A high school cheerleader’s life was turned upside down after a double date at the Utah sand dunes ended in a tragic accident that left her paralyzed.
At 16 years old, Emily Traveller imagined a college life full of fun memories and cheerleading triumphs, never suspecting her world would be upended as her sophomore year drew to a close.
The then-teenager and one of her friends decided to go on a double date to the sand dunes in April, a two-hour drive from her home.
'We were just going on a date,' Traveller told the Daily Mail.
But after enjoying food and a fire, the group began their journey home, and Traveller -holding items from their day out on her lap - missed buckling her seatbelt.
The decision proved to be a life-changing mistake after their UTV hit a hill and rolled four times.
While her friends were also seriously injured - one with a broken collarbone and another who split his head open - Traveller broke her neck and split her head open after colliding with the roll cage.
'I blacked out. I don't remember breaking my neck, but I do remember waking up in the razor after the roll. I was pretty in and out, it was very out of body for me,' she said.
Traveller recalled the chaotic scene that 'didn't seem real,' as she struggled to breathe and lay in the sand waiting for emergency services.
'I woke up and I instantly felt tingling in my body,' she said. 'I couldn't move anything at all.'
'I cut my head open, I was losing a ton of blood and didn't know what was going on. I just felt exhausted. I just wanted to close my eyes... I called my parents and said goodbye. I thought I was dying.'
Traveller was pulled from the wreckage and airlifted to Utah Valley Hospital to undergo surgery.
Her parents, Jon and Kari, met Traveller at the hospital.
'I think the first time the reality of the situation hit me was when they rolled her into hospital, and they transferred her from the stretcher to the trauma bed and I could see she had no control over her limbs,' Kari recalled to the Daily Mail.
'It’s really hard because you want to switch places - you want to take it all away. But you just can't - to watch your child suffer and feel helpless. That's a really tough position to be in.'
Traveller spent ten days in hospital, where she was fed through a tube due to her paralysis as they waited for her to stabilize.
'I was told I would most likely never regain function below the neck ever again,' she said.
Over the next few months, with her family by her side, she relearned how to move, breathe, swallow and use her body again.
But life as she knew it was over, and the once incredibly active teen was tasked with reimagining the way she lived.
'I told my mom if I'm paralyzed I want to die,' Traveller admitted. 'Like, I don't wanna do this. I don't want to learn life a whole different way. This seems impossible to me, because I didn't really know anybody in a wheelchair.'
'Emily was a 16-year-old girl that had kind of categorized herself as a type of athlete and student and person. Then after this accident, every label was taken from her,' her mother added.
But Traveller's family and friends kept her going and reminded her of a reason to keep trying.
'I'm very fortunate I have an amazing support system. There were just endless people coming to visit me in the ICU. My whole room- at both [hospitals] - you could barely see the walls, it was all pictures,' Traveller said.
'I really relied on them, I relied on my parents a lot. They were constantly reminding me, “You know, if this even doesn't work out the way we want it to work out, we're going to figure it out." And that was comforting. No matter what, I still have my family and my friends.'
Life began looking up as she started seeing progress in her ability to function again. It began in small moments as she was able to sip through a straw, raise her arms or regain her voice.
'I would work so hard on like, lifting my arm an inch higher, and it was such a big achievement. That might sound dumb to people, but that was such a huge deal to me to be able to lift my arm up at all,' she said. 'These little achievements, led me to be able to push myself across the bridge.'
The bridge became her most triumphant moment in recovery. After the accident, she recalled staring out of her window at Craig Hospital and watching the bridge.
'It was beautiful and it would light up at night. I just loved it,' Traveller continued.
So, when her physical therapist asked her to set a goal for herself in the early days of treatment, Traveller said: 'I'm going to walk across that bridge.'
'Instead of me being sad that I couldn't walk across the bridge, I came back a year later and I was like, "I'm going to push myself." So I pushed myself across the bridge.
'It was one of the greatest moments because, no I wasn't walking but that was huge for me. I didn't even know if I was going to get any function back. For me, that meant the whole world. I worked really, really hard every single day to achieve that.'
It was during her time in hospital that Traveller turned to social media, and began documenting her journey in recovery.
'I was nervous. I didn't want to have people judge me or show people that I can't put on my own shirt. That was embarrassing for me,' she admitted.
'But when I did it, I got such an outpour of love [from] people that were saying how awesome it was.'
Through social media, and her time in and out of hospital, Traveller found herself calling many people friends who she otherwise would never have met.
'I found a lot of different people that were also paralyzed young and I found this community of other people. It's given me opportunities that I never thought were possible and I love to be able to share my story,' she said.
Her mom added that 'in the long run, it became such a unique opportunity for her to become friends and close to people that weren't initially in her tight circle.'
'Emily learned how to embrace an entire community outside of what she was used to. I think that's what really enriched her life... at Craig Hospital we automatically just felt love for people, if people [in recovery] were walking Emily and I cried with them.'
Social media became a way for her to process her new way of living, and she began sharing her new reality - the good and hard times - with thousands of followers.
Now 20, Traveller spends her time speaking at schools and events, visiting children at the hospital, and is co-writing a book with her mom. She also has her sights set on giving a Ted Talk.
In September of last year, Traveller, her family and some volunteers took on the challenge of Mt Timpanogos and made it to the saddle.
'She is one of the first, if not the first, quadriplegics to take on this daunting mountain,' Kari wrote on Facebook.
'But our family could have never done this alone. It's become our theme now... give it all we can, and then ask for help. I'm so proud of Emily's willingness to allow others to help her. She trusted everyone.'
Traveller also returned to the slopes and went skiing again. At first, she was skeptical and didn't want to taint her memories of skiing before the accident.
'But my mom made me, and it was almost life changing. The feeling of being on the mountain was the exact same. It was a little different, but the feeling was the same and I think that kind of explains my life now,' she said.
Traveller said that without her family and friends, however, her journey would look entirely different.
'My family's just been all in from the beginning, my mom and dad learning how to do my hair, helping me pick out an outfit - all these little things, I'm so lucky. My family is so patient with me.
'Even with my friends - right as I got back, I went to a dance and they were helping me transfer to the car. The friends that I have now are like family. They never made me feel different. We just jump in, you know, and we laugh and we figure it out.'
Her mom said Traveller had been the most independent of her five children, and as she had grown up she always wanted to do everything by herself.
'This injury was devastating on a massive level. Now she is completely dependent, but she has such a good attitude,' Kari said. 'It's not easy to always have to need help. But I'm just proud of her for letting us do so.'
Now, she hopes to bring all she has learnt to her online content and share her story with as many as possible.
'I try to do lots of public speaking, because I want to teach people that you don't have to be paralyzed to figure out the things I figured out,' she said.
'I thought my life was over, and I think a lot of people would feel the same way. But I just slowly started to do all the things I thought I couldn't in a different way.
'I couldn't control that this happened to me, but I can control what I do with it now. My life motto is, "being happy in any circumstance", and I said, "I'm gonna live a beautiful life in this wheelchair."'
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