Surviving a 15,000 Foot Freefall: Brad's Impossible Story

Summary

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What I Survived – Surviving a 15,000 Foot Freefall: Brad's Impossible Story

Host: Jack Laurence
Guest: Brad Guy
Date: February 17, 2026

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Episode Overview

In this deeply personal episode, Jack Laurence interviews Brad Guy, who shares his harrowing and inspiring story of surviving a 15,000-foot skydiving accident. After both the main and reserve parachutes failed during a tandem jump, Brad and his instructor crashed into a lake at high speed—and miraculously survived. The episode explores Brad's ordeal, the trauma that followed, and his ongoing journey through physical and psychological recovery.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

Brad's Early Life & Adventurous Spirit

• Brad's Rural Upbringing (05:44–06:32): Growing up in the small Australian town of Pylong, Brad reflects on feeling like "a big fish in a small pond," with ambitions beyond his rural roots.
• Identity Struggles in Boarding School (06:35–08:08): Brad, a "gay emo," felt an outsider at his Catholic boarding school, learning to blend in and conceal his true self.
• Love for Travel and Adventure (08:19–09:15): Driven to explore, Brad describes backpacking, falling in love abroad, and taking risks to achieve dreams—habits both strengthened and diminished by his accident.

Skydiving: The Leap That Changed Everything

• Setting the Stage (12:12–14:47): At 22, Brad receives a gift voucher for an adrenaline experience. Choosing skydiving, he organizes the day, time, and place, noting a series of small choices—what he later calls "sliding doors moments"—that determined his fate.
• Family Support & Last-Minute Decision (14:47–15:54): Brad brings his entire family to watch the jump, recalling delays and the option to postpone—he insists on jumping the same day, which he later reflects on with a sense of fate.

"I just want to get it out of the way. I’m feeling nervous. My whole family’s here. They’ve taken the day off. It’s a Saturday, it’s sunny in Melbourne... Let’s just get it done."
— Brad (15:31)

The Accident: Freefall and Impact

• The Freefall (16:30–17:49): Brad describes boarding the tiny plane, the adrenaline rush as the door opens, and the initial euphoria of the jump—"it does feel like you’re falling, you’re free falling… it's terrifying, but it's a thrill because you know you'll survive."
• Parachute Failure (17:49–18:40): He notices something is wrong: the main parachute hasn't opened correctly. His instructor, a veteran with over 2,000 jumps, struggles to fix it, then deploys the reserve—but it tangles in the failed main chute, leaving them violently shaking, falling fast, and screaming.

"I nearly get ripped out of the harness because we’re moving so much, I lose a shoe. My tandem instructor is just yelling at me to keep my feet down so we can stay strapped together. And that is the moment that the panic started to set in."
— Brad (17:49)

• Impact & Immediate Aftermath (19:12–23:50): Brad lands hard in a lake, initially unable to move, convinced he’s paralyzed and that his instructor is dead. He is overcome by guilt, believing his family just witnessed his death.

"All I really felt was guilt because I felt like I could see my family and they were watching me die. Even though I’m sure it was only a few seconds, it kind of felt like forever."
— Brad (19:12)

• Rescue and Family Reunion (23:50–25:11): Some golfers discover the crash, keep Brad’s instructor’s head above water, and call for help. Brad’s family runs to the crash site, an emotionally overwhelming reunion as he’s loaded into the ambulance.

"I could just hear my mum telling me that she loved me and everything was going to be okay. That’s the hardest part to reflect on for me because I just felt like a burden… It was heartbreaking."
— Brad (25:11)

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The Dark Recovery: Trauma, Survival, and Healing

Hospitalization & "Parachute Guy" Label

• Media Attention & Guilt (27:41–28:50): Brad becomes "the parachute guy" in the hospital and the news. The staff and his own family’s reactions reinforce the gravity of the situation, compounding his guilt.

"Everyone’s reaction was disbelief and shock. And I had no answers for anything… every time I close my eyes, I could feel myself falling. Could not sleep, especially that first night, but could not sleep really forever."
— Brad (28:50)

• Mental and Physical Recovery (31:28–33:34): Brad describes his extensive physical injuries (broken vertebrae, ribs, torn ligaments) and the onset of PTSD, depression, and “nightmare disorder,” triggered whenever he closed his eyes.

Home Recovery, Depression, and the Struggle for Hope

• Isolation and Despair (33:54–36:44): Back home, immobilized for months in neck and back braces, Brad loses touch with hope, facing night terrors, hallucinations, and suicidal thoughts.

"During that period, I did lose the will to live and nearly made irreparable decisions… even though the guilt had burdened me so much, it was also kind of the thing that saved me."
— Brad (33:54)

• Family’s Role and Continuing Nightmares (35:30–36:44): Brad’s mother becomes his primary caregiver, and the trauma brings the family closer but at great emotional cost—nightly terrors and breakdowns are common.

