A woman who beat paraplegia after her skydiving parachute failed in a freak accident revealed why she chose to get the date of her near-death experience tattooed on her arm forever.
Emma Carey, 24, was on a trip of a lifetime in Switzerland in 2013 when the main chute and safety chute became tangled around her instructor while they were flying high above the alps.
Tumbling thousands of feet to the ground, the Queensland woman quickly realised she could not move her legs and was paralyzed from the waist down after fracturing her back, L1 vertebrae and pelvis.
Emma Carey, 24, was paralysed from the waist down following a freak skydiving accident
The young Queensland woman spent months in hospital and miraculously learnt to walk again
Four years on, Emma has accomplished the near impossible by learning to walk again and decided to tattoo the date of her accident in roman numerals – a choice she says many people questioned, the Gold Coast Bulletin reports.
‘A lot of people thought it was odd that I would want such a “bad” date tattooed onto me forever, but the way I see it is that it is the date I could have died but didn’t,’ Emma told the publication.
‘It is the date I realised my love for life and became the person I am today.. It is also a gentle reminder that every day I am on this earth after June 9 is a blessing.’
She even calls June 9, 2013 her ‘rebirthday’ date and uses it as a reminder of the person she used to be, and the strong person she has become.
‘It is the date that completely changed my life and in a way I became a totally different person.’
Emma has since tattooed the date of her accident on her arm: June 9, 2013, in Roman numerals
She even calls June 9, 2013 her ‘rebirthday’ date and uses it as a reminder of the person she used to be, and the strong person she has become
She said: ‘It is the date that completely changed my life and in a way I became a totally different person’
The inspirational blonde has since recovered from her spinal injury with incredible tenacity – and now boasts over 90,000 Instagram fans who followed her story closely.
But the road to walking again wasn’t always the smoothest.
Even after defying the odds and leaving the hospital four months after her accident, Emma suffered from countless afflictions following her spinal injury – including contracting UTIs, almost having her leg amputated and chronic pain.
‘My broken heart became my greatest strength, my paralyzed legs learnt to walk again and the worst moment of my life, became the best thing that could have ever happened to me,’ Emma writes on her blog.
The stunning blonde has since recovered from her spinal injury with incredible tenacity – and now boasts over 90,000 Instagram fans who followed her story closely
But the road to walking again wasn’t always the smoothest – Emma cut her foot on some glass which resulted in her nearly needing amputation
Emma shares her recovery journey on her blog and Instagram
‘When my accident was being investigated, I was told that if the parachute was pulled one second earlier, everything would have been completely fine,’ she muses online
‘It wasn’t an easy path to get here, it has been one long, crazy, mind-blowing, upsetting, liberating, frustrating, life-changing journey but I can honestly say I’ve enjoyed the ride.’
Emma uses her blog and Instagram to not only share her harrowing story of recovery with others, but to help herself accept her life will never be the same.
‘When my accident was being investigated, I was told that if the parachute was pulled one second earlier, everything would have been completely fine,’ she muses online.
‘One second. Think about that. One second and I would have landed on the ground safety, stood up, walked away, gone to Rome the next day and got on with the rest of my life. One second and the entire course of my life and the lives of everyone around me would have been completely different.’