![](https://image-cdn.essentiallysports.com/wp-content/uploads/Sam-Bloom-FI.jpg?width=600)
![](https://image-cdn.essentiallysports.com/wp-content/uploads/Sam-Bloom-FI.jpg?width=600)
What could possibly go wrong during a family vacation? The answer to that question wasn’t a pretty one for Sam Bloom, a mother of three kids, with her husband Cameron Bloom. In 2013, when the family of five made a trip to Thailand, Sam Bloom’s life turned upside down. She fell through a dilapidated balcony, six meters down onto a concrete floor, as her family had to watch it unfold with terror. Bloom suffered severe injuries and saw a bleak perspective of her life from there on. But what she has achieved since, will inspire anyone to chase their dreams, no matter how far-fetched it seems.
Ten years later today, Bloom is a two-time World Para Surf Champion and is a beacon for all surfers around the world. Although Bloom believed that all her best years were over once she fell on that concrete slab, she still found the courage to make the world believe in miracles.
Sam Bloom’s life turned upside down overnight
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The moment Bloom fell on that floor, her husband rushed to her assistance and found a horrific sight. Cameron Bloom saw his wife’s head split open with blood gushing out of it. A fractured skull, bruising, bleeding of her brain, ruptured lungs, and shattered T6 and T7 vertebrae were her injuries upon diagnosis. She had also bitten her tongue out of pain causing lacerations.
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It took 3 hours to rush her to the hospital, three more days there until her condition stabilized, and finally, six months of surgery and rehabilitation to put her in better condition. But such was the severity of the fall that she was forever paralyzed from her chest down to her legs. However, she would soon find her passion again and go on to become a world champion.
Bloom said to Nine Honey, “Before my accident, I was super active. I’ve grown up by the beaches, so I’ve always surfed and felt really comfortable in the ocean. After my accident in 2013 when I broke my back… I don’t have any control. All I have is my arms so I feel quite uncomfortable in the ocean now because I don’t have control”.
10 years later, Bloom reminisces about the haves and have-nots in her life
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But much to her own surprise and delight, she went back surfing. But surfing has its own dangers and freak accidents like Bogart the Explorer’s can lead to horrific situations. However, Bloom couldn’t refuse the call of her passion i.e. the oceans and waves. She competed at national and international levels and won on both accounts. She was also captain of the 2022 ISA World Para Surfing Championship. Upon recuperating, Bloom wanted to pursue something other than surfing. Someone suggested wheelchair basketball, but she went kayaking instead. It gave her enough joy to keep pursuing it for some time. She was also part of the Australian ParaCanoe team for the World Championships in Milan.
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But all these years later, Bloom still wishes she had not suffered that incident on the balcony in Thailand that day. At the 10-year mark of that incident, Bloom wrote a heartfelt Facebook post and expressed how it took so much from her life. But she is also grateful for her family, and her three boys – Reuben, Noah, and Oli. Bloom and her story of resilience, has inspired surfers and mothers all around the world.
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