A dirt bike crash changed almost everything
By Chelise Robinson
GLASSHOUSE Christian College athlete, Emma Henseling, is back shooting hoops and riding dirt bikes after a horrific accident which almost killed her and was thought to have left her paralysed.
It was the news every parent dreads: a surgeon had just finished listing off the injuries Emma had received to her mother, Maria, following a catastrophic dirt bike accident on May 20, 2023.
A severe traumatic brain injury, an internal dissection of her carotid artery, three brain bleeds, multiple lung punctures, a badly broken collarbone, left kidney damage and left adrenal gland damage. Then there was the news that if the tear in her artery had been 1mm deeper, Emma would have been dead.
“We may not get the chance to take her home,” Maria was told. “The specialist who spoke to us in the first few days said that if she did happen to make it, she possibly could be in a vegetative state or have multiple disabilities for life.”
The day had started so normal: Emma and her family headed to Gap Creek to go dirt bike riding for the day, an activity they regularly partake in. But after just half an hour, Emma hit a bump and went flying four metres in the air over her handlebars before landing head first into the ground.
In a series of welcome events, an ex-nurse was first on the scene to help keep her stable. The nurse placed Emma in a recovery position that potentially helped save her life. Paramedics were called and she was medevaced to the Queensland Children’s Hospital after an agonising two-hour wait.
Emma was placed into an induced coma immediately upon arrival to the hospital, where her family were told to prepare for the worst. The doctors feared, if Emma survived, she wouldn’t eat, talk or walk again because of the extensive brain damage. “They told my family that they couldn’t expect any more than this: I was going to be paralysed and in a wheelchair,” she said.
Maria wasn’t on the scene of the accident but told Emma that, when she first saw her in hospital surrounded by tubes and machines, her first prayer was to let the outcome be nothing to do with what the doctors and nurses had read in textbooks.
What followed were days and weeks of agonising waiting for Emma to come out of her coma, to performing intensive surgeries and then rehabilitation. “I remember it so well: the physio lady came into my room with the wheelchair and said we were going to practice walking today and I looked at her so confused, like ‘what do you mean?’,” she said.
“But when she turned around to put the brakes on the wheelchair and turned back to me, I was already up and walking toward her and she was like ‘Oh you can walk!’”
Incredibly, just six weeks later, Emma was cleared for discharge out of the rehabilitation hospital. Since her discharge, during her regular scheduled scans and check-ups every few months, Emma’s doctors and therapists continuously stressed how lucky she was to have come so far in such a short time.
Her occupational and speech therapists have been highly involved in her recovery to help get her back into a normal routine and into completing her last few years of schooling.
Emma has returned to school undergoing her last year of study and is doing almost all the same things she was enjoying before her accident, with small inconsistencies here and there. Her fatigue throughout the day is a hindrance as she can only manage a few hours of learning each day and has to be wary of her still injured collarbone.
She has re-joined the Glasshouse Christian College all girls’ basketball team for the season and is back to riding dirt bikes again. “I am riding again. My first ride was a month ago and I was a little bit nervous but my muscle memory just kicked in,” she said.
“This might sound insane to say now, but I am so happy that I had that accident because it brought me incredibly close to God. It also brought my family closer, it’s shifted perspectives of distant family, my friends at school.”
