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Speaker 1: My Heart podcasts, Hear More Kids podcasts, playlists, and listen

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Speaker 1: live on the Free I heard app.

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Speaker 2: Well, what do you hope you having a wonderful drive home? Woodrow.

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Speaker 2: We in the midst of what is becoming an absolute

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Speaker 2: favorite segment of ours. Someone who shouldn't be alive. We're

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Speaker 2: surprised by by the producers with a story we don't know,

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Speaker 2: and this person knows that we don't know, so hopefully

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Speaker 2: we don't seem completely ignorant. But Emma Carey is in

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Speaker 2: the studio with us now, and Emma, you shouldn't be alive?

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Speaker 3: Yeah, definitely should not. And I love that you don't

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Speaker 3: know this. This is going to be great to get

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Speaker 3: your reaction. Okay, So this all happened twelve years ago

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Speaker 3: and I went skard diving, and have you guys done it?

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Speaker 3: First of all, I have yes. Did you like it?

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Speaker 2: Loved it?

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Speaker 3: Love? Yeah, loved it? And as did I. I absolutely

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Speaker 3: loved it. This was in Switzerland, so we're in the

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Speaker 3: middle of the Swiss Alps, jumped out of helicopter. All

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Speaker 3: was going great until I had never done it before,

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Speaker 3: so I had nothing to compare it to. But I

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Speaker 3: was waiting. I'd seen videos, and I in the videos,

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Speaker 3: you see the instructor high fiving you or sometimes giving

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Speaker 3: you the ropes to steer it around and all that

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Speaker 3: kind of thing. But none of that was happening. And

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Speaker 3: we also weren't slowing down, and I imagined you would

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Speaker 3: slow down after the first thirty seconds or something, and

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Speaker 3: I thought, Okay, maybe time's just warped while you're free falling.

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Speaker 3: Maybe it hasn't been that long. Maybe he's not talking

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Speaker 3: to me because he's shy. Maybe he can't hear me

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Speaker 3: over the wind. I thought all of these things, so

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Speaker 3: I didn't immediately know something was wrong.

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Speaker 1: So sorry, so sorry, sorry, sorry. You're you're free falling

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Speaker 1: and we're free fall. No parachute has popped up, no.

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Speaker 3: But I think we're still just in the free fall.

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Speaker 4: Sure, because you've got nothing to compare it to. Okay, yeah, exactly, so.

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Speaker 3: I think we're still just in freefall. And then the

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Speaker 3: closer when you're when you're really high up. I'm not

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Speaker 3: sure if you remember the ground, it all just looks

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Speaker 3: the same. Everything's just tiny little dots on the ground,

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Speaker 3: and it's not until you start to get closer and

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Speaker 3: everything becomes clear out that you realize just how fast

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Speaker 3: you're falling because it's in view, and the closer we got,

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Speaker 3: I thought, okay, we definitely, we definitely should be slowing

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Speaker 3: down by now. And then the next thing I saw

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Speaker 3: was something red flashed before my eyes and I realized

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Speaker 3: that it was the material of the parachute wrapped up

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Speaker 3: all in a ball. So it was in front of us,

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Speaker 3: it wasn't above us and open, so the parachute didn't open,

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Speaker 3: and we just free fell to the ground.

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Speaker 4: What So he didn't say anything to you, Emma at

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Speaker 4: that stage. He didn't know whisper in your ear like

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Speaker 4: we're going to.

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Speaker 3: Die, No, just letting you know. Yeah, no, no, no,

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Speaker 3: I didn't know this at the time, but he was

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Speaker 3: actually unconscious for the whole four So. Yeah, So what

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Speaker 3: happened is there's two parachutes inside the instructor's backpack. There's

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Speaker 3: the main parachute which comes out when they pull it, hopefully,

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Speaker 3: and then there's also an emergency parachute, which you shouldn't need,

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Speaker 3: but it's set to come out at an altitude if

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Speaker 3: for some reason the other parachute isn't out yet. Okay, yeah,

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Speaker 3: and so my instructor pulled our parachute too late, which

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Speaker 3: meant it started coming out at the exact same time

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Speaker 3: that the emergency chute was coming out on its own.

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Speaker 3: And so because of that, they got all tangled. The

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Speaker 3: cords got tangled, and they wrapped around the parachute so

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Speaker 3: they couldn't open. But not only that, they actually wrapped

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Speaker 3: around the instructor's neck and strangled him. Oh yeah, and

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Speaker 3: so he was unconscious for the whole fall, which is

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Speaker 3: why he couldn't cut one away or untangle it or

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Speaker 3: whatever you would normally do in that situation, not that

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Speaker 3: that normally happens, So it was, Yeah, he wasn't able

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Speaker 3: to do anything.

