Trauma haunts couple decade later
Life is still a daily struggle for a Mackay couple who are haunted by the sound of helicopter blades after a horrific motor vehicle accident on the Bruce Highway a decade ago.
Tony and Vicki Wilson’s lives were changed forever in the blink of an eye with the careless actions of a foreign tourist on a notorious stretch of highway on May 2, 2011.
The couple, who were then living in Moranbah, were lucky to survive a horrific head-on collision on the Bruce Highway, 6km north of Carmila. The wreckage of the two cars was strewn across the road and closed the highway for seven hours as emergency services worked frantically to free the trapped occupants from the crumpled vehicles and airlift them to hospital.
The cause of the horrific smash was two German tourists travelling on the wrong side of the road over a hill. As the driver swerved to correct the vehicle, they smashed head-on into Vicki and Tony’s car. The male driver was injured and the passenger died on impact.
Tony and Vicki suffered very serious, life-changing injuries and were in hospital for six weeks.
Acknowledging the 10th anniversary of the crash this month, Vicki has some very vivid memories of the accident and her retrieval by RACQ CQ Rescue. She counts herself as both incredibly lucky, but also terribly unlucky.
“I remember being wheeled to the helicopter groaning in pain. I remember the sound of the helicopter blades whirring overhead and opening my eyes in the aircraft and the doctor saying ‘we will be at the hospital soon’,” she said.
“The RACQ CQ Rescue crew were fantastic from what I can remember – I was blacking in and out and apparently turned grey.
“I couldn’t believe what had happened when I woke from my coma, as we know the road like the back of our hand, as we had done a lot of traveling with our businesses.”
Their injuries were horrific. Vicki suffered a fractured sternum, blood clots in her lungs, one collapsed lung, broken ribs, bruising, a broken right ankle which needed two pins, a broken left wrist which needed wiring and a deep laceration to her right arm near the elbow which needed staples. She also lost part of her large bowel and needed surgical repairs to her small bowel, required a colostomy bag and 36 staples down her stomach. She was placed in a coma for 24 hours due to my the severity of her injuries and later developed pneumonia
Tony had a fractured disc in his back pushing on his spine so he had to be flat on his back in hospital, then wear a special spinal brace. He suffered a broken finger, a broken left leg which needed plating and seven screws, serious bruising, fractured ribs and issues with his lungs.
Vicki later had two more major operations in Brisbane, the first in February 2012 for my Colostomy reversal, the second on their wedding anniversary on June 14 2012.
“They cut me from hip to hip to attach mesh to my pelvis as the muscle tore off in the accident due to the impact. I also had a shoulder operation the following year due to the muscle being torn of the bone,” she said.
The Wilson’s recovery process a decade later is still slow and very long. Vicki lives with constant pain in her left side and ongoing anxiety.
“Tony has never been the same. He has PTSD and can’t walk or sit for long. He’s in constant pain with his back and he’s not the same person he was before the accident,” Vicki said.
“Our injuries and ongoing medical issues and rehabilitation meant we could not return to our businesses in Moranbah,” she said.
“We owned two service stations with 40 staff in total. We had been living in Moranbah for 17 years and lived in Mackay all our lives prior to that.
“But this accident changed our lives forever. It makes us both so sad that we started out with nothing and worked so hard for so many years for it all to be so tragically taken away by someone being so careless,” Vicki said.
“We never imagined we would ever need to use the rescue helicopter but are just so glad they were here and available when we needed them. Without them I would not be here – they lost me twice in hospital after the accident.”
Today, Vicki’s message is simple.
“I really want people to know that without RACQ CQ Rescue there would be a lot of people not alive today. They will always be close to my heart and very high on my list of organisations so very worthy of support. I thank them from the bottom of our hearts for their help that day 10 years ago,” she said.
“The work they do is amazing. I always hear the rescue helicopter flying over our house in Erakala and it’s a sound that haunts me since the accident – that whirring of the rotor blades.”
“I really want people to realise that life is tough after a major accident and that the health problems can be ongoing. We just have to take one day at a time, manage our pain, try to look on the positive side as much as possible and be thankful we are still here today,” she said.
