From Trauma to Triumph: 117 days to stand again
A 600kg horse fell on Hacia Atherton. 117 days to relearn standing, thirty-plus procedures, and a career rebuilt on the psychology of adversity.
Hacia's horse reared during dressage and came down on her, all 600kg of it. She army-crawled out from under it before she collapsed, then spent six months in the hospital: thirty-plus procedures and 117 days learning to stand again. Her first tries lasted about ten seconds before her legs gave out.
The mental side was as brutal as the physical: depression, anxiety, the dehumanizing parts of hospital life. Positive psychology and deliberate gratitude practice changed her recovery trajectory. She also studied for her CPA exam from her hospital bed because she needed one thing in her life that wasn't uncertain, then asked for day leave to go sit the exam. That's the kind of person she is.
Now it's the work. She founded Empowered Women in Trades in Australia and wrote The Billion Dollar Blind Spot, and she comes with receipts: workplace psychological disengagement costs the US economy $450-550 billion a year, and the global economy $8.8 trillion, nine percent of global GDP.
“My PhD is probably how to turn trauma into triumph.”
What stayed with me
- Her horse fell on her: six months in hospital, 30+ procedures, 117 days to relearn standing.
- She studied for her CPA exam from her hospital bed to have one stable thing, and took day leave to sit it.
- Positive psychology and gratitude practice visibly shifted her physical recovery.
- Her research pegs workplace disengagement at $8.8 trillion globally, 9% of GDP.