MIRACLE SURVIVAL
Exclusive: Boat survivor thanks heroes who saved her life
ELKE Horning Kooij should not be here to tell this story. Six months ago she became trapped under the propeller of her boat while fishing with her husband, Klaas, on the Broadwater.
“(It) sucked me up,” she says. “The water went red instantly.”
The 61-year-old’s right leg was hanging by a thread and she was within minutes of bleeding to death. She only survived because of the actions of a group of special people.
“We were so lucky that there were people there not only who knew what to do, but also they weren’t afraid,” Mr Kooij said.
A GORGEOUS day on the water became a bloody nightmare for Klaas Kooij when he felt something hit the propeller on his boat and realised it was his wife.
Elke Horning Kooij, 61, was preparing to drop a line at Wavebreak Island in January when she fell into the water and became tangled with the propeller, shredding her leg so severely it was barely attached to her body.
“I was completely under the water and the propeller sucked me up,” she said. “The water went red instantly.”
The retired Labrador couple are so experienced on the water their emigration from the Netherlands to Australia was a seven-month journey on a sailboat.
But nothing could have prepared them for this.
Once Mr Kooij realised what had happened, he put the boat in neutral and ran to the hull, yelling for help from nearby beachgoers.
His first instinct told him if his wife was under the boat, she was gone.
“There were two moments I thought I lost her,” he says.
“After I knew she was under the boat I was prepared to find her lifeless. Then I saw her hand shoot up out of the water and it’s instant relief.
“But then I saw the leg coming up, or what was left of it and I knew it was bad.
“Second time I thought I lost her was for a moment when she closed her eyes on the beach.
“I thought ‘Oh, no no no. I’m losing her, I’m losing her, I’m losing her’. That’s very traumatic.”
The beachgoers who assisted were the only reason Ms Horning Kooij did not close her eyes permanently while lying on the sand.
Her injuries were so extensive it required the help of multiple people to control the many gaping wounds.
Luckily, one of those people was a trainee cop who had completed his extensive first aid course only a week earlier.
“There was a man sitting and my head was resting in his lap and his hands holding my head and there were two women on either side,” Ms Horning Kooij recalled.
“I was conscious the whole time but I had a couple of moments where I thought it would be very easy to close your eyes and you’re gone.
“The man kept asking me questions to keep me awake and the women are saying ‘Stay with us, Elke, keep your eyes open, breathe’.
“Can you imagine what those people have been through?”
Mr Kooij said: “What saved her life was basically the first aid. We were so lucky that there were people there not only who knew what to do, but also they weren’t afraid. They didn’t run away. They acted.”
The young trainee cop called the hospital and left his number to find out the fate of the woman they last saw on a boat back to the mainland.
The whole group, who where strangers before the accident, visited Ms Horning Kooij in hospital and again six weeks ago.
Ms Horning Kooij is eager to get back to a life as normal as could be expected.
She is learning to drive with only a left leg and is awaiting an appointment for a prosthetic leg.
“For me, it’s very important,” she says. “I’m a very independent person. I like to stand on my own two feet.
“Well, for me that’s not possible anymore, so I have to learn to stand with one foot on the ground.”
BULLETIN’S VIEW, P16