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021 // Ross can't move his legs
70 Plays15 minutes ago
How many times have you heard of someone with a solid adventure resume being injured by something that seems pretty simple — like, stepping off a kerb, or slipping over in the shower?
Today's guest Ross is an experienced multiday bushwalker, free-diver and deer hunter who grew up with the Snowy Mountains on his doorstep, and has spent a lifetime living and working in nature.
In this episode, he takes us along on the Light to Light walk (near the ominously named, Disaster Bay, the NSW South Coast) — which, compared to many of his past exploits, should’ve been a relatively straightforward three-day walk with his family.
The dreamy beachside campsites and wild, rocky coastal platforms faded fast — the moment a wrong step left him unable to move his legs. The weather was closing in, there was no mobile coverage, and the nearest road was many kilometres away.
Content Warning: This episode includes descriptions of injuries and medical terminology.
Key learnings from this episode:
- Importance of carrying a Personal Locator Beacon (PLB)
- Travelling in a group means that there's someone to give first aid, call for help and carry out a patient's bags when needed
- Always preparing and packing for all weather conditions (download my packing list here)
- How lucky we are in Australia to have such great emergency services, all working together when needed, including volunteers. This rescue involved Police, NSW Ambulance, NPWS, Westpac Rescue Helicopter, NSW State Emergency Services (NSW SES)
- Gear tip: a light fly/tarp as a secondary shelter for cooking in the rain and an emergency shelter for an injured person. ie setting up a tent and getting an injured person inside may not always be easy/possible due to the location or injury
- Always waterproof your dry clothes, thermals and sleeping bag inside your pack
- Importance of training and knowledge in first aid (especially remote area first aid) including how to protect ourselves from environmental factors (cold, rain, etc)
- Value of having Ambulance Insurance and how it could save you money. Medicare does not cover ambulance in Australia.
- More than 1 emergency blanket is needed to properly insulate a person
- Being able to focus on rehabilitation with the right mindset and adjust our lives (and home environment) for the best outcomes
Other resources:
Read Ross' article on the Ocean Signal website (manufacturers of his PLB)
Recommended
Transcript
Podcast Introduction
00:00:00
Speaker
Rescued is a podcast of conversations with rescuers and those who've been rescued. It's about the lessons we learn about ourselves, the places we go and why, without judgment, to help us have better adventures, manage risk and deal with the unexpected.
00:00:18
Speaker
How many times have you heard of someone with a solid adventure resume being injured by something that seems pretty simple, like, you know, stepping off a curb or slipping over in the shower?
Meet Ross: The Adventurer
00:00:30
Speaker
Today's guest Ross is an experienced multi-day bushwalker, free diver and deer hunter who grew up with the snowy mountains on his doorstep and has spent a lifetime living and working in nature.
00:00:43
Speaker
In this episode, he takes us along on the light-to-light walk, which, compared to many of his past exploits, should have been a relatively straightforward three-day walk with his family.
00:00:56
Speaker
The dreamy beachside campsites and wild, rocky coastal platforms faded fast the moment a wrong step left him unable to move his legs. The weather was closing in, there was no mobile phone coverage, and the nearest road was many kilometres away.
00:01:14
Speaker
It's lovely to meet you, Ross, and I'm really interested to hear your story because I sort of caught glimpses of it on Facebook and it certainly piqued my interest. And it's ah I think it's it's a story that's going to ring true for a lot of us who love Facebook.
00:01:34
Speaker
spending time in nature and and walking, getting out amongst it, doing things. Why don't you kick off by telling me a bit about your background in terms of what you like to do?
00:01:46
Speaker
you know is it bushwalking, hiking, cycling, running, all the above? Do you have a favorite outdoor active child you can pick from? Absolutely. Well, look, ah I enjoy all of those, though they're not right at the moment. But um ah yeah, I sort of brought grew up on the Monero. My mum had been a very enthusiastic ah bushwalker and canoeer. In fact, in the the Sydney Bushwalking Club, she was a member in 1950, Oh, wow. Yeah.
00:02:17
Speaker
That was that era, wasn't it? You know, when the the rise of the bushwalking clubs or that sort of recreation type club in in Australia in that sort of, I guess it sort of started in that 30s, 40s, 50s as the heyday, wasn't it? Yeah, it was. And it was, you know, from from what mum was saying, that it was quite adventurous for young women to be involved in those sorts of activities.