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Speaker 4: So then you're falling towards the ground.

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Speaker 1: You've seen an unopened parachute in front of you, so

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Speaker 1: you obviously at this point realize something's very wrong.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, And I was just one hundred percent convinced we

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Speaker 3: were going to die, because if you could feel how

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Speaker 3: fast we were going and how close the ground was,

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Speaker 3: I just did not think it was possible to survive.

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Speaker 4: How are we talking to you right now, Emma?

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Speaker 3: Yeah, I have no idea, no idea how we survived.

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Speaker 3: And people always ask me that how it's physically possible,

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Speaker 3: and I have absolutely no idea. So you hit but yeah, yeah,

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Speaker 3: we hit the ground. We hit the ground. When what

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Speaker 3: before you go on?

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Speaker 2: I'm very interested to know, because I've often thought about this.

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Speaker 2: I'm sure everyone who's ever been on a plane has

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Speaker 2: thought about this. I always thought that you would naturally

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Speaker 2: pass out before you hit the ground from like, I

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Speaker 2: don't know, being overwhelmed or something.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, well I don't know if that tends to happen,

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Speaker 3: But yeah, I didn't get knocked unconscious at all, either

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Speaker 3: during the fall or the landing, so I can remember.

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Speaker 3: You can remember the whole thing perfectly, And even though

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Speaker 3: that was a pretty traumatic thing to be awake for

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Speaker 3: and not a great memory to have, I feel like,

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Speaker 3: in hindsight, I'm actually really, really thankful that I can

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Speaker 3: remember it, because it means that I will forever know

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Speaker 3: exactly how it feels to think for certain that I'm

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Speaker 3: about to die, and I can remember how scared I felt.

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Speaker 3: But even more than that, I can remember the strength

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Speaker 3: and the urgency of yearning that I felt to live,

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Speaker 3: and what a waste it was to think I only

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Speaker 3: had ten seconds left, and that seems like a really

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Speaker 3: obvious thing to know. But it was until that moment

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Speaker 3: I didn't realize just how much I wanted to live,

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Speaker 3: just how much I didn't want to die, and how

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Speaker 3: much more there was I wanted to do.

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Speaker 4: Until that moment, I hope we can go there and

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Speaker 4: this isn't too traumatic. But so, no, it's fine.

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Speaker 3: It's so long ago.

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Speaker 4: Now it's fun, you say, you can remember everything. So

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Speaker 4: was a chest first on the ground face.

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Speaker 3: I landed, Yeah, I landed just on my belly because

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Speaker 3: my instructor is strapped to my back. He then landed

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Speaker 3: on top of me, which was quite rude of him,

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Speaker 3: not his father, but then we're in the middle of

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Speaker 3: the Swiss Alps. I assumed the instructor was dead because

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Speaker 3: he still wasn't responding, but thankfully, thankfully he survived. He

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Speaker 3: was still just unconscious at this stage, but I thought

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Speaker 3: it's up to me to go and find help, and

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Speaker 3: so I tried to roll over to get him off me,

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Speaker 3: and I tried to stand up, and in that moment

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Speaker 3: I realized I was completely paralyzed from the waist down.

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Speaker 3: I yeah, my abs weren't working to roll over. I

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Speaker 3: couldn't bend my knees to stand, and then I thought, okay,

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Speaker 3: I thought, just let's just try the simplest thing I

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Speaker 3: can think of. I would just try to wriggle my toes.

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Speaker 3: But nothing happened. Oh terrifying, Yeah, very yeah, very terrible.

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Speaker 3: It was so confusing and terrifying because I didn't immediately think, oh, okay,

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Speaker 3: I'm paralyzed because I broke my back. I better keep still.

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Speaker 3: I just didn't know what was happening. It just felt

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Speaker 3: so unlike any kind of pain I'd experienced before that

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Speaker 3: it felt so all consuming. I remember thinking, I wonder

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Speaker 3: if it's possible to die from pain?

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Speaker 2: What did you land on?

