“They saved my life”
“They saved my life.” Four simple words but for Yarragon farmer Chris Vaughan, he is still overcome with emotion when he talks about the day paramedics and police officers kept him alive.
A triple zero call for help to a farm accident in August last year resulted in emergency services saving Chris’ life. He suffered significant injuries in the accident and went into cardiac arrest.
Ten months later he has said thank you. “They saved my life. It blows my mind that these people who I don’t even know put in all this effort to help me.”
It was Friday the 13th when the freak accident happened. Not superstitious, Chris said it was just another day on their family farm - he was going through the routine of an afternoon milking to help his daughter Alex and son-in-law Marty who now run the dairy property.
“I was just helping them, it was about 4pm and I went to get the cows up.”
For 40 years, Chris, a fourth generation farmer on the Hazeldean Rd property, has travelled along that cattle track, knowing every bump and turn.
On a side-by-side vehicle, fitted with seatbelts and a roll bar, Chris had unbuckled his belt to get out and open a gate. The track was flat and muddy where he was driving.
But, in the split-second moment that he glanced over at some cows in the paddock, the vehicle clipped tree branches that had fallen in a storm a month earlier and moved to the side of the track.
“In behind the branch was a heavier branch that hooked onto the roll bar which spun the vehicle around. The track was wide and the branches were off to the side.
“It was just an accident. I can’t believe it happened, I have been riding that track for 40 years. “I was thrown out of the vehicle and the back of the bike collected my pelvis and back,” he said.
The ATV unbalanced and rolled onto its side. Chris’ left arm was under the roll bar and he sustained serious injuries - a fractured pelvis, five fractured back vertebrae and a dislocated shoulder and elbow and the muscle. The roll bar had virtually severed his arm, ripping the muscle, ligaments and nerves away from the bone.
He laid in the paddock waiting for help. All he can remember is feeling very cold.
At their house, Alex thought it was unusual when her dad’s dog appeared without him and when Marty saw cows walking back along the track, he knew something was wrong.
“It’s all very vague. I was conscious when Marty got there because I remember saying the bull got me.
The intensity of what unfolded next is still a blur to Chris and his wife Lynette. The police report of the accident indicates Chris went into cardiac arrest when he was rolled onto his side.
Lynette, Alex and Marty gathered around Chris, urging him to keep fighting as police and paramedics performed CPR to bring him back to life. Once stabilised, he was airlifted to The Alfred hospital.
Chris spent two and a half weeks in an induced coma. Thirty hours of multiple surgeries and skin grafts from his legs rebuilt his arm.
Six weeks in The Alfred followed by six weeks at the Epworth rehabilitation centre was only the beginning of a long recovery journey for Chris.
“I was so fit and healthy. At 63 I was as fit as a fiddle, worked everyday and for long hours.
“It was a real shock waking up from an induced coma with all this damage and no idea why I was there. I woke up with a steel frame holding my arm together.
Hospital staff gave Chris three key points to help in his recovery - eat the food because it will make you stronger; physiotherapy - do it all and more because it will make you stronger; and, psychiatrists - see them because your mind will need it
“We’ve got a terrific health system. They’re amazing. We are so lucky to be surrounded by so many good people.
As part of their healing, Chris returned to the accident site six weeks ago with Alex - “it was comforting and it was good for Alex.”
He still fights tears thinking about what could have been and what his family watched unfold that day. But, positive about what lays ahead, Chris says “I’m coming good.”
Christ has physiotherapy twice a week and medically, they tell him he is doing really well.
“But I’m not giving up, I’m aiming for 100 per cent.
“Life is good... in the scheme of things, it is a hiccup. I dodged a bullet that day. I want to help others know to have the strength, because you can get through it,” Chris says.