A 27-year-old Ottawa woman is starting her long road to recovery after a tree fell on top of her, breaking both her legs, during a wind storm in April.

Lauren Gerro and her fiancé were walking on Hamilton Avenue, near Parkdale Avenue, when a tree fell on both of them.

Gerro's right leg was crushed, and the bone was sticking out of her left leg. Her fiancé, Matthew Ramsden, suffered a bump on his head.

It's been five weeks since then and now even the smallest steps for Gerro take tremendous effort.

"I've got rods down both my legs now. I'm like partial bionic woman, I guess," Gerro told CTV Ottawa on Monday.

After three weeks in hospital, she's moved into a rehab program at the Perley Rideau, a home primarily for the elderly. Gerro is the youngest person there.

She says even though she has a long road ahead of her, she's lucky. She could have been paralyzed -- or even killed.

"It sucks that it happened to me and I have to go through all this, but at least I am here to go through it," she said.

It's the second tree to topple on Hamilton Avenue since 2006. Now, the city is sizing up trees in the area to determine if they're healthy. Trees that are unsafe will be removed.

With a report from CTV Ottawa's Joanne Schnurr