How lawyer Rebekah Giles overcame Boxing Day tsunami horror in 2004

Rebekah Giles should have died in the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami. Instead, she spent 20 years rebuilding her body and mind to reach the top of her field.

In the five months she spent in a hospital bed with catastrophic injuries from the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami, Rebekah Giles made herself a promise.

“I didn’t want to be that sick person or to have this event define my life,” the Sydney-based lawyer said in an interview ahead of the 20-year anniversary of the deadliest tsunami disaster in history.

“I really wanted to get better,” she said. “I didn’t want to be stuck in that time and I didn’t want to be afraid all the time.

“I didn’t want to be traumatised all the time — I wanted to live a normal and happy life.”

Ms Giles has spent the past two decades making good on the promise by painstakingly rebuilding her body and mind.

Rebekah Giles survived the tsunami against the odds. Picture: Sam Ruttyn

Ms Giles with Dr Kourosh Tavakoli on Friday. Picture: Sam Ruttyn

It has taken an incredible amount of good fortune, mental toughness and hard work from an army of medical professionals, some of whom are now like family members to Ms Giles.

“You are less inclined to sweat the small stuff,” she said. “It gives you perspective.”

Her life changed while holidaying in Thailand as a 27-year-old when she was caught in the path of the tsunami caused by a magnitude nine earthquake.

The young lawyer was reading a magazine inside her waterfront villa on Phi Phi Island when it was smashed by a wall of water.

By some miracle she landed on top of a pile of debris and didn’t drown.

Her injuries were severe and included a shattered pelvis and multiple broken bones.

When she finally returned to Sydney on a medical flight, the first doctor who saw her — surgeon Kourosh Tavakoli— discovered Ms Giles had an aggressive flesh-eating bacteria.

“She should not have lived,” Dr Tavakoli said.

After enduring about 150 operations over two decades — ranging from reconstructive surgeries to skin grafts — Ms Giles has rebuilt herself.

She is a mother of three and one of Sydney’s top defamation lawyers, with a client list that has included ex-politician Christian Porter and Brittany Higgins.

Ms Giles told The Saturday Telegraph she is still impacted by the disaster.

“For me it was the shock of how it happened that has stayed with me,” she said.

“And because of the pretty catastrophic injuries, I would say I am definitely more fragile than I used to be.”

But years of mental health work have helped reduce the effects.

“I was very jumpy for the first five years, she said. “Loud noises would really scare the life out of me.

Ms Giles was staying at Phi Phi Island when the tsunami struck.

“I was under construction for a very long time ... It knocked the confidence out of me.”

Part of the recovery included retraining her brain.

“If I’m feeling there is going to be a tsunami flying through this wall … I just have to get out of my head,” she said. “I might think about where I am (and tell myself) ‘I’m in my office. I’m safe.’”

She also endured gruelling physical rehab just to perform basic actions.

Pointing to her right arm, she said: “This one was so bad.

“I’m (now) able to brush my hair, feed myself and write with a pen — I love that,” she laughs, “that joy never leaves you.

“You don’t have to rely on anyone to give you a bath or brush your hair.”

Ms Giles with client and former attorney-general Christian Porter outside the NSW Supreme Court in 2021. Picture: Adam Yip

Ms Giles said she was a “38kg wreck” with a colostomy bag when she exited hospital.

The journey changed her relationship with her physical appearance.

“As a young woman that was really important to me, “ she said. “(If) I had a scar I would have a real hang up about that.”

Those feelings quickly fell away.

“I was just so grateful to be alive. It just became a non-issue.”

The biggest thing that sticks with Ms Giles is the care she received in Thailand and then in Australia.

“I’ve made some incredible friendships and lifelong bonds with people who were involved in helping me after the disaster,” she said.

One of those is Dr Tavakoli who still treats Ms Giles and is one of her closest friends.

She marvels at what medical professionals were able to achieve.

“I’m like the Bride of Frankenstein,” she said. “It’s really quite confronting, but the science around it is amazing. I’ve had body parts moved around on my body.”

Ms Giles with Dr Tavakoli at her wedding in 2005. Picture: Supplied

She does not plan to fly to Thailand on Boxing Day but did attend the 10th anniversary.

“It was cathartic … because when I went there it was back to being a totally normal place,” she said.

“The memories in my head were pretty gory. And just seeing life going on. That was good.”

What does the future hold?

“Maybe on the 30th or 40th anniversary it won’t be a shock to me and it won’t be part of my life,” she said.

“I’d like to think that will be the reality for me then.”

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