Turning Points in the Recovery Journey

• Relapse and Breakthroughs (36:44–41:37): Brad explains that recovery is not linear; after physically healing enough to return to work, he faces setbacks—loses his first job back, experiences a total breakdown, and seeks psychiatric help.
• Small Victories and Renewed Independence (38:13–39:39): Step by step, goals like walking, reaching the train station, and driving again rebuild his sense of capability.
• A Critical Setback: A difficult job and relationship cause Brad to have a "full blown mental breakdown," leading eventually to real therapy and a renewed focus on mental health.

"Healing is not linear at all… the first turning point was trying to get back into my job in radio… but I get brought into the office and I was made redundant, so I lost that job and was back at square one."
— Brad (36:59)

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Looking Forward: Acceptance and Advocacy

• Writing His Book and Acceptance (41:44–43:09): Brad writes "Freefall: The Luckiest Man Alive," realizing that healing is ongoing and that the lessons from trauma are gifts.
• Message to Others:
  • The scars are "the price to pay for the wisdom" gained.
  • Recovery includes setbacks, and "your trauma doesn't define you, but your reaction does."
  • It's essential to confront mental health struggles, seek help, and allow others to support you.

"The healing is infinite. It goes on forever. And I'll never ever stop learning about what happened to me that day and the impact it's had on my life. And that’s not a bad thing…"
— Brad (41:44)

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Timeline of Notable Segments & Quotes

| Timestamp | Segment / Quote | |-------------|------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 05:44–06:32 | Brad on growing up in rural Victoria: "Big fish in a small pond...cheesy, but I was always ambitious." | | 06:56–08:08 | Brad on high school struggles: "I was an overweight gay emo...not able to express myself." | | 08:19–09:15 | Brad on adventure: "I've backpacked through Asia and Europe...credit card for Eurovision...who cares?" | | 12:17–14:22 | Choosing skydiving: "Wanted to do the most extreme thing I could...I look back at 22 year old Brad—I’m like, oh, child."| | 14:47–15:54 | The day of the accident: "There were all these delays...no, I just want to get it out of the way." | | 16:30–17:49 | On the jump: "The door opens, we get to the edge…euphoric feeling…does feel like you're falling, you're free falling."| | 17:49–18:40 | Parachute failure: "Blue and yellow flailing sheet…main parachute hasn't opened correctly…screaming, panic sets in." | | 19:12–21:48 | Brad’s thoughts during the fall: "I fully accepted I was going to die…felt like my family were watching me die." | | 23:50–25:11 | Rescue, family arrives: "Golfers wade into the water…as I’m getting lifted into the ambulance, I can just hear my mum."| | 27:41–28:99 | In hospital as "the parachute guy": "On Channel 7 News that night, on my chart…everyone's reaction was disbelief." | | 33:54–36:44 | Home recovery and depression: "I did not see a future…lost the will to live and nearly made irreparable decisions." | | 36:59–39:39 | Turning point: "Healing is not linear…goal was to get to the end of my driveway, then further each time." | | 41:44–43:09 | Acceptance & advocacy: "The healing is infinite…it’s okay to have setbacks and to fall down…your trauma doesn’t define you, but your reaction does."|

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Tone & Style

The conversation is candid, emotionally raw, and often laced with Brad’s self-reflective humor. Brad talks openly about his guilt, post-traumatic symptoms, and psychiatric diagnoses while also recognizing positive growth resulting from his ordeal.

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Summary: For New Listeners

This episode is a gripping, emotional, but ultimately hopeful journey through one man's survival against impossible odds. It delves into not just the physical miracle of surviving a 15,000-foot parachute failure, but also the hidden, often more daunting psychological wounds—and the long road to recovery and acceptance that follows. Above all, Brad’s story is a powerful reminder: "Your trauma doesn’t define you, but your reaction does."

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If you or someone you know is struggling, resources are linked in the show notes. For the full story, check out Brad’s book "Freefall: The Luckiest Man Alive."

Transcript

[A]

Howdy, howdy ho, and welcome to Fantasy Fan Fellas. I'm Hayden, producer of the Fantasy Fangirls podcast and your resident lover of all things Sanderson.

[B]

And I'm Stephen, your bookish Internet goofball. But you can call me the Smash Daddy.

[A]

And we are currently deep diving Brandon Sanderson's fantasy epic Mistborn. But here's the catch. Steven here has not read Mistborn before.

