This is the moment a young backpacker’s euphoria turned to pure terror as she came centimetres from death when her parachute failed to open during her first skydive.
Emma Carey, 25, took the dive she’d always wanted to while in Switzerland in 2013.
‘When we jumped out I remember it was the most incredible feeling … the free fall is so peaceful, you are just so present in the moment,’ the Australian told news.com.au.
This is the moment a young backpacker came centimetres from death as her parachute failed to open during a skydive in Switzerland
Emma Carey (pictured), 25, nearly died in a skydiving accident in Switzerland
Ms Carey was in hospital for four months after the accident and has overcome a spinal cord injury
Ms Carey she was unsure what to expect as it was her first jump.
‘I felt us slow down a little bit but the chute wasn’t above us where it should be and my instructor wasn’t answering me. The closer we got to the ground, I realised something was really wrong.’
The chute had gotten tangled and choked her instructor, who passed out.
On her website, Ms Carey explained what happened next: ‘The next minute, I’m lying face down on the ground with an unconscious man strapped to my back. When I went to roll him off me, I had the most brutal and heartbreaking realisation of my entire life. I couldn’t move my legs. At all.
‘To this day, I have never been able to put the weight of this feeling into words and I honestly I don’t think I ever will. The next few minutes are the only minutes in my life I genuinely wish I could forget.
‘All of the thoughts running through my mind were so completely opposite and surreal to the thoughts I was having just one hour earlier when I was a 20-year-old carefree girl, naively enjoying her holiday.’
Ms Carey was in hospital for four months after the accident and had to overcome a spinal cord injury. She also fractured her pelvis and shattered her teeth.
She still suffers from complications from the fall, but she is determined to walk the Wings for Life World Run dedicated for those with spinal injuries.
Ms Carey will walk the Wings for Life World Run, a run dedicated for those with spinal injuries who can’t, on May 6 which she participated in last year in a wheelchair
Ms Carey has shared her ordeal through her blog an Instagram.
Her most recent post details her fears that while she may be able to walk now, doctors tell her when she is older she may have to use a wheelchair again.
She wrote: ‘I’ve had a lot of reports written by doctors, all which say the same thing… I’ll be back in a wheelchair when I’m older. I’m not saying I believe that, but I’m also very aware of the fact that even if it’s not the case, I’m not guaranteed these legs forever. I learnt four years ago, last year and again this year with my injuries, that I have absolutely no idea when I’ll be walking and when I won’t be.
‘I always feel a pang of guilt whenever I talk about this because I know there’s people reading this who are in wheelchairs themselves.’
While Ms Carey has defied the odds she still has fears that one day she may end up back in a wheelchair