A young Aussie recalls the heartbreaking moment she realized she had only ’10 seconds to live’ in a freak skydiving accident.
Emma Carey, now 29, nearly died in 2013 when her parachute became entangled and then strangled her skydiving instructor, causing them to fall 14,000 feet from the sky.
It was only the fifth day of her three-month overseas adventure when she decided to skydive in Switzerland with her best friend Jemma Mrdak.
The adrenaline junkie realized something was seriously wrong when she saw her parachute fluttering in front of her, instead of in the sky above.
Emma Carey, now 29, nearly died in 2013 when her parachute became entangled and then strangled her skydiving instructor, causing them to fall 14,000 feet from the sky
It was only the fifth day of her three-month overseas adventure when she decided to go skydiving in Switzerland with her best friend Jemma Mrdak.
When her instructor finally deployed their parachute, it had become entangled in the safety parachute strings and choked it, causing him to pass out.
“I remember thinking, ‘oh my god, Jemma’s going to have to find me on the floor,’” Mrs. Carey said. A current matter.
“I remember thinking about my family and the most important thing I remember is that I kind of regret not fully embracing my life up to that point.”
She took the brunt of the fall and landed face down with the instructor on top of her.
Mrs. Carey tried to roll him off her and soon became distraught when she realized she couldn’t feel anything from the waist down.
“The first thing I saw was that she was lying on her stomach, with blood all over her face, crying, hysterically, screaming that she couldn’t feel her legs,” Ms Mrdak said.
Ms Carey was rushed to hospital where surgeons operated on her back and pelvis. Her spine was broken in two places, causing her to suffer a spinal cord injury, but she has since been able to walk again
Carey has stayed positive throughout the ordeal and now looks to the terrifying moment when she was sure she would die a ‘rebirth’
Ms Carey was rushed to hospital where surgeons operated on her back and pelvis. Her spine was broken in two places, leaving her with a spinal cord injury.
After recovering from surgery, she was reunited with her family and friends in Australia, where she began rehabilitation efforts.
Miraculously, she slowly began to regain feeling in her legs and eventually learned to walk, albeit with a slight lameness.
She now calls herself a “walking spinal cord injury” – a term used to describe those who were diagnosed with a spinal cord injury but were later able to walk.
In 2018, she tore a ligament in her knee while standing — before discovering she also had a tumor in the region that needed to be removed.
Miraculously, Mrs. Carey slowly began to regain feeling in her legs and she eventually learned to walk, albeit with a slight lameness.
But Ms. Carey has remained positive throughout the ordeal and now looks to the terrifying moment when she was sure she would die a “birth again.”
‘I know how it feels. To think I only have 10 seconds to live and now I have the rest of my life, whatever that is, so I think it’s actually really nice for me to have that memory because it helps me be grateful stay,” she said.
“Life has really changed from that point on and I also feel like every day from that date is just extra time to live, so I have to celebrate.”
Ms Carey even made her runway debut in May when she walked the runway during Australian Fashion Week in a matching blue bralette and underwear.
She said her walk in the Adaptive Fashion show at Afterpay Australian Fashion Week was a “beautiful and important step in the right direction” for the industry.
“What a wild, unexpected, scary and absolute honor of an experience,” she said at the time.
Emma Carey stunned the runway at Australian Fashion Week when she appeared in a slinky blue bralette and matching lace underwear for the Christina Stephens show in May 2022.
‘Fashion for people with disabilities is more than just hospital gowns and medical model clothing – it can be fun and expressive, but also accessible and inclusive. Australia’s first-ever adaptive runway showed just that.”
The “on-going paraplegia” has also written her own novel, entitled “The Girl Who Fell from the Sky,” which chronicles the day her life was changed forever.
On Monday, Ms. Carey celebrated exactly nine years since she left the hospital after spending months in a spinal cord ward.
“She didn’t know she’d be here nine years later. A day away from releasing her first book,” she wrote on Instagram.