser but as she hadn\u2019t recorded the conversation with the instructor was told she didn\u2019t have a case.<\/p>\n \u2018It would be their word against mine,\u2019 she says. \u2018This was a machine that was potentially dangerous and no one wanted to know.\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n So began her one-woman fight. She started to research reformer machines, discovering that while Heartcore had originally used machines made by industry giant Sebastien Lagree, the firm was now using a version that Ms Schuring had designed. There are no internationally- agreed safety standards.<\/p>\n Like most professional musicians, Maya treated her body like an athlete. She ran regularly and did Pilates classes because it \u2018strengthened the core\u2019<\/p>\n A key difference was that this version had the bar locking mechanism encased in a plastic cover, rather than fully visible to the user. Confusingly, Lagree\u2019s machines were showing on the Heartcore publicity material.\u00a0<\/p>\n Maya had no images of the machine she had been on \u2013 hence engaging a private investigator, who \u2018with his James Bond gadgets\u2019 accompanied her to clandestine classes at Heartcore.<\/p>\n \u2018I was limping but no one seemed to care,\u2019 she says. Still she was unable to pinpoint the machine she\u2019d used. Later, she was allowed authorised access with a health and safety inspector (\u2018again, paid for by me\u2019) and a lawyer.\u00a0<\/p>\n She claims representatives from Heartcore\u2019s insurers were also present. It was on this visit that she noticed that a machine in a side room was exactly the same design as she had used.<\/p>\n \u2018I adjusted the bar as the instructor had told me [in the class], and it seemed to be in place, but when I put my weight on it, I flew across the room and they had to catch me. It was hugely embarrassing for them. Later, it turned out that had been the actual machine [I had been on],\u2019 she says.<\/p>\n Amid all this, she was seeing a string of doctors about her arm and suffering severe abdominal pain and balance issues. She was aware of \u2018weird bulging\u2019 in her abdomen, which she initially put down to \u2018simply not training\u2019.<\/p>\n For a period they had decamped to Tel Aviv, to have the support of her family. Then they moved to Zurich, where her husband also had a studio. It was in Zurich that things became very dark.<\/p>\n Unable to function as the mother she wanted to be, Maya did \u2018lose it, for a period. I became very depressed\u2019.<\/p>\n It was at this point \u2013 four years ago \u2013 that she consulted the doctor who delivered the \u2018psychosomatic\u2019 diagnosis. Yet still she fought on.<\/p>\n \u2018It was only when I got in touch with a specialist in Santa Monica in California \u2013 and again, I had to pay for that, and it was hundreds of thousands of pounds \u2013 that he agreed to operate,\u2019 she says.<\/p>\n The medical report, which The Mail on Sunday has seen, documents extensive damage to her abdomen and tearing to muscles deep in her core.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u2018The accident had shattered the main peripheral sensory nerve, but also damaged the motor nerve [in her abdomen]. That had been missed in an earlier operation,\u2019 she explains.<\/p>\n This would be followed by that legal win, too \u2013 after a barrister neighbour agreed to support her (although it is important to note that Heartcore has never admitted liability).\u00a0<\/p>\n Jonathan Goldberg, the KC who helped her for free, says she was \u2018a brilliant young musician of international standing who turned herself overnight into a competent private detective\u2019. He adds: \u2018Her resilience and courage over the last seven years have been an inspiration for me to watch.\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n But it was too late to save her marriage.<\/p>\n A legal spokesman for Jessica Schuring, whose eight studios still use the machines, said: \u2018The claim was resolved by Heartcore\u2019s insurers on a commercial basis.<\/p>\n \u2018Heartcore remains committed to the safety and wellbeing of all its members and continues to review its equipment in accordance with industry standards.\u2019<\/p>\n Maya and her husband have been separated for two years. Their children \u2013 now 15 and eight \u2013 split their time between them. She has secured a visiting research scholarship at a university in Indiana, focusing on music and cognitive neuroscience.<\/p>\n She is due to have her latest arm cast removed the day after our interview and is determined that she will play the violin again.<\/p>\n And her family? \u2018My greatest wish is we find a way to heal from this horrendous ordeal we have been through. Now the stress of this case is over, there is hope.\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"How much damage can you do \u2013 to your body, your career, your life \u2013 when you step…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":507629,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[49,48,2093,407,84,44],"class_list":{"0":"post-507628","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fitness","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-dailymail","11":"tag-fitness","12":"tag-health","13":"tag-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/507628","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=507628"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/507628\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/507629"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=507628"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=507628"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=507628"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Maya](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/106758545-15602167-Maya_Meron_a_violinist_who_played_with_some_of_the_world_s_top_o-m-15_17723315834.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Mother-of-three](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/106758551-15602167-image-a-6_1772308648716.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Her](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/106758547-15602167-image-a-7_1772308650427.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Pictured:](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/106758563-15602167-image-m-10_1772308681711.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Like](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/106758555-15602167-image-a-8_1772308657085.jpg\")
<\/p>\n