A woman has recalled the frightening moment she plunged 14,000ft after her parachute failed during a skydive.
Emma Carey, now 29, almost died back in 2013 when her parachute tangled and stifled her skydiving instructor - causing them to fall from the sky.
The incident occurred on day five on what was supposed to be a three-month trip of a lifetime in Europe with Carey and her best friend Jemma Mrdak.
But what should have been an exciting experience for the then-20-year-old turned into a nightmare shortly after her instructor deployed the parachute and it became entangled with the strings of the safety chute.
Check out her story below:Carey realized something was seriously amiss when she spotted her parachute flapping in front of her, rather than in the air above.
She spoke with A Current Affair about the terrifying moment her instructor fell unconscious and said: "I just remember thinking, 'There’s no way I’m going to survive this' - you don’t imagine you can fall from that height without slowing down and surviving."
"I remember thinking about my family and the main thing I remember feeling is just kind of regret for not embracing my life fully up until that point," she added.
Upon hitting the ground, Carey took the most impact of the fall and landed facedown with the instructor on top of her. She then tried to roll him off her but quickly realized that she couldn't feel anything from her waist down.
Her best friend landed safely from her skydive but was unaware of what had happened to her and only saw Carey lying on the ground after.
"The first thing I saw was just her lying on her stomach, blood all over her face, crying, in hysterics, screaming that she couldn't feel her legs," Mrdak said.
Carey was rushed to the hospital where surgeons operated on her back and pelvis. Her spine was broken in two places, paralyzing her from the waist down.
"One day I just remember waking up and having this kind of epiphany where I thought, 'OK this has happened, I’m paralyzed and I can be paralyzed and upset about it for the rest of my life, or I can be paralyzed and hopefully live a fulfilling life regardless,'" she said.
Miraculously, both Carey and her instructor survived.
After leaving the hospital and being reunited with her family, Carey went straight into rehab and slowly but surely began to get the feeling back in her legs back.
Amazingly, one year later she learned to walk again and is now referred to as a "walking paraplegic" - which is a term used to describe those who were diagnosed as paraplegics but were later able to walk.
It’s now nine years since the accident and while Carey still deals with the effects of the accident such as not being able to feel below her belly button, and having no control of her bladder or bowel - she has still remained positive.
Earlier this month, she released a book about her experience called The Girl Who Fell From The Sky, and now looks at the moment she felt sure she was going to die as a "rebirth".
"I know how it feels. To think I only have 10 seconds left to live and now I get 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 to keep me grateful," she said.
"Life really changed from that moment on and I also feel like every day from that date is just extra time that I get to live, so I should celebrate that," she added.
.jpg_sFkyUo?tr=h-40)
.jpg_sFkyUo?tr=h-184)