00:02:43
Speaker
My first camping trip, she she moved to Cooma in the nineteen early 1950s, and my father had come over from New Zealand to work on the Snowy Scheme. He'd been brought up in a sort of ah more of a hunting, fishing sort of culture in New
Growing Up in Monaro
00:03:00
Speaker
Zealand. And so... They came together in Cooma and we were very much imbued with that, spending a lot of time in nature, a lot of foraging, hunting and fishing and know field mushrooms and all sorts of things. So we were always eating stuff that came out of the bush.
00:03:18
Speaker
For folks who don't know where or what the Monaro is, so we've we've got listeners from all around the world and that area of Cooma, Monaro, are you able to explain just sort of big picture what it's like and and sort of where it sits within, i guess, also within the culture of Australia and the landscape? Yeah. Yes, so so the Monaro extends um in it's in the southeast of New South Wales. It's tablelands country, so high and quite dry. It's a rain shadow from the snowy mountains.
00:03:51
Speaker
and You'd describe it as semi-Arab. People probably don't think of it that way because it is cold and and gets ah snow and those sort of conditions over over winter. Really, really interesting area. and And obviously it was where the Snowy Mountains Authority was based in Cooma for the construction of the Snowy Scheme in the in the mountains. And that was very much part of my childhood was traveling all over the mountains to go to various places where where dad was working. So lots of opportunity for getting amongst it as you're growing up and it sort of to be a part of the family and part of the stuff that was that came naturally to you.
00:04:31
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. And and you know I remember a very early trip in my in my early teens with my my sister one of my sisters who's just a bit older than me.
00:04:42
Speaker
And we did the Valentine Falls walk up from Guthiga. And we did it with mum's gear, which was World War II disposals. It was an a an old A-frame pack and the the yeah The old disposals tent, quite different. But, you know, when you're when you're young and fit and excited, you just ah just carry the stuff. And was that without your parents? So just you and your sister? ah Yeah, yeah.
00:05:09
Speaker
Isn't that interesting? Like we think these days, would we let, you know, 14, 15-year-olds go off by themselves into the... into the onto the main range or of the backcountry? Yeah, probably not. Yeah. um And, you know, like scant, you know, didn't even think about, about you know, what misadventures could could occur in terms of, of um you know, of having contingencies and emergency equipment and that kind of thing in in place.
00:05:39
Speaker
Even that reflection back to your mum and your auntie because it's like so much has changed technology-wise. And they used to have like these epic adventures that even by today's standards are pretty full-on but without all the the lightweight gear, without the dehydrated food, without all this stuff. And, you know, back in the day with the pillowcase as a backpack, you know, for for the hardcore types, you know, and throwing it over their shoulder. And, um you know, it's some ways it's like, oh, have we all gone a bit soft, really? Yeah, and look, I'm i'm sure my mum would have done it. She's a very frugal person still and I'm sure she would have had, you know, lots of just dried bits and pieces and dried fruit and and that kind of thing. She would have, um yeah, she would have done it on a fairly minimalist way
00:06:27
Speaker
ah budget ah as well. You know, they didn't have a lot of money in those days. and And even, you know, i remember talking to mum once about what was her, ah the biggest ah thing that had changed through through her life.
00:06:42
Speaker
and And she said plastic. She said boost so there was no plastic when she was, for you know, for much of her life. And when you think about how much We use plastic in our in our storage and hiking equipment. um Thank goodness a whole lot of that stuff just just wouldn't be available. You know, we have drinking bladders and all sorts of things that are that are made from plastic. And our clothes it's too. Yeah. Yeah, yeah.
00:07:13
Speaker
Yeah, so much change. So moving forward then from that introduction and that that childhood in that area, where what did your other adventures or activities pick in as you were getting older and in through your late teens and 20s and 30s? What other things did you get into?
Diverse Adventures Beyond Bushwalking
00:07:33
Speaker
Well, still doing a lot of um a lot of adventuring, but quite often, you know, spend a lot of time free diving off the far south coast down around Green Cape and and Eden. We used to eat a lot of fish and and abalone stuff and stuff from down there. So, you know, remember going into...
00:07:55
Speaker
One of the the campsites that I stayed on, on the light to light, Mawari Point, I remember going in there ah with my sisters camping camping and fishing, um you know, 45 years ago. we we went in there when there was very little there. In fact,
00:08:13
Speaker
the the campsite at leather jacket bay you're not allowed to camp there anymore but it was um very isolated and we so we spent a week there and the only things we saw were boats offshore ah yeah sort of doing doing a lot of those kinds of of adventures um you know getting into i do some adventure motorcycling um happen mountain bark mountain bike riding and and camping off mountain bikes has sort of featured a ah bit as well.
