Gembrook Paramedic With Spinal Cord Injury Takes On GWM Ironman 70.3 Melbourne

In January 2020, Emma decided to make a last-minute trip to the South Island of New Zealand. What was meant to be a fun getaway turned into a nightmare after a falling tree branch flattened Emma while she was hiking Southland’s Kepler Track.

While she was lying unable to move, Emma’s friend ran 3km back up the mountain to find reception to call for help and then had to wait nearly four hours for a rescue helicopter to winch her out.

The accident was so bad that it left Emma with 20 broken bones, three of those vertebrae in her back, one of which impacted her spinal cord and temporarily paralysed her from the waist down.

Emma spent two weeks in Dunedin Hospital before getting a medical evacuation back to Australia.

She then spent more than three months in hospital in Victoria where she was able to get the motor function back in her legs and start the process of learning to walk again.

“I was able to walk out of the hospital at the end unaided, which was pretty cool,” said Emma.

Since leaving hospital Emma has been going to physio three times a week, all while training toward GWM IRONMAN 70.3 Melbourne.

“In terms of recovery, you get most out of your improvement in the first 12 to 18 months,” said Emma. “So I obviously improved the motor function, but I still don’t have sensation from my waist down and all the other stuff with a spinal cord injury, like bowel and bladder function, temperature control, all that stuff is still pretty bad, but generally I’ve been pretty lucky.”

Emma entered the event as a way to keep herself motivated through her intensive rehab. It’s also a step along the way toward her even bigger goal of completing IRONMAN Australia in May.

“I’m training up to six times a week and just keep pushing to get the most out of the body,” said Emma.

With everything her body has been through, Emma says she finds a lot of the training extremely difficult.

“Obviously not being able to feel my bottom and my feet, riding a bike took a bit of getting used to,” said Emma. “I’d often just slide off the saddle or fall off, so it’s taken a bit of getting used to and there’s still a fair bit of weakness on my right side so starting and stopping isn’t really my strong point.

“My other long-lasting injury is my right arm, which is a brachial plexus injury. It started off being paralysed as well and five surgeries later I’ve got a bit of movement back, but I still can’t really use it for swimming, or I’ve got no hand function so I can’t hang on to the bike, it’s just kind of there for show.”

Emma’s injuries have meant a reshuffle in terms of her day-to-day duties in her work as a paramedic. Adjusting to using only one arm, Emma no longer works on-road operationally but found a role in COVID-19 Response during Melbourne’s lockdowns and is now stationed in the communications room in a dispatch triage role.

Emma says working through the pandemic while also recovering from her injuries was extremely challenging.

“It was pretty full on, very chaotic, a bit stressful but you know, you did what you could,” said Emma.

After everything Emma has endured these past two years just getting to start line of GWM IRONMAN 70.3 Melbourne is an impressive feat, but to actually finish would be the cherry on top.

“I suppose that sense of accomplishment, it’s been hard work getting to this point now so it would be a bit of a reward for all the effort. I think it would be a pretty cool feeling,” said Emma.