Turia Pitt's journey from the brink to centre stage
When Turia Pitt woke in intensive care late last year, choking on the tube down her throat, she wanted to die.
She had stopped breathing during surgery to rebuild her nose and in that moment, the setback seemed too much to bear.
After all the excruciating pain, the 200 surgeries and the agonising, determined progress she had made since being catastrophically burnt in a Kimberley ultra-marathon in 2011, Ms Pitt again found herself knocked down.
"I went under thinking I would wake up in the burns unit with a brand new nose. Instead, I woke up in the intensive care unit," she told a Networking WA audience at Crown Perth yesterday.
"At that point, all I wanted was death because I had worked so hard just to end up in the same situation."
Instead, Ms Pitt did what she has done every day since her accident: she refused to be beaten.
Last month, she ran her first half marathon since the fire, initially filled with the anxiety that her body wouldn't cope or that, like last time, something terrible would happen.
"As soon as I took that first step, it was as if all my worries and fears dissipated," Ms Pitt said.
"When I crossed the finish, I was filled with absolute elation.
"I had finished the run but I also beat my time from before my injury.
Picture: Michael O'Brien/The West Australian
"It is only when we have a crack that we discover what we are truly capable of."
These days, Ms Pitt feels "incredibly blessed". She is almost totally independent, so partner Michael Hoskin is back to being her loving boyfriend, rather than full-time carer.
She's written a book, is in demand as a motivational speaker, helped raise almost $200,000 for surgical charity Interplast last year and is in the midst of organising a 10-day fundraising trek along the Inca Trail in Peru.
In the mornings, she's up early, training for her first ironman event. But the road has been long.
Ms Pitt doesn't like to dwell on the fire. Words seem inadequate and even now she has a physical reaction when she talks about it.
"My heart rate has just gone up, my hands are sweating, my mouth is all of the sudden dry," she said. "This happens even if I go to a seemingly harmless barbecue. As soon as I smell that smoke, immediately I am transported back."
In September 2011, after being trapped for four hours on a remote hill with burns to 64 per cent of her body, paramedics from Kununurra arrived.
MC Verity James embraces Turia PItt at the end of the presentation. Picture: Michael O'Brien/The West Australian
Ms Pitt worked in Kununurra as a mining engineer for Rio Tinto and greeted an ambulance officer she knew through volunteering. She was met with a blank look.
"She didn't recognise me," Ms Pitt said. "I said, 'It's me, it's Turia'. She didn't say anything but I noticed tears started to roll down her face. I think that is when it hit, that my life would never be the same again."
The healing process was horrific. The anticipation of daily bandage changes kept her awake and it was heartbreaking for the elite athlete to need help to climb a single stair.
"In a matter of seconds, the accident took everything from me," Ms Pitt said. "Everything I was ever good at, everything I had ever known, everything I had ever thought I wanted.
"But maybe my accident was the best thing to happen to me.
"It gave me the freedom to start my life again.
"It gave me a voice and an opportunity to be heard."
Her message was simple: anything is possible if you try and refuse to give up.
