By Brad Hunter
Pictures: Katherine Loffler
When Shayna almost fell to her death it was the little life inside her that kept her going.
As she plummeted towards the ground during a freak skydiving accident, Shayna West had no idea she was carrying a new life inside her ? and that she would one day credit him with saving her from certain death.
After half a dozen jumps, adrenalin junkie Shayna was hooked on skydiving ? and had even started dating Rick, one of the instructors at her local club. But her new hobby turned into a nightmare in October 2005 when her parachute twisted during a jump and she found herself upside down.
Frantic, Shayna tried everything she’d learnt to get out of a fix, but nothing worked.
“I knew I only had one choice left, so I ditched my primary parachute and pulled the cord to my back-up shoot,” recalls Shayna. “But it opened all wrong. I was hanging upside down, my face looking at the fast-approaching ground.”
Travelling at 80km/h, she was suddenly faced with a horrific realisation. “I thought, ‘I’m going to die, I’m done’,” she says.
“My parents didn’t even know I was skydiving. How were they going to take my death? I thought these things in about a minute.”
Then Shayna hit the asphalt surface face first. Her boyfriend ? now husband ? Rick ran over in a panic, screaming her name.
“He thought I was dead, but I could hear him screaming my name and managed to roll over. I even tried to stand up.”
She had broken nearly every bone in her face, five front teeth were gone and her eye sockets were smashed in. Her pelvis was broken in two places and so was her leg.
In hospital, Shayna slipped in and out of consciousness.
“I remember one of the doctors leaning down and saying, ‘You have something to live for, Shayna. You’re going to be a mother’. I’d had no idea I was two weeks pregnant. If I’d known, I never would have gone up that day.
“I knew then it wasn’t a nightmare or a figment of my imagination. I knew I wasn’t dead. This was why I was alive.”
For the full story, see this week’s Woman’s Day on sale April 20.
Do you have an amazing tale of bravery to share? Have your say below…
Related stories
Native ad body.
Native ad body.
Native ad body.
