From death’s door to miracle recovery

A FORMER Tweed student given a five per cent chance of survival after a freak scuba diving accident has woken from her two-week coma to a full recovery.

Family and friends of Kali Chamberlin were told she would have to live with major brain damage, a paralysed left side and a loss of sight after she was pulled from the water unconscious off the coast of Vanuatu this month.

Diving to a depth of 45 metres was nothing new for the 29-year-old who had moved to the Pacific island with her mother more than a decade ago.

The professional diving instructor had completed more than 3000 dives in her time so a 45-metre training dip on March 3 was simply routine, or so Kali thought.

The former St Joseph’s Primary School student was training two recruits and undertaking her usual decompression stops when she began to feel unwell.

“We had done everything right, there was nothing unusual but something felt wrong,” Ms Chamberlin told the Bulletin from her hospital bed yesterday.

“I signalled to the boys and blacked out, that is the last thing I remembered.”

Ms Chamberlin’s unconscious body was dragged 50 metres on to the beach by the other divers. She was transported to the regional medical centre on the island of Espiritu Santo before being rushed to the intensive care unit of the Royal Women’s Hospital in Brisbane.

For the next 12 days Ms Chamberlin’s family were bedside 20 hours a day, talking to her, holding her limp hand and hoping for the best.

She was also treated in the hyperbaric chamber regularly.

“She is such a strong girl, we have been through everything together but there was nothing I could do,” said Kali’s mother Donna Chamberlin, who now lives in Townsville.

Last Friday, doctors prepared the family for the worst as they removed Kali’s breathing tubes.

“They gave her an MRI and told us she would probably be blind, have no control of her emotions and be paralysed,” Ms Chamberlin said.

Two days later Kali woke to recognise her mother by her bedside. “‘That’s my mum’ was the first thing she said,” Ms Chamberlin said.

“I couldn't believe it. Within five minutes she was shaking the doctors’ hands, thanking them for what they had done.”

Now walking, talking and working to regain her strength Kali has been moved to the Brain Injury Rehabilitation Unit at the Princess Alexandra Hospital in Brisbane, and is already planning her return to her adopted home country of Vanuatu.

“I can’t believe it,” she said. “I remember passing out and then waking up in hospital.

“I am so thankful to everyone who has helped me, the hospital staff and my family.

“Even my boss in Vanuatu said he would save a job for me. I’ve been told I wouldn’t be able to dive again but that isn’t going to stop me getting back in the water in some way. I would love to go back.”

THEY TOLD US SHE WOULD PROBABLY BE BLIND, HAVE NO CONTROL OF HER EMOTIONS AND BE PARALYSED DONNA CHAMBERLIN