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Speaker 3: Just grass? Just to get grass? Yeah? Oh, but do

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Speaker 3: you want to hear the funniest part. Five years later,

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Speaker 3: I went back to Switzerland and I wanted to go

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Speaker 3: and visit this random field that we landed in. And

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Speaker 3: I went back to the little town where we did

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Speaker 3: this and walked into the skydive shop. They immediately were like,

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Speaker 3: oh my god, Emma. They recognized me straight away. They

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Speaker 3: were really lovely, and the owner said to me, there's

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Speaker 3: something you don't know about that day. So we went.

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Speaker 3: He drove us to the field and then we're standing there.

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Speaker 3: He looked really nervous, really visibly nervous to tell me

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Speaker 3: this thing. I was like, oh my gosh, what is it?

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Speaker 3: And then he said, you nearly died that day. And

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Speaker 3: I was like, yeah, this doesn't seem like I was like,

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Speaker 3: don't worry. I kind of already knew that. And he's like, no, no, no, no,

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Speaker 3: you really nearly died. And I was like, what do

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Speaker 3: you mean and he said, well, that the field that

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Speaker 3: you landed in is normally filled with cows, but that morning,

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Speaker 3: for some reason, the farmer decided to move the cows

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Speaker 3: to another field, which apparently he never did. And I

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Speaker 3: was like, okay, cool, I still don't know where we're

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Speaker 3: going with this. And then he said, in Switzerland, apparently

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Speaker 3: the cows are so large and territorial that if anyone

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Speaker 3: was to enter their fields via foot or plummet, they

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Speaker 3: would trample you.

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Speaker 2: And oh.

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Speaker 3: And he looked at me like so nervous to have

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Speaker 3: told me this, and I just burst out laughing. I

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Speaker 3: was like, that's the funniest thing I've ever heard. Can

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Speaker 3: you imagine? Can you imagine surviving a free fall from

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Speaker 3: the sky and it's a cow that takes you out

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Speaker 3: what a way to go?

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Speaker 1: At least then there would have been a benefit of

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Speaker 1: the instructor on your back, because I feel like he

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Speaker 1: would have coughed.

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Speaker 4: Most of the true.

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Speaker 3: True, that's that's true. But yeah, so we're we're double lucky.

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Speaker 4: We wouldn't be.

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Speaker 2: Doing this chat if you had to survive to cow trampling.

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Speaker 3: He doesn't have the same ring to it, doesn't know.

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Speaker 4: So how many injuries did you actually get them?

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Speaker 1: We kind of didn't finish so that the helicopter picks

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Speaker 1: you up, takes you to hospital. What injuries did you

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Speaker 1: end up with after falling from a helicopter?

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Speaker 2: So?

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Speaker 3: I broke my spine, which was the main thing, and

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Speaker 3: they told me I had an l one spinal cord injury,

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Speaker 3: so I was now a paraplegic. And then they told

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Speaker 3: me what else. I broke my pelvis, my sternum, my sacrum,

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Speaker 3: and a lot of my teeth. But that's I was

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Speaker 3: weirdly unscathed in terms of like scratches and limbs. It

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Speaker 3: was just the the main Yeah, the spine really was

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Speaker 3: the main thing.

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Speaker 4: So you still paralyzed?

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Speaker 1: Now?

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Speaker 2: Am I?

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Speaker 3: No? Yeah?

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Speaker 4: Did you see me?

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Speaker 3: I wish did we bring this up. No, yes, so

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Speaker 3: I am so lucky. I have no idea how again

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Speaker 3: got so lucky and somehow regained the ability to walk,

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Speaker 3: which they didn't think would happen. And when people ask

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Speaker 3: me why that is, I I truly don't know. And

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Speaker 3: I think some people who maybe don't know too much

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Speaker 3: about spinal cord injuries have the view of like, well,

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Speaker 3: it's because you were so determined or so positive, or

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Speaker 3: you worked really hard that you learned to walk again,

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Speaker 3: and that's a really lovely idea, and I know people

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Speaker 3: mean well by that, but it's just simply not the case.

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Speaker 3: There's so many people with spinal cord injuries that you

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Speaker 3: know are the most positive, determined people, and they haven't

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Speaker 3: had that same chance. So for me, I think I

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Speaker 3: just got really, really lucky with the way my spinal

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Speaker 3: cord was damaged. And yeah, I still I didn't heal completely,

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Speaker 3: so a lot of the muscles in my legs are

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Speaker 3: still a lot weaker than they used to be, and

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Speaker 3: my calves are still completely paralyzed, which is random. So

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Speaker 3: that means I can't go up on my toes, which

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Speaker 3: means I can't run or jump or do car phrases

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Speaker 3: for fun. I still also can't feel from the waist down,

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Speaker 3: which is strange. So yeah, so I didn't realize it

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Speaker 3: was possible to have one without the other, but apparently

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Speaker 3: it is so good.