00:08:44
Speaker
A lot of kilometres under your feet, like a lot of putting in that effort of one foot after the other and a lot of on and off of backpacks and moving through different terrain all through your life.
00:08:56
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, yeah, trying different different things. My wife have done a little bit in the butter wings as well, sort of more year before last we were sort of training up a bit for a New Zealand trip and we went to do the castle walk um and and got absolutely smashed by rain all day and and we ended up staying in ah in a cave on that walk.
00:09:21
Speaker
that was um that was really good, actually. It was pouring rain outside and we ended up sleeping in this cave and and spent the night being raided by bush rats and bandicoots um in there. So it was in just wonderful experiences and that's, I think, you know what we really love is just you never know what's going to happen. You never know what's going to happen. Yes, indeed. Yes. And we were talking quite a lot there about your your connection to this particular part of the world we're going to talk about. So this south coast, you mentioned Green Cape, you mentioned... um
00:09:59
Speaker
Mawari Point, and this is all part of what's now called the light-to-light walk. um So could you just explain, again, to to many of us who've maybe not been there, what is the light-to-light what are the two lights and and where is this placed?
00:10:18
Speaker
the The National Park is right down at the southern part of New South Wales on the Victorian border. it goes down the The park goes down to the border and there's a large cape that comes out at that point called Green Cape. And at the southern head of Twofold Bay is a tower called Boyd Tower and it's now a um a three-day walk with with two overnight stops on the way.
00:10:46
Speaker
And you have to sort of either use a shuttle bus service or arrange to have a vehicle at either end of the of the walk. I mean, it's an amazing part of the world. And I had the opportunity of walking it last year and, yeah, really enjoyed it. And I guess that the outcome and what's there today is that none of that big infrastructure, all those cabins, none of that eventuated. Yeah, no, it's it's all very low-key. Infrastructure now with some pit toilets, with with rainwater tank off the roof so you can get some ah some some water there, and camping platforms, that kind of that kind of infrastructure. but But otherwise, they've kept it are pretty low-key and it's still ah you know it's still a wonderful location.
00:11:35
Speaker
How would you describe the actual walking, the terrain you're on and and the difficulty of this this three-day walk that you set out to do? I don't think it's a particularly um difficult walk. You're on the coast, so there's ups and downs. theres There's some boulder, you know, rock garden or boulder kind of fields where where you're crossing areas that um that are right adjacent to the to the coast and some rock platforms.
00:12:03
Speaker
You go through a mix of of um of forest and heath, but the tracks... really well marked and I think um really well constructed, like good stairs and that sort of um you know that sort of thing where where there's more difficult time difficult bits. Who was with you? And when when was this? what What part of time of the year was this? So this was November, towards the end of November, and I was with my wife, eldest daughter, and a friend of my eldest daughter. So the four of us were were doing the three-day walk. And what's the nearest town to the the northern end? ah The nearest town is is Eden. um So that's where you sort of stock up on anything, but any last minute stuff you you might you might need. So take us to the the start of the walk and how how it sort of opened for you and your group before the the thing you never expected happened. We headed off from Boyd Tower.
00:13:04
Speaker
It's not ah not ah not a long walk to to the first campsite at Mawari, so you've got plenty of time to organise your vehicles and things. And we had we had um a sandwich at Boyd Tower and then headed off for the afternoon walk to get to Mawari Point.
00:13:21
Speaker
Pretty mild
The Light-to-Light Walk Experience
00:13:23
Speaker
conditions. Perfect, really. And so as the as the afternoon rolled on and you were were heading towards Mawari, were there other people there when you arrived?
00:13:32
Speaker
Yeah, there was a couple of other parties at Mawari and it's a delightful sort of camping area. So we we got there and we had one of the wooden platform things we'd booked. So we set up our tents on that when we arrived and then went down to the beach and all had a swim. It was pretty fresh. yeah it was. but But, you know, when you've been... When you've been walking, ah like if there's water, I'll get in it. And yeah, and then had ah had ah had a nice evening at the campsite at Mawari. And when you wake up in the morning, there were just um quite a big mob of kangaroos in and around the campsite and some wallabies as well around, fairly yeah fairly close. So tell me about day two then. How was that? You know, once again, really nice day. A little bit more rock platform um walking. we spent quite a bit of time sort of having breaks on rock platforms because there was some whale action offshore. So we were enjoying sort of sitting and watching some of that while we were having having lunch.
