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Sydney: Emma Carey’s skydiving experience was meant to be thrilling. Instead, it turned into a nightmare. In June 2013, the Australian adventurer, aged 20, jumped from a plane over the Swiss Alps, expecting a smooth descent. But disaster struck — her parachute malfunctioned. She and her instructor plummeted 15,000 feet to the ground.
Amazingly, Emma survived the fall. However, she was paralysed from the waist down. Doctors told her she would never walk again. But what’s even more shocking? She was fully conscious throughout the entire fall.
“I was never knocked unconscious. So I remember the fall, I remember landing, I remember the moment I realised I was paralysed – all of it,” Emma told A Current Affair.
She felt “overwhelming pain” in her whole body when she first hit the ground. She had "never felt anything like it" before. She and her instructor were rushed to hospital, where she underwent surgery for a broken pelvis and severe spinal injuries.
Despite the trauma, Emma’s perspective on life changed. The accident made her more grateful. She knows what it feels like to have just 10 seconds left. Now, every moment of life feels like a bonus to her.
More than a decade later, Emma has regained some feeling in her legs. Though she still lacks sensation below her belly button and has no bladder or bowel control, she is slowly learning to walk again.
She doesn’t see her accident as purely tragic. Instead, she believes it was a wake-up call. It reminded her how much she still wants to do in life.
Emma has even written a book about her experience — The Girl Who Fell from the Sky.