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[D]

Skydiving. It's built as a bucket list item that everyone should tick off at some stage in their life. And in fact, over 70,000 people in Australia each year will take that leap in a tandem skydive. Like anything in life, the sport comes of course, with its risks, but it wouldn't be an extreme sport without it. If there was no jeopardy, there would be no fear, no adrenaline rush and no excitement. But then when we do these things, I don't think we ever really actually believe something's going to go wrong. But what happens when it does? And how do you recover? How do you put yourself back together? Okay, do I gotcha?

[C]

Yay. Okay, there he is.

[D]

Brad Guy was one of those 70,000 in 2013, just like millions before him. A young 22 year old from country Victoria, Brad was a little nervous, yet excited to take that leap. However, he could never imagine that that day would change his life forever. Jumping from 15,000ft, Brad's instructor's parachute would fail, leaving them hopelessly falling at 80km an hour towards the ground. By some incredible miracle, they survive. But the trauma of what happened to Brad that day would be his biggest battle. Turning a fun loving, carefree guy into someone who would go on to battle severe mental anguish, guilt, depression and constant nightmares, as well as even contemplating ending his own life. My name's Jack Lawrence. Welcome to what I survived. Chapter one. The outgoing kid from the country, Brad Guy, grew up in a small country town outside of Melbourne called Pylong. With a population of just 200 people, it was very much a rural country Australian community. And Brad says looking back, he loved it and now feels it almost gave him the drive for adventure.

[C]

I always had an affinity for it. I love country Victoria. I love rural Australia, especially as an adult. Now I can really reflect on the whole Australiana of my, my upbringing and especially my background. But I think at the time I always felt like a big fish in a small pond. Country kid with big city dreams. All very cheesy, but I was always ambitious. So I saw my town Pylong as kind of my launch pad to see the world. And whenever I saw people in movies or in TV shows traveling and Going to all these exotic locations, I always knew that's what I wanted to do. So Pylon felt very small at the time and it's only been through living a really chaotic 30 years of life that I think that'd actually be quite nice now.

[D]

Yeah.

[C]

To go and just not have anything to do.

[D]

Brad would go from his small country school with just 40 kids to a private Catholic boarding school in a town called Kilmore. A a school with a strong athletic and sporting background and a strong affinity to football. Brad said he just never really felt that he could relate to the people around him because of who he was.

[C]

I was an overweight gay emo, so I thrived in high school. We're talking, like, 2004. I was peak, like my Chemical Romance, leather cuffs, not really knowing who I was, what my feelings were deep down inside. Could not really relate to any. Any other boys in my school. And it was a football school. Like, Shane Crawford went to my school and everyone loved him as, like, this idol of the school and this, like, former alum. But I could never, ever relate to what the school really stood for, which was athletics. So I didn't really feel like I fit in. But I very quickly learned how to be that social chameleon and how to assimilate and be one of the boys and one of the lads. Yeah, thankfully, that's not really my vibe anymore. But high school was just very intense, very emotional. But I do have treasured memories and I was able to make friends at the time, but I wasn't really able to express myself. And that's still a lesson I'm trying to learn from the constant concealing of who I was in high school to the person I am now. And it's a crazy place to go to a private Catholic boarding school in the country. As the person I was.

[D]

After finishing his education, Brad did what many young people do and traveled. He wanted to see the world, experience new places, meet new people. And that's exactly what he did.

[C]

I've backpacked through Asia and Europe and I've fallen in love overseas and traveled the world just to meet some random person on the Internet. I've gone around Australia. Even now I'm like, I'll just get another credit card and I'll just go to Europe next year because I want to. Which I literally did last week because I really want to go to Eurovision and I didn't really have the money, so I'm like, I'll just get a credit card and just achieve that dream. Who cares?

[D]

Has that become stronger for you since what happened?

[C]

I would say I've always been that way. And then the accident, I lost that. I lost that zest for life for a very long time. And I feel like it's only really coming full circle now, the past two, two and a half years where I've really just buckled down and gone. You know What? It's been 10 years since I nearly lost my life in numerous ways. I owe it to myself to do what I truly want to do. And I'll figure out the rest later. Like money comes and goes, it flows debt, who cares? I'll pay it off eventually.

[D]

Brad's determination and outgoingness would also extend into his chosen career path, as he knew from a very young age exactly what he wanted to do.

[C]

Always wanted to be a breakfast radio host. Knew exactly what that pipeline was. And ever Since I was 18, 19, I had a full spreadsheet. Every single content director in the country, what their feedback was, how I should adjust my demo, trying to really get my foot in the door because I was very delusional when it came to radio. I was like, of course I can do it. Like, I'll just get my foot in the door. It'll happen eventually. I never had a single doubt in my mind at all. And eventually it did happen.

[D]

Brad would get his big break, his opportunity to work on a breakfast radio show. But before he would get to start his new career, he would experience a truly life altering event. Foreign.

