‘Smell of smoke takes me back’

Burns victim Turia Pitt speaking at Women in Medicine Breakfast. Pic Mark Calleja Source: News Corp Australia

BURNS survivor Turia Pitt has spoken about the residual trauma she experiences when she is reminded of being caught in a massive bushfire in 2011.

Addressing a networking event in Perth, the motivational speaker said even talking about the experience evokes a strong physical reaction, the West Australian reports. "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."

'Blessed' ... Turia Pitt cycles into Adelaide with partner Michael Hoskin as part of a 26-day event. Picture: Simon Cross Source: News Corp Australia

Role model ... Turia Pitt on cover of The Australian Women's Weekly. Picture: Supplied Source: Supplied

Ms Pitt was catastrophically injured while participating in a Kimberley ultra-marathon, suffering burns to 64 per cent of her body. Her recovery and attitude since has been nothing short of remarkable; returning to her love of athletics, writing a book, establishing herself as an inspirational speaker and raising almost $200,000 last year for the surgical charity Interplast. In June 2014, she was featured on the cover of The Australian Women's Weekly. She is currently organising a ten-day fundraising trek along the Inca trail in Peru.

She also told the audience her boyfriend has been able to drop the role of full-time carer as she has regained her independence, describing her life now as "incredibly blessed".

Residual trauma ... Turia Pitt says talking about her accident evokes a strong physical reaction. Source: NewsLocal

The road to recovery has hardly been smooth, though. She was required to wear a compression stocking over her healing skin for almost two years, and had seven of her fingers amputated among multiple operations. As recently as last year, after undergoing surgery to rebuild her nose, Ms Pitt woke in intensive care, choking on a tube down her throat. She had stopped breathing during surgery. 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 said. "At that point, all I wanted was death because I had worked so hard just to end up in the same situation."

Instead, she called on her enormous reserve of resilience and battled back to health. Last month she ran her first half marathon since the fire.

"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."

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