LUCK OF THE IRISH
Doctors say this man should be dead. He fell 7 storeys, was in a coma for 2 months, survived 37 operations and lost his legs
IRISH tradie David Conway will leave Gold Coast University Hospital today, nine months after falling seven storeys from an apartment building he was working on. Doctors said he should have died in the ambulance. The 37-year-old says he will toast his second coming the only way the Irish know how, with a Guinness — or two — on Saint Patrick’s Day tomorrow.
IT has been nine miraculous months and Irishman David Conway believes he finally deserves a drink – maybe even a couple to celebrate St Patrick’s Day tomorrow.
The carpenter will be released from Gold Coast University Hospital today after falling seven storeys from a Varsity Lakes construction site in July last year.
Doctors said the 37-yearold, from Rathcoole in county Dublin, should have died in the ambulance. But after 37 surgeries, 82 litres of blood transfusions and two months in an induced coma, Mr Conway is ready to go home.
“I put it down to Irish endurance, the fighting Irish,” Mr Conway said of his miracle survival. “If you look through the history it’s been through a lot just fighting to survive. And have the craic, and celebrate Saint Patrick’s Day and take Guinness, that’s all we want to do.
“For (tomorrow) I’ve got a friend of mine who’s putting on a show down on Broadbeach, so it’ll be proper Irish stuff.”
Mr Conway, who moved to the Gold Coast in 2002, said he could not remember the days leading up to the fall.
“I thought somebody had hit me over the head with something in Surfers Paradise, that’s the dream I had while I was in a coma,” he said.
“I didn’t know anything about falling off a building. I think somebody told me eventually it was six storeys or something because I was trying to piece it together because I thought I was in Surfers.
“My dad showed me a video of the area and I was shocked. I didn’t know how anybody could survive that. It was all new to me.”
Mr Conway, who had both legs amputated below the knee after the fall, said he was blown away by the dedication of hospital staff.
“You would wonder why if a person come in with such a bad condition like that, you’d wonder why they would bother,” he said.
“They’re amazing people to say ‘look, let’s give this a good crack’. They’re just passionate about their job.
“If that was anywhere else in the world they would just put you in the garbage bin, ‘look at the state of this fella’, so to think the Gold Coast University Hospital is probably one of the best in the world.”
Mr Conway said his injur- ies had pulled his friends and family together and led to the towns of Rathcoole and Newcastle, in Ireland, raising more than $50,000 to help with his recovery.
“It’s brought people together, there’s a lot of people at home,” he said. “We were all drifting apart and doing our own thing but it’s drawn everyone together.
“A lot of good came out of it too and if I can get prosthetics I’m back on track.”
Mr Conway said he was refusing to look too far into the distance and was looking forward to spending as much time as he can with wife, Viv, and his daughter, Keisha.
“You can’t picture it in five years time. You just have to take it day by day.
“I’ve told Keisha I’ll be around forever. I just apologise for not being able to play or to mess about, but she’s delighted to be back on track.”