[A]

Howdy, howdy ho, and welcome to Fantasy Fan.

[D]

Fellas.

[A]

I'm Hayden, producer of the Fantasy Fan Girls podcast and your resident lover of all things Sanderson.

[B]

And I'm Stephen, your bookish Internet goofball, but you can call me the Smash Daddy.

[A]

And we are currently deep diving Brandon Sanderson's fantasy epic Mistborn. But here's the catch. Stephen here has not read Mistborn before.

[B]

That's right.

[C]

Hey.

[B]

Hey. So each week you'll get my unfiltered raw react to every single chapter.

[A]

And along the way we'll do character deep dives, magic explainers, and Steven will even try to guess what's next. Spoiler alert. He'll be wrong.

[B]

News flash, I'm never wrong. Episodes come out every Wednesday and you can find Fantasy fan fellows wherever you get your podcasts.

[C]

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[D]

Chapter 2 Sliding Doors it was just

[C]

after my 22nd birthday, except on my 21st birthday, I received a voucher for some sort of adrenaline experience. And there were a whole bunch of options to choose from. Typical me. Wanted to do the most extreme thing I could. So out of that selection, I chose skydiving. And even through organizing it, I got to choose the day I wanted to go, the time of day, the location. There were a lot of variables that went into that.

[D]

Yeah.

[C]

So I was just primed to have another crazy experience. As per the person I was at the time. I was 22. I felt like an adult. But I look back at a 22 year old, Brad, 10 years ago, I'm like, oh, you're a child.

[D]

Child. Yeah, baby. Yeah.

[C]

Little baby. Didn't know the world that well. And had you ever just.

[D]

Sorry to interrupt. Had you ever done anything sort of like, you know, bungee jumping or anything like that before? Because, you know, you're not scared of heights or anything like that. Obviously you're an adventurous guy. So this is something. Just another one of those things to tick off your bucket list, so to speak.

[C]

Yeah, super normal. I had done bungee jumping once, and even that was scary and fun and a thrill, but not something I would do all the time. I think just your everyday adrenaline seeker, you know, bucket list. Do it once. Cool. Tick it off the list. Never really thought twice about it. But at that time in my life in 2013, I had just come out maybe six months earlier, had gotten to a brand new relationship and had never been in love before. So there were all these amazing feelings going on. And I was still living in the country at the time with my parents, and I was looking at moving to the city because I'd just gotten a job at a commercial radio station in Melbourne, and that was my foot in the door as a producer for a breakfast radio show for commercial network. So my life was about to begin, really. All this hard work I'd put into myself, into my career, everything was aligning perfectly and I was just on the precipice of just feeling really solid in my life and who I was.

[D]

Life essentially could not have been any better for Brad at this moment, as he says, he literally was on the cusp of finally starting that career that he's always wanted. He had come out and no longer had to hide who he was from the world. And he even had a new love in his life. This jump was just another exciting memory to add to his life. And in fact, he wanted to share it with his family. And that day they were all there to support him.

[C]

So when it came to the day of the accident, I did feel some anxiety and I felt some fear and some jitters. But I put that down to just anticipating what I was about to do, which was jump from a plane. But also, in typical Brad fashion, I brought my entire family there. We're a very close, tight knit group. So I had my mum, my dad, my three sisters, their husbands, and my niece and nephew and my boyfriend at the time. It was a beautiful intention, but it ended up being quite tragic having them all there.

[D]

From the very beginning, though, it appears that there are just so many sliding doors. Moments before he would make that jump. Another thing Brad said that he struggled with mentally after his accident.

[C]

Even when we got to the airport, there were all these delays. They kept saying, oh, we'll have to push a jump, push a jump. I was the last one of the day. And they said, do you mind coming back next week? I said, no, I just want to get it out of the way. I'm feeling nervous. My whole family's here. They've taken the day off. It's a Saturday, it's sunny in Melbourne, which is rare. Let's just get it done. So that's another variable on top of all the other variables that went into what ended up actually happening.

[D]

So many sliding doors moments, it's insane, really.

[C]

And it's hard to reminisce about all those choices.

[D]

Yeah.

[C]

And this is like a side note tangent, but I spent many, many years picturing these parallel universe versions of myself where I made different choices. Luckily, now, 10 years later, I feel like they've all kind of coalesced into the one thing so I don't have to worry about these other timelines. It's not a multiverse.

[D]

There's one.

[C]

If you've ever done skydiving, the plane is Tiny. And I was the only one in the plane with my tandem instructor. You're on a tiny rubber mat 15, 000ft in the air. The plane is rickety. It's scary. It's a scary thing. The door opens, we get to the edge. 3, 2, 1. And of course the tournament instructor, being the cheeky person that he is, leaps on two and out the plane we go. And I, I kind of knew what to expect based on the safety procedure that happened before we jumped. But that is a very euphoric feeling and it sounds very simple to say, but it does feel like you're falling, you're free falling. It's happening and you feel heavy and it's terrifying, but it's a thrill because you know you're going to survive and you're going to land safely on the ground.

