Woman’s spine exploded after 14m roof plunge in Peru

When Emily Wornes locked up her Brisbane cafe for the last time, she was excited to be embarking on the trip of a lifetime with her best friend Georgia Rose. 

But Ms Wornes dream holiday to South America would quickly turn into a nightmare.

During a rooftop excursion to see the sunset at her hostel in the Peruvian beachside town of Huanchaco, Ms Wornes stepped on a skylight and plunged 14 metres onto the marble floor four storeys below.

Emily Wornes, 25, fell 14m through her hostel’s roof on to a marble floor and batted to walk again after breaking her back

‘It’s been tough since. I do hours of rehab every day and most weeks my nerve pain is so bad I have to go to hospital,’ she said

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‘There was a glorious sunset so we all went up to the rooftop terrace to watch it. This is what travelling is all about,’ she recalled, of the horror moment in December 2015.

‘The next thing I remember is coming to on the hostel’s marble ground floor, four storeys beneath the rooftop.

‘Suddenly, I pain erupted through my whole body and I screamed and screamed. I’d never felt anything like it.’

After two months of rehab in Melbourne, she was allowed back home to her parent’s house a week short of her 24th birthday on April 1 and hopes to walk unaided soon

Her L3 vertebrae was broken along with her pelvis, elbow, ankle and toes and she shattered both her feet

The 25-year-old took one step on to a skylight (pictured) and she plunged 14 metres through the hostel as the roof immediately gave way

Another friend, Nick, who had been travelling with the pair on route to Columbia held her hand and told her not to move.

Meanwhile, an ambulance was dispatched.

‘I couldn’t move, even if I’d wanted to,’ Ms Wornes said.

Paramedics arrived and loaded her into what looked like a fire truck on a wooden board, with every jolt from the manoeuvre pure agony.

Without the aid of anaesthetic, Ms Wornes said she endured a long ride over potholed roads to the hospital.

‘I was sobbing and screaming in agony with Nick still holding my hand,’ she said, and it didn’t get any better when the ambulance arrived.

‘Every time I was moved four staff each grabbed a corner of my bedsheet and lifted me.

‘My back bowed in the middle as they did and the pain was so intense I screamed “just kill me!”‘

Ms Wornes was evacuated by private jet to Sharp Memorial Hospital in San Diego, where she learned the full extent of her injuries

Her friends raised thousands of dollars to pay for medication and treatment and even had to ask strangers to donate blood

Ms Wornes in a Peruvian hospital after the horror fall and her first operation

On January 23, 2016, Ms Wornes was finally able to fly back to Australia alongside her mother, but was too fragile to travel sitting up

The terrified tourist drifted in and out of consciousness as doctors put her through numerous scans and X-rays to survey her horrific injuries.

‘My L3 vertebrae had effectively exploded,’ she said.

Thanks to the language barrier, it took two days before the group realised she had to buy her own pain relief and medical supplies from local pharmacies. 

Her friends raised thousands of dollars to pay for medication and treatment and even had to ask strangers to donate blood.

Ms Wornes gets a visit from friends bearing gifts in hospital

‘My right arm was so bent just straightening it to feed myself was a huge achievement,’ she said 

Meanwhile Ms Rose called her parents Janet and Ron in East Albury, NSW, and they jumped on the next flight to Peru as doctors prepared Ms Wornes for surgery.

‘Afterwards we’ll go out for a nice meal,’ she recalled Georgia telling her. ‘Naively, we thought the surgery would fix everything.’

Four days later her parents arrived after battling time differences, language barriers, and the Christmas rush.

‘We are going to get you out of here,’ her father vowed.

She threw herself into excruciating rehab and it took a month before she could even sit upright in a wheelchair and go outside – and then only for 15 minutes

Local doctors insisted she needed follow-up surgery or she would be a paraplegic, but her family decided the risk of another operation in Peru was bigger than the risk of paralysis.

Ms Wornes was evacuated by private jet to Sharp Memorial Hospital in San Diego, where she learned the full extent of her injuries.

‘My pelvis was broken and my sacrum, a little bone beneath the tail bone, my feet were shattered, my right heel broken as were most of my toes, one ankle and my right elbow,’ she said.

‘The surgeon in Peru had put little rods either side of my spinal cord to stabilise it. That saved my life, but bits of shattered bone were still in there.’

After the first month Ms Wornes regained movement in her left leg, but her right one was still not responding

Ms Wornes gives herself a pampering to help pass the time stuck in hospital for months

Ms Wornes enjoys a burger while recovering from her injuries in hospital

Ms Wornes endured a 13-hour surgery to remove the rods and install a protective cage around her L3, and further operations on her pelvis and sacrum.

No one was sure if she would ever walk again, but the defiant young woman told her mother: ‘No way in hell am I not walking.’

She threw herself into excruciating rehab and it took a month before she could even sit upright in a wheelchair and go outside – and then only for 15 minutes.

‘My right arm was so bent just straightening it to feed myself was a huge achievement,’ she said.

‘My right arm was so bent just straightening it to feed myself was a huge achievement,’ she said

Ms Wornes being transported around the San Diego hospital on a stretcher

After the first month Ms Wornes regained movement in her left leg, but her right one was still not responding.

‘As I was sitting in my wheelchair one day my right leg suddenly jumped and I could move it. Mum and I wept tears of relief,’ she said.

On January 23, 2016, Ms Wornes was finally able to fly back to Australia alongside her mother, but was too fragile to travel sitting up.

After two months of rehab in Melbourne, she was allowed back home to her parents’ house a week short of her 24th birthday on April 1.

Ms Wornes finally able to sit up again as she enduring months of rehab in the U.S.

‘As I was sitting in my wheelchair one day my right leg suddenly jumped and I could move it. Mum and I wept tears of relief,’ she said

She was travelling to Peru in 2015 on the trip of a lifetime with her best friend (pictured together)

‘I’m going to walk by my birthday,’ she vowed, and with her mum and dad supporting her under each arm, she managed 10 steps.

‘It’s been tough since. I do hours of rehab every day and most weeks my nerve pain is so bad I have to go to hospital,’ she said.

‘I got depressed too. “I’m grieving for the girl I used to be,” I told mum. But I’m making progress.

‘Soon I’ll have surgery on my feet. Then, finally, I’ll walk unaided.’

Ms Wornes said her near-death experience help her ‘discover her purpose’ – becoming a counsellor and motivational speaker to help other spinal injury sufferers.

‘After falling 14 metres onto a marble floor I should have died. Incredibly, I didn’t and discovered a strength and determination I never knew I had,’ she said.

‘Now I want to get better so I can go travelling again!’