Patient Em Stoneham was airlifted to the Royal Melbourne Hospital Emergency Department following a horrific car accident that led to multiple internal injuries.

Emergency patient Em Stoneham and family
Emergency patient Em Stoneham and family

Authorities were notified of the high speed crash by Em’s Apple smart watch, which had identified Em had been involved in a hard fall.

Husband Adam who worked close by, was alerted of the crash by a message he received.

“I was at work, and my phone beeped with an automatic message telling me that ‘Em has had a hard fall and a GPS location’,” Husband Adam said.

He knew something was wrong and quickly made his way to the scene.

“Because I didn’t respond when the watch asked me too – it automatically sent a message to the ambulance to let them know a hard collision had taken place,” Em said.

When Adam arrived, he was able to assist Em, with the ambulance not far behind. She was then airlifted to the RMH for urgent care.

Em went on to have eight operations at the RMH and a further three at the Epworth hospital where she was transferred for further rehabilitation.

For husband Adam, the whole event was traumatic, but said the week Em spent in the intensive care unit when she was critically unwell was the hardest.

“We didn’t know what was going to happen at the time, so that was really tough,” Adam said.

Three months on from the accident, the family are making progress, slowly but surely.

“I have ongoing rehab and appointments, I’m currently using a motorised scooter to help me get around,” Em said.

Em is an avid horse rider and is looking forward to getting back on her horse.

“My goal is to get back to my horse, and get a new discipline to the Paralympics,” Em said.

It has changed how they both view the world, the experience shaking them both up and realising what is important.

“You have to be thankful and present in the moment, it’s made us realise you have to live in the moment and not get caught up with what could happen in the future,” Adam said.

Em is featured on the first episode of EMERGENCY. You can watch current episodes on 9Now.

Mobile Stroke Unit with Ambulance Victoria paramedic and the RMH Stroke team
Media enquiries

We provide a media service from 6am to 10pm each day. Journalists are welcome to contact our media advisor on-call via the RMH Switchboard on (03) 9342 7000.

During business hours, journalists can email mh-communications@mh.org.au. We do not respond to emails outside business hours.