[D]

Brad and his instructor are now in what they call free fall. Now for a 15,000 foot jump, this can last between 60, 70 seconds. And after that, the rip cord is pulled to release the chute for anywhere between a two to ten minute ascent to earth. And everything was going to plan until Brad looks over his shoulder.

[C]

I see behind me that there's just like this like blue and yellow flailing sheet which ends up being the parachute. And it hasn't opened correctly, so it's all crumpled together and I can just feel my tandem instructor behind me, just throwing elbows and grunting and pulling on cords. There's all this movement happening behind me and once I look up again, that's when I can see two parachutes and just a split second flash. I'm not able to really look up because with the two parachutes tangled, it just leaves us shaking violently. So we're shaking side to side. I nearly get ripped out of the harness because we're moving so much, I lose a shoe. My tandem instructor is just yelling at me to keep my feet down so we can stay strapped together. And that is the moment that the panic started to set in. It didn't feel correct. This didn't feel like what was meant to happen.

[D]

As they were to pass through 4,000ft, Brad's instructor, a veteran of over 2,000 jumps, pulls the chute and as it opens, it tears with the remnants of it now violently flapping in the wind. When jumping from a plane, you have two shoots, your main chute and a reserve, of course, for moments where the main malfunctions or in this case, tears. However, as the reserve chute inflates, it would become entangled in the remains of the main chute.

[C]

My first initial emotion was guilt. Even as I'm falling, I fully accepted that I was going to die and that this was the end because even though we're shaking, we're still falling very, very fast. It felt like the speed you are in a car, except you're on the outside, just the wind thrashing you, the whistling tandem instructor yelling. But I didn't have any cool sort of talk to angels experience or life flash before your eyes moment, nothing like that. All I really felt was guilt because I felt like I could see my family and they were watching me die. Even though I'm sure it was only a few seconds, it kind of felt like forever. It was elongated and it was a fall, but also the perspective kind of felt like the earth was coming to hit me. I was going to be smashed by a planet. So it's extremely disorienting, just the thrashing of it all. But before I could even really brace for it, we hit the ground. It kind of felt like my spine was getting ripped out of my body from my lower half and couldn't catch my breath at the same time. Extremely winded, gasping for air. The lake was so cold that I couldn't feel the lower half of my body because it was basically on the virtual hypothermia. I even had convinced myself in that moment that I was a paraplegic. When I was coming to, I couldn't really make sense. I couldn't move my body, couldn't breathe, couldn't speak, started hysterically sobbing, and I am half covered by this parachute. But I also realize as I'm trying to move my body to scramble it off me, I'm strapped to my tandem instructor who is unconscious, and we are laying perpendicular to each other with him being unconscious. I thought he was dead and was also convincing myself that I was laying on top of a dead person. And on top of that, the guilt was compounded by me also convincing myself that I was the reason he was dead. I've killed this person. My whole family have watched me die. Am I even alive? It's overwhelming.

[D]

It's an insane amount of thoughts to be going through your. Your mind to think that, you know, obviously by the sounds of it, you remember every, every moment of this whole entire. There's no point where you blacked out or anything like that. You just remember everything vividly.

[C]

People are shocked by that. And I am as well. I wasn't knocked unconscious, but my tandem instructor was. And feeling my body on top of him and not being able to move myself off it was trapping. So my mind is racing and trying to make sense and comprehend. So that's where I feel like, okay, this person is dead. For some reason, I'm alive, possibly. It's disorienting and I think your brain is trying to make sense in that moment. The adrenaline is running. But even in reflection, these are the only emotions and the things I can pull out of that whole experience were the guilt and the convincing. And I think the convincing came from trying to comprehend. But thankfully, my tandem instructor does come to and they're also gasping for air. I was able to grab onto his hand. I'm like, please wake up, please wake up. He's not really responding verbally. He's more just like coughing and spluttering. Very intense imagery as well, that I can still very much see when I talk about my story, which is why I very rarely go through detail to detail, because I feel like my DNA is now infused with all the imagery and the feelings and the sounds from that day. Miraculously, though, we were discovered by some golfers who were golfing that day. So not that I could really see what was going on, but I could hear two or three people coming up behind me. And at this point, I still can't really talk. I'm gasping for air, my ribs are killing me, my back is on fire, sobbing, still thinking like, this is the end for me, Like, I might be awake now, but there's more death to come. Just like as I was falling, being convinced that it was going to happen.