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Speaker 2: The motor neural pathway, but not the sensory.

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Speaker 3: Not the sensory Yeah and yeah, and that that is

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Speaker 3: again fine most of the time, but it really affects

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Speaker 3: balance because without that appropriate reception, you don't know where

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Speaker 3: your legs are in relation to your body and the

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Speaker 3: rest of the world, so I can be a little

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Speaker 3: bit wobbly. And it also means that I can't feel pain,

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Speaker 3: which sounds like a great thing, but it wasn't until

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Speaker 3: I lost that that I realized how valuable feeling pain

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Speaker 3: is because it tells you when something's wrong. And so

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Speaker 3: I've had situations. I have a really big scar on

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Speaker 3: my bum because I burnt it on something that I

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Speaker 3: sat on and had no idea it was really hot,

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Speaker 3: so I was just sat there sizzling away. And there's

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Speaker 3: been a few situations like that. Yeah, And I also

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Speaker 3: what else. The other main things that were affected were

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Speaker 3: loss of bladder and bower control, so I'm now completely

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Speaker 3: incontinent in both of those and have to use catheters

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Speaker 3: and enemas to go to the bathroom, that kind of thing.

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Speaker 3: So it really was only the not only it's amazing,

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Speaker 3: but the motor that came back. The rest of the

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Speaker 3: symptoms all haven't changed since day one.

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Speaker 1: Okay, I'm interested to ask you as well, and yes,

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Speaker 1: it's so such an extraordinary story. I'm insure to ask

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Speaker 1: you because you did make the point of being glad

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Speaker 1: that you stayed conscious for the entire fall and landing

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Speaker 1: on the ground, because.

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Speaker 4: You know, you've got this gratitude for life. Now.

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Speaker 1: I know you were only twenty at the time, but

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Speaker 1: how did your ways of thinking about life change from

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Speaker 1: pre the fall to post the fall?

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Speaker 3: In so many ways, but I think it was mainly

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Speaker 3: just I had an appreciation that I never had before.

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Speaker 3: I used to just take things for granted and was

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Speaker 3: just kind of going through the motions in I was

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Speaker 3: very now grateful to be alive, for one thing, but

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Speaker 3: also really really appreciative of my body and all it

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Speaker 3: was able to do. Being twenty at that stage, I'd

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Speaker 3: just kind of seen my body as an object and

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Speaker 3: focused on how it looked, esthetically, critiqued it on all

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Speaker 3: of that, But as I was laying there in the

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Speaker 3: field paralyzed, I could not have cared less what my

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Speaker 3: body looked like. All I wanted was the ability to

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Speaker 3: stand up and run over to my best friend and

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Speaker 3: say that was fun, and just get on with the

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Speaker 3: rest of our trip. But so it really changed my

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Speaker 3: perspective in that way, and I just have a lot

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Speaker 3: more value and appreciation for all of the functions that

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Speaker 3: our body has. And when I was in hospital, even

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Speaker 3: before I knew that I would regain the function of

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Speaker 3: my legs, I just I was living in the spinal

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Speaker 3: ward and in the spinal ward, the majority of people

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Speaker 3: had neck injuries, so they were quadriplegics, not paraplegics, and

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Speaker 3: so they didn't have the use of their hands, and

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Speaker 3: I had just I found it so amazing that I

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Speaker 3: had never stopped to take a moment to realize how

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Speaker 3: lucky I was to have the use of my hands

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Speaker 3: until I witnessed that first hand. There's a lot of

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Speaker 3: hand Yeah. So I just developed this whole new appreciations.

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Speaker 3: So it changed, It changed my life in so many ways.

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Speaker 2: I am can I take you to we want to

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Speaker 2: ask more about the about Emma Emma's Marathon walk very

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Speaker 2: shortly and people can donate and head to Mcarey dot com.

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Speaker 2: I'm trying to reach go one hundred thousand dollars for

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Speaker 2: the Peri Cross Spinal Research Foundation.

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Speaker 4: But before we.

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Speaker 2: Get there, I know that when you were in hospital

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Speaker 2: on the spinal ward, you wrote yourself a letter which

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Speaker 2: which had five words.

