MY AMAZING TALE OF SURVIVAL
Trapped in a burning car, the father-of-three thought he’d never see his wife and kids again
Time was ticking on and Karen Manning was feeling uneasy. Her husband Jamie, a stock salesman, still wasn’t home yet.
Unable to contact him to find out where he was, Karen left her three children at the family’s farmhouse in Dubbo, NSW, and went out looking for him.
As she approached a bend, a mere 3km from their home, Karen faced a horrifying sight – the flashing blue lights of police cars and her husband’s ute crushed against the trunk of a tree, engulfed in flames. “I saw the fire from Jamie’s ute light up the night sky and I thought he was gone,” Karen tells Woman’s Day.
She broke down sobbing, believing her husband to still be trapped inside the inferno – something no one could possibly survive. Incredibly, Jamie cheated death and had already been pulled out from the wreckage and was in an ambulance, being rushed to hospital.
Making the mercy dash to reach him, Karen learned the devastating details of what had happened. When an oncoming truck had caused Jamie to swerve, he’d left the road and ploughed into a tree. The impact had shunted the engine onto his lap, the seatbelt jammed around his waist and his legs were pinned under the dashboard of the ute, which had quickly caught on fire.
For 20 minutes, Jamie was engulfed in flames while neighbours frantically fought to pull him free. Just seconds after they did, his car exploded. He was critically injured with a broken and dislocated hip, eight broken ribs, four broken vertebrae, bleeding on the brain and full thickness burns to 40 per cent of his body.
His nose, eyelids, left ear and lips were so badly burnt that it appeared as though his face had melted in the fire.
FAMILY MAN & FIGHTER
“The doctors said he would either be blind, brain damaged, paralysed or like a vegetable if he even lived,” says Karen, 45, “but I refused to believe them.”
After all, her husband didn’t have the nickname “Dodge” for nothing. A keen bull rider, he’d gotten through some pretty hairy situations in his time.
Over the next 10 days, Karen printed out 120 photos – pictures of their family, Jamie bull-riding and mustering cattle – and laid them across his hospital bed so the staff would know the kind of person he was: a family man, and a fighter.
When doctors told her that his left leg and hand needed to be amputated, she bravely gave the go-ahead. “I asked them if he could still ride a horse,” Karen recalls. “They thought I was crazy to even be thinking about that, but they said maybe he could and that was hope for me.”
MAN ON A MISSION
After seven weeks in a coma, Jamie finally woke up. And not only did he survive, he thrived – proving his doctors wrong and becoming an inspiration for millions of Australians.
“Jamie has always been the sort of person who looks at the bright side and that is what saved him – it saved us,” says Karen.
Jamie made it his mission to get home to Karen and their kids, Jedd, now 18, Braydon, 16, and Lori, 10, as soon as possible. And with steely determination, Jamie proved himself to be one of Australia’s bravest dads.
“That day was the luckiest day of my life because I should have died but I didn’t,” says Jamie, 45. “When doctors told me I’d never work again, I decided no one gets to tell me what I can or cannot do.” True to his word, Jamie spent 14 weeks in the burns unit when he was supposed to be there for nine months, and only two weeks of what should have been six months in rehab.
He never gave up hope and four months from the day of the accident, he was home. He underwent hundreds of operations and defied all predictions by going back to work in a managerial role. He became a public speaker and road safety advocate. Jamie wanted to get back on the horse, literally, and set himself a personal challenge to ride on horseback for 22 days, with only one hand and a prosthetic leg. He covered 595km through western NSW and inspired a nation by raising $30,000 for the Limbs for Life charity, which provides services to amputees. He had to learn how to walk on prosthetics, how to balance himself while riding and, six years on, there are still days that he misses his old self.
“I can’t run around or play footy, but I don’t dwell on it. It’s a miracle I’m still here,” he says. “I get to watch my kids grow up, and that’s what keeps me going.”
‘I decided no one tells me what I can or o cannot do’
When young mum Renee Albert went to the doctor feeling unwell, she hoped a blood test would confirm that she and husband Shaun were expecting their longed-for second child.
“They confirmed I was pregnant with our second bub, and we thought everything was going to be just like our first-born, Jayda, who’s now two and was the easiest baby ever,” explains Renee.
When the results came back at the four-week mark, the levels of HCG (human chorionic gonadotropin), which is a protein hormone normally in the placenta of a pregnant woman, were showing at 49,000 – indicating just one baby.
“At the 13-week scan we expected to hear one little heartbeat,” says Renee, 27.
“At first, they said we were having twins, and I remember saying, ‘Don’t be silly, there’s no chance of that!’ Then came the clanger – they told us there’s actually three heartbeats.
“We were in shock, wondering just how this could happen?”
When Renee and husband Shaun, 31, went back to the doctor to find out how the experts had got it so wrong, they found out it was down to a simple paperwork error.
“When they first shared my blood test results, they missed a zero on the HCG levels. They
told me it was 49,000, but it was actually 490,000 – that’s a huge difference!” Renee says.
Their joy soon was overshadowed with worry after doctors told them there was a real danger all three babies may not survive the natural pregnancy.
“I just cried. I knew we were extremely high risk and I knew the odds were against us, but I also knew Shaun and I would do anything to protect them,” Renee says, holding back tears.
HIGH RISK
The triplets were confirmed as girls early in the pregnancy and a scan revealed they shared the same placenta and amniotic sac – their tiny bodies separated only by thin membranes.
“It was like a sheet of cling wrap. Their limbs weren’t touching but they looked twisted and intertwined – it broke our hearts,” says Renee.
Doctors warned of the dangers of all the naturally conceived identical triplets feeding off the one placenta.
“There was a high risk of twin-to-twin transfusion, which means that one baby can get more blood and another won’t have enough,” explains Renee.
At 32 weeks and two days, on December 10, 2018, doctors made the difficult decision to deliver all three girls via caesarean section after little baby Sophia’s weight gain had slowed down to a dangerous level.
“She came out first (weighing 1.8 kg), then two minutes later Ellexia arrived (1.9kg), and a minute later Aurora (1.7kg),” says Renee, praising the wonderful staff from Melbourne’s Monash Clayton Hospital who assisted in the whirlwind birth.
“They held them up, but I wasn’t wearing my glasses and couldn’t see them! They rushed them to NICU where I got to see them for the first time. My heart melted right there – our little miracles.
“I will never forget the first
‘I knew Shaun and I would do anything to protect them’
time I held them all together in a kangaroo cuddle. It became very clear from the beginning, these girls are sticking together, no matter what!”
Now 17 months old, the healthy toddlers couldn’t be happier, especially with big sister Jayda showering them daily with hugs and kisses!
ONE MORE?
“They’re all very different,” says the proud mum. “Ellexia is very sensitive and loves to do her own thing. Sophia
is crawling everywhere and she’s very loud and loves attention, and Aurora is in the middle just doing her thing.
“We’ve had to buy a huge van to ferry us all around. It is military precision every day in this household!”
So, does that van have room for baby number five?
“I’ve always wanted a boy, and if we knew 100 per cent that I would be pregnant with a boy, then I would,” says Renee.
“Considering we only ever wanted two kids, for now we’re just happy as can be with all our precious little girls.”