[D]

Even more incredible that one would survive this accident, let alone two. As the golfers wade into the water, one would hold Brad's instructor's head out of the water while another held his hand to try and reassure him that help was on the way. Not only was help on the way, but so was Brad's family.

[C]

The golfers were able to separate us and they were trying to console me. Still a lot of tears. My Tenem instructor eventually starts talking. He is screaming in excruciating pain. And that's when I can start to hear my family. My family had come running towards me. At the same time, an ambulance is being driven around us. I can't move my neck, so I can only hear these things as I'm looking up at the sky.

[D]

Of course, Brad's entire family had been eagerly awaiting his landing at the drop zone. His sisters, mum, Julie, Dad, Brian, nieces and nephews, and of course, his new boyfriend. They would quickly realise that something was terribly wrong with Mum Julie running inside the shed where the organisers were and begging staff to tell her what had happened. Eventually, they were able to tell Brad's distraught family that the two men had been found and they were alive. The entire family ran to be by his side.

[C]

And as I'm getting lifted into the back of the ambulance, I can just hear my mom and my boyfriend and one of my sisters. They'd come running. It was probably like 2km. They'd seen it all happen. They'd seen where we had fallen. It was not near the airport at all. And I could just hear my mum telling me that she loved me and everything was going to be okay. And that's. That's the hardest part to reflect on for me because I just felt like a burden and sorry, like I. I'd done something to them and it was heartbreaking. I didn't even put my own pain or feelings first because I just felt so, so sorry for my mum, who's in her mid-60s, who ran all that way. God. And she's like, typical tuck shop lady, full of love, classic Aussie mum. I've loved being able to memorialize her and my dad and my story as well because they were so pivotal to my recovery and my whole life. So to feel like I had scared them and frightened them with my mortality was extremely heartbreaking.

[D]

To this day, although he's obviously healed in many ways, not just physically, it's obvious that Brad still struggles with this guilt from that day. Chapter three that parachute guy. So he's survived the unthinkable, but the battle for survival has really only just begun. As ambulance sirens blare through the streets of Melbourne and he's rushed to the Alfred Hospital, which is located in South Melbourne. He's still unable to really feel much from the neck down, apart from this searing pain in his spine. In the ambulance, he's cut from his clothing and injected with morphine to try and help with his pain. There's not much he can really do except stare at the ceiling of the ambulance, a view that he would become far too familiar with over the coming days. The ambulance pulls up to the hospital and. And he's transferred onto a bed and rushed in as doctors and nurses surround him and begin to work to find out the real extent of his injuries.

[C]

I've just got injections, morphine, pills, water. It's mayhem. And all I can see is the roof of the hospital. I don't know where my family is. I don't even know where I am. And I wasn't even sure what really had happened at that point. I didn't even know it was a free fall, essentially. I think my mind was just like, oh, something really bad has happened, but not really thinking about the cause of it all. Eventually, Mum and Dad get there and my sisters weren't able to make it because they could only allow a few people into the room at a time. So Mum and Dad are there and of course they're hysterical, which makes me feel even worse. And even my entire time in hospital, but especially that first day, I was like, oh, you're the. You're the parachute guy. You had the. You know, the skydiving accident. It had actually been on Channel 7 news that night and it was on my chart, so people knew I was the parachute guy.

[D]

You've almost instantly now been labeled this thing that would obviously continue on then for, you know. Well, even really probably to this day, I suppose.

[C]

Yeah, 100%. And it was. It was everyone's reactions that really showed me the gravity of it all. Excuse a pun.

[D]

Yeah.

[C]

Everyone's reaction was disbelief and shock. And I had no answers for anything. Still didn't really have feeling in my legs. They were able to put a neck brace on me. I'm laying completely flat and I'm on that many drugs. I don't even. I can't even feel my body. And that first night in hospital, and a little bit until the end of time, really, in my entire life, but especially in hospital and my initial stages of recovery, every time I close my eyes, I could feel myself falling. Oh, could not sleep, especially that first night, but could not sleep really forever. And that's something I've only really gotten a grip on the past couple years. But I would get so disoriented by this vertigo when I close my eyes that I'm just ringing the nurse. I'm like, knock me out. I need sleeping pills. I need something. But basically had to spend that entire night reliving something that had happened to me that I still really couldn't make sense of. I think my initial reaction was just searching for answers, but always landing on, this is my fault. And I didn't realize. I didn't even know what survivor's guilt was at the time. Literally had no idea. But accepting that I had done something bad to myself and I'm paying the price. Very strange conclusion to come to because it doesn't make sense. And that is probably the number one thing people respond to most when I tell my story is, how could you feel guilty, it wasn't your fault or you did nothing wrong. Don't feel Bad. It's like, okay, cool, thanks. But I can't help where my mind went. And I think the desperate search for answers, that was the only thing that made logical sense. Because the actual event itself, because it was so confusing, I couldn't really accept that as the truth. Like, there must have been something more going on. Like, I played a stupid game and played a stupid price. Luckily, I don't feel that way anymore. But the guilt is still residually underneath everything I do. And it takes a lot of hard work to rewire your brain where you remove your accountability from something that actually didn't happen to you.