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Speaker 3: A few days after the accident, and I just found

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Speaker 3: out that I was never going to walk again. And

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Speaker 3: before my accident, I loved running. Running was my favorite

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Speaker 3: thing to do. And the morning of the accident, I

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Speaker 3: had told myself that I was going to get up

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Speaker 3: that morning and go for a run because I loved

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Speaker 3: it and I thought there'd never be a more beautiful

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Speaker 3: place to do it. I was just feeling lazy and

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Speaker 3: couldn't be bothered, so I told myself I would go

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Speaker 3: the next day. Flash forward to the next day, and

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Speaker 3: there I am instead laying paralyzed in a hospital bed,

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Speaker 3: and I was so angry and felt so much wh regret,

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Speaker 3: and so I got out the notes up in my

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Speaker 3: phone and wrote those five words to myself, and I wrote,

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Speaker 3: if you can, you must, And what I meant specifically

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Speaker 3: was if you can ever run again. You must you

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Speaker 3: must remember this feeling of wanting to do something so

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Speaker 3: badly and being physically unable to do it, and you

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Speaker 3: must do it for this version of you that would

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Speaker 3: do anything to have the opportunity. I completely forgot about

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Speaker 3: that note when I found it again, and when I

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Speaker 3: read it, I thought past young Emma was so wise

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Speaker 3: because even though to this day I still can't run,

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Speaker 3: I think those words can apply to so many other things.

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Speaker 2: So you can get EM's book, The Girl Who Fell

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Speaker 2: from the Sky by Emma Carey. But let's talk about

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Speaker 2: this Emma's marathon walk.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, so earlier this year, I just had this random

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Speaker 3: moment where I thought, you don't have to run a marathon.

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Speaker 3: You could walk a marathon, I suppose. And I can't run,

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Speaker 3: but I can walk, so why can't I still do

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Speaker 3: this dream that I've always had. But I just really

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Speaker 3: wanted to do it as a challenge to myself to

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Speaker 3: see how hard I can push myself mentally, to see

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Speaker 3: how strong I can get my body. But mainly I

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Speaker 3: wanted to do it. I wanted it to be bigger

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Speaker 3: than me, because I'm so lucky to have healed and

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Speaker 3: to have the chance to even walk a marathon, and

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Speaker 3: I know that so many people with spinal cord injuries

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Speaker 3: do not have that chance, And more than anything, I

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Speaker 3: want other people to have that moment that I did

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Speaker 3: of taking their first steps again. So I wanted to

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Speaker 3: do it as a fundraising effort to raise money for

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Speaker 3: the Peri Cross Foundation, who were working towards a cure

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Speaker 3: for spinal cord injuries. So my mission is basically to

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Speaker 3: walk for those who can't.

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Speaker 1: What's the main hurdle with walking forty two kilometers for you? M?

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Speaker 3: So you know how your muscles start to get fatigued

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Speaker 3: or they start to burn. I don't feel the burn,

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Speaker 3: they just kind of stop. Oh wow, So you never

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Speaker 3: really know when that moment's coming. Oh yeah. It's really

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Speaker 3: really strange. Like I could be in the gym doing

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Speaker 3: I don't know, squats and I don't have that thing

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Speaker 3: where I'm like, oh, it's really starting to get hard. Now.

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Speaker 3: It's just suddenly I get I guess we're I guess

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Speaker 3: we're done.

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Speaker 2: Yeah.

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Speaker 3: And so I think the biggest thing for me will

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Speaker 3: just be endurance because my muscles, even though I can't

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Speaker 3: feel it, but they fatigue a lot quicker than they

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Speaker 3: used to. And because I walk with a limp, I

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Speaker 3: get really I'm like quite one lopsided when I walk,

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Speaker 3: and so I get really sore muscles, like in my

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Speaker 3: back and in my hip and everything because it's always

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Speaker 3: it's a bit off balance. So I think just general

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Speaker 3: endurance and strength over with just my partner. So he's

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Speaker 3: gonna walk it with me.

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Speaker 4: Great, well, he.

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Speaker 3: Says, Imagine he just runs off. I got a personal

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Speaker 3: best to meet. Gotta go.

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Speaker 2: Wow MC dot com. It was going to walk a marathon,

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Speaker 2: the New York Marathon, last goals for the Perry Cross

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Speaker 2: f Search Foundation. Emma, thank you so much for coming

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Speaker 2: on with a Woody and sharing your story.

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Speaker 3: Thanks so much for having me.

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Speaker 2: It's been awesome.

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Speaker 3: Thank you,