Te Portland Tourist association receive this letter today. Most would remember the accident referred to I encourage all to read as it is sent with much gratitude. Hello there I am writing to you today to ask if you could possibly do me a very big favour and put this in your window to say thank you for the wonderful help we received. My wife & I were on holidays from NSW with our good friends and were making our way through Victoria along the great ocean rd heading towards Adelaide when tragedy struck. At approximately 2.45 pm on the 2/4/2014 we were involved in a head on accident with a hired campervan that was unfortunately on the wrong side of the road. I had tried to pull as far left as I could to miss the oncoming vehicle but due to the driver realising his error he endeavoured to yank his vehicle back to his correct side. The weight of the vehicle and the force of his manoeuvre cause him to spear straight into our Toyota landcruiser towing our van. My wife was unconscious from the impact and we were seriously trapped. Our friends following us came upon the accident and immediately started to assist. Our vehicle was on fire and due to the impact the cars electrics were unable to be turned off as the keys were inaccessible. By this time there were others at the scene and a trucker I am told had put out the call and other truckers were running their extinguishers up the road to the accident. They were on the last extinguisher when the emergency services arrived. As I was in extreme pain but awake the whole time I did know what was happening.After the fire was put out I am told it took the emergency services 3 1/2 hours to cut us out of the wreck of our landcruiser. We were taken to Portland hospital and I was flown to The Alfred in Melbourne for many hours surgery. My wife followed me to The Alfred the next day. My injuries included a broken femur,broken hip , pelvis , 9 ribs ,broken sternum , 2 back fractures smashed arm and a brain bleed. My wife suffered a fractured leg , broken ribs and brain injury. After more surgery we were able to leave the Alfred and moved to the Epworth. Finally on the 22nd of May we were transported to Wyong hospital in NSW. Closer to family and home. My wife has been home in the care of our oldest son since the 7/6/2014 and I am still in Wyong hospital but in a week or so I shall move to another specialist rehab hospital and then shall finally do my transition to home. Hopefully I shall be home by the end of July ,fingers crossed. It will still be a lot of therapy for us both and life is not the same but we fared much better than the other vehicle with two deaths that I am aware of. Very sad and our thoughts are with them so sad & so far from home. there extraordinary Australian holiday cut short in tragic circumstances. My purpose of telling you this is as follows. To find the words? It is difficult,as Thank you just does not seem a big enough word ,a big enough expression of what we feel and what we wish to say to those that helped us. From the truck drivers who ran there fire extinguishers up to the accident to the SES to the members of the public that did all they could to try to save us. To the ambulances drivers to the helicopter medicos to the nurses doctors, theatre staff, intensive care staff , therapists, social workers, food ladies and cleaners with their sense of humour and a joke. Thank you to you all. You are all extraordinary people. Thank you for the help from the TAC you have been invaluable with advice and assistance. Would you please be able to publish this for us to help express our appreciation?? Our names are Carol & Geoff Maher and we live on the central coast Regards & best wishes to you all Geoff & Carol
Posted on: Thu, 26 Jun 2014 22:43:34 +0000
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