[D]

While in hospital, Brad would undergo every scan imaginable from head to toe. As doctors looked at the extent of the damage, he was still unable to, of course, walk or move his body from the neck down. Doctors would tell him that he'd broken his upper spine and fractured the lower half, as well as tearing all the ligaments in his neck and breaking a number of ribs. However, the doctors also noticed that it was obvious there were more than just the physical injuries that would need attention.

[C]

Still couldn't move any part of my body. Could only stare straight at the ceiling. Everyone that came to visit me had to, like, hover over me. Was all very demeaning. And one of the doctors suggested, because they could see me sobbing every five minutes just, like, give me drugs. They suggested I talk to a counselor. And even then I had this old school frame of mind thinking that, oh, my God, only mental people.

[D]

Yeah, counselor, yeah.

[C]

So I had a chat to this woman and instantly couldn't keep my emotions inside. Couldn't make sense of anything. It was a good way just to articulate or learn to articulate, start to finish the event. But I couldn't even get the words out to finish the story, which is what. Then she suggested that once I recover physically, I actually do go see a therapist. And everything started to compound. Then thinking I've broken my body and now I have to go to a therapist. Like, this must be a very extreme situation, which made me feel even worse about myself. Obviously, everyone's trying to help, and I am grateful for that, but I accepted these as failures. And, like, I have just destroyed my mind and body. I can't sleep. I can't go a minute without crying, and my body is broken. I can't take myself to the toilet. It's all very dehumanizing and tragic. I was very scared to leave the hospital because I felt like I was going to face the real world and would have to start somehow. Re entering the life that I had before, which I didn't really feel like I had the courage to do so. And even leaving the hospital in a wheelchair and getting wheeled out, I. I just felt so ashamed.

[D]

Also, quite incredibly, Brad would only remain in hospital for around four nights in total before he'd go home to his parents, where the recovery really began. Chapter 3 the Dark Recovery so once

[C]

I got home and I split my recovery into lots of different segments, I would say module one is when I got home and I was in a neck brace and back brace for four months, I eventually did see a therapist once and a psychiatrist and I was diagnosed with ptsd, depression and nightmare disorder, which is a type of insomnia. And during this four month period, I basically didn't leave my bedroom, didn't know what time of day it was, was on that many drugs that I couldn't really communicate, would not want visitors. I'd have my niece and nephew draw pictures and I would just yell and scream and tell everyone to leave me alone, would need assistance eating. Mum would take me to the toilet, which now we can laugh at, but at the time was very humiliating. I was a shell of myself and felt like a complete cripple, burdened. I did not see a future. Everything felt so permanent. And during that period, I did lose the will to live and nearly made irreparable decisions, which is also a hard thing to admit because knowing what my life is now and what I was able to reclaim with my life, I shudder to think of that, that decision that felt so very close and almost peaceful in a way. But even though the guilt had burdened me so much, it was also kind of the thing that saved me. As I've come to learn in retrospect, I didn't want to further my burden on my family. And I knew how much they were struggling. I thought a dead son is going to worsen their problems before it actually improves it. And through the past 10 years, my family and I have become so much more open about our mental health. And I think this period in my life did encourage us all to get closer, even closer than we were. But I saw how much they were struggling. And as part of the book, I interviewed my mum, which was so sad. Oh my God. Because we're just big crybabies and she just loves her kids and what a gift, what a blessing for us all to have. But in the book there's a segment where she talks about how she was able to cope. And she would see me struggling, I would wake up from A night terror, because I'm reliving this experience and it eventually divulged into dreams about getting steamrolled, getting pushed off a building, getting mauled by gorillas and being stuck in a cage or stuck in a room where the water's filling up and my entire family is there. Such visceral, crazy nightmares. I'd wake up hysterically sobbing. I've ripped posters down, I've thrown pillows. Mum would have to come in and physically restrain me.

[D]

So with your recovery post this, you know, was there, was there a turning point or is it just a long, very long process in which I'm. Which you possibly, you know, probably still going through now, like you're still, you're still recovering, so to speak.

