Brave Emily wants to help
EMILY Flint loved trampolining. For hours and hours she would practise front flips and backflips in her backyard and during her weekly professional lessons.
April 7, 2017, was like any other day. Emily was doing front flips when it all went horribly wrong.
Midway through a double front flip, she landed on her head and blacked out.
Moments later she woke and had no feeling down her left side.
“She started calling for help,” her mum, Marella Turner, said.
Emily was rushed from the Ocean Grove family home to Geelong hospital. CT scans showed she had a serious spinal injury and the then 13year-old was transferred to the Royal Children’s Hospital.
“I didn’t understand what was happening,” Ms Turner said. “I thought, right’.”
The injury was far worse than she initially believed. Emily spent three days in ICU and doctors soon confirmed she had a C5-C6 fracture and doctors inserted a permanent plate to fuse her spine.
“With any spinal cord injury you don’t know (what the outcome will be). We didn’t know if Emily would be able to walk,” Ms Turner said.
“Every day a little bit of progress would come.”
Emily spent 3½ months in rehab at the RCH. Her family moved into a Ronald McDonald House unit to be closer to the hospital.
Emily spent hours each day doing physio, occupational therapy and gym work. She also attended school at hospital so she did not fall behind.
“It was heartbreaking,” Ms Turner said of watching her daughter recover.
Since her discharge, Emily has spent hours at Geelong’s ‘she’ll be all Victorian Paediatric Rehabilitation Service.
She is treated in the Community Rehabilitation Centre at the McKellar Centre, which has been designed for adults.
Emily and her mother are among many families supporting the Barwon Health Foundation Bricks 4 Kids campaign to raise funds for a $3.6 million child-dedicated centre.
Emily said there were no specialised facilities for children and the centre was not great “for kids to run around in”.
She hopes her strengthening therapy will allow her to get back to the high level of fitness she had before the accident. “I want people to support Bricks 4 Kids because it will really help out the community,” Emily, now 14, said.
“It will help all the kids that need a specific type of rehab.”
To support the campaign visit www.bricks4kids.org.au or contact the Barwon Health Foundation on 4215 8900.