[C]

I think there's, there's been many turning points for sure. The first one I can really remember that felt very significant because there were turning points and also a lot of setbacks. And that's one thing I'm very transparent about when it comes to healing and recovery, you are going to fall down because healing is not linear at all. And I still grapple with that because I wish it was just like, tick, okay, module 2B complete, onto the next stage. But it doesn't work that way. So the first turning point was trying to get back into my job in radio. I was still a very, very crippled person once I got the neck brace and back brace off, which lasted for four months. So the December of that year, knock on the door back at the radio station, thinking I'm finally going to get back to work and I'll be a normal person. I emailed them and said, maybe I need this sort of chair and maybe we have to work reduced hours. But I still really want to come back because I thought this was a lifeline for me to actually live a normal life. And everyone knew what happened to me. So it was very daunting going into the office knowing that I am the parachute guy. I was on the news, it was, it was palpable, the tension in the air. But I get brought into the office and I was married, redundant, so I lost that job and was back at square one.

[D]

Seven months though, after his accident, he would be given the all clear by his physio to walk unassisted, which of course was a massive turning point in his overall recovery and getting his independence back.

[C]

It is dehumanizing and I don't want it to sound too negative, but when you can't walk for yourself as a young 22 year old who was just living the best Life before all of this, it's very easy to feel defeated. But my physiotherapist was amazing and given me tiny little challenges to focus on. He said, don't think about the big picture. Just get one foot in front of the other. And I took that and ran with it, almost literally. And that's one of my mantras now, at least emotionally, put one foot in front of the other. So when I started to walk again, I would try to get to the end of my driveway and then eventually to the end of my street and then eventually to my sister's house and then to the train station, just getting further and further each time until I was able to walk long distances unassisted and feeling a lot better about my capability. And then it was about 10 months after where I got the okay to drive again, because legally you can't drive if you can't do a proper head check. So I was able to drive again. So all these little achievements started to be my main focus.

[D]

You're getting independence back slowly.

[C]

Everything's coming back, everything's working. Like, obviously still mental and probably not really emphasizing my mental recovery and putting that in the back burner. But I was at least able to move around.

[D]

As his independence came back, so did an opportunity to get back into his dream career of radio. The position was as part of a country radio breakfast team. And Brad felt that he just couldn't let this opportunity pass him by. And although his body may have been in a place for him to start work and this new chapter in his life, his mind was not. Unfortunately, a culmination of late nights, early mornings, a bad romantic relationship, as well as a poor relationship with his boss at work, the house of cards would come crashing down.

[C]

Everything just came to such a huge boiling point that I had what I can only describe as a full blown mental breakdown at the end of that job. I'd been cheated on. I had a job that was going nowhere, that was triggering me, a relationship that was torturing me. My mental health wasn't right. I don't think I've had a proper sleep for a year and a half to two years. So I had this really crazy mental breakdown at a family Christmas, which I can also laugh at because it's just so, so dramatic. Like, it actually never ends. And I was just in my sister's wardrobe just, like, throwing everywhere, like, her jewelry and, like, coat hangers. I was like, nah. And it was all just because one little comment from my mom saying, go easy on your boyfriend, all right? Because I'M sure it's been like snappy and very frustrated. So thank God I had the mental breakdown because it was a way to punctuate that time in my life in breakfast radio and that relationship and living in Gippsland. So I moved back to Melbourne and got a new therapist and started to live the rest of my life and put my mental health first. And that was the start of 2016. So two and a half years later, I hadn't actually properly looked at my brain and what it was doing to my life because it was destroying it from within. So that was another turning point. Probably one of the bigger turning points in the whole 10 year saga, really.

[D]

In 2021, Brad would finally document his experience in a book entitled Freefall, the Luckiest Man Alive.

[C]

Through doing the book, I realized that the healing is infinite. It goes on forever. And I'll never ever stop learning about what happened to me that day and the impact it's had on my life. And that's not a bad thing. That's actually a good thing. I don't ever want to stop learning or growing. And that was kind of a bitter pill to swallow. I was like, oh, this is going to be a part of my life forever. But it's a beautiful thing. And I can't picture my life without the lessons that I've learned from it. And that wisdom has given me such like, so many gifts in my life that now I feel like the scars are the price to pay for the wisdom that I've been able to gain. And now to turn it around and use that wisdom to show other people that there is another side of trauma and that your trauma doesn't define you, but your reaction does. And that it's okay to have setbacks and to fall down and to have your mum take you to the toilet. This is all part of healing. And you've got to embark on that journey to live the rest of your life. In the midnight hour saying, I'll be

[D]

fine where are you now?

[C]

Won't you here with me? It'll calm me down in the midnight.

[D]

Of course, Brad's recovery is so extensive and so many important people were part of his story. We can't fit it all into one episode. Which is why you should grab a copy of his book. The link to which is in the show notes of this episode. I want to say, of course, a huge thank you to Brad for reliving this traumatic experience and talking me through his incredible story of survival. And of course, if you or someone you know is struggling, you can find a link to some helpful services as well in the show notes of this episode.

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