00:14:36
Speaker
we We got to the campsite we booked. used to be really, really nice, but it's quite heavily, the regrowth's quite thick around where they've put in the the platforms.
00:14:50
Speaker
And so we opted to keep going through to saltwater because we were there at about three in the afternoon and we had plenty of time to get through to saltwater and we figured that would give us a a shorter final day walk out. So saltwater is not sort of part of the official walk, is it? It's a different campground. Can you explain bit about that? Yeah, the official walk has sort of lists two campgrounds, but there are there are other campgrounds there that you can also...
00:15:23
Speaker
book if if you want to if you want to do it your own way so we sort of waited till we got a bit of phone reception and booked another another campground at at another spot at salt water once we decided we were going to press on like it was lovely lovely evening but we knew the change was coming through during the night so um so you know we set up our tents and i also had a fly with me that I that i set up so that we'd have somewhere to leave our leave our gear and to climb out and get under in the morning when it was so when it was going to be pouring. And it was. So it started started raining in the early hours and and it was a pretty wet night.
00:16:04
Speaker
Yeah, so no surprises there with the weather. What happened the the next day, which was your last day?
The Injury Incident
00:16:11
Speaker
Yeah, so the next day we had you know we packed up in the in the rain. There's some good shelter sheds there, so we you know we were able to pull the pegs out of our tents and carry them up under the under the roof and sort of do a mix of of getting wet and packing up under under some shelter.
00:16:30
Speaker
But as you do when it's when you're last day, you're just shoving stuff in your bag that's all wet, um you know, with resigned to the fact that you're going to have to do a big clean up and dry out of gear when you get home.
00:16:43
Speaker
It's wild country down there, especially when the the waves and the wind is is coming onshore and it's It's kind of the place that sort of feels like you're in the weather?
00:16:56
Speaker
Yeah, very much so. And I mean, on the other side of Green Cape is is um the aptly named Disaster Bay, where, um you know, i think back in the day when when um sailing boats were coming up around the coast, they they'd some boats.
00:17:12
Speaker
kits and pretty you know violent weather around that part of the coast and and ah and some of them would would sort of see this bay opening up and duck in it for shelter. But it's um it's full of reefs and it hits what is called Disaster Bays, a very wild part of the part of the coast.
00:17:31
Speaker
Which is so contrast to the colour of the water in some of those campground bays like Mawari, where on a good day, it it's almost like tropical island turquoise kind of watercolour. Absolutely. Mawari Beach um is just delightful when it's um you know when when the weather's nice. Current stays in April, May down the far south coast, so the water can be quite warm. And if you get a bit of sunshine, it looks tropical and the water's quite nice.
00:18:06
Speaker
One thing I wanted to ask is there's a term that we use quite a lot in bushwalking, which is called rock hopping. How would you explain what that is? Rock hopping is is where you know you're travelling across something you'd describe as a rock garden or a boulder field where you can't actually put your foot on the ground in between rocks. You're really hopping from the top of one boulder to another. It's easy to lose your footing and you have to be fairly... careful even when it's dry. Sometimes sometimes the rocks that you're hopping on, even though they might look stable, if they can rock when you jump on them they're not stable. you know because it all
00:18:47
Speaker
Quite often these things are in coves or bays where they're where they are very much affected by big seas. So they get moved around and and um and relocated. So yeah, it's that sort of jumping from rock to rock.
00:19:00
Speaker
Is there a bit of that on the light to light walk? There is. There's a few patches where you're crossing boulder-strewn coves where you're rock-hopping.
00:19:10
Speaker
Take us to day three, then. Yeah, so day three, we we we headed off in the in the rain and the and the wind. It was quite a ah change from the previous day. So we were in wet weather gear. I generally just stay in shorts when it's when it's raining, um skin being fairly waterproof, and just had ah had a raincoat.
00:19:34
Speaker
pretty cool and quite wild. And it was really um quite spectacular. We were really enjoying the, um you know, just the the drama of the coast. and So, yeah, we were walking along, stopping and and looking at, you know, looking at various views.
00:19:49
Speaker
And some of that was was sort of on onto rock platforms. And, you know, we were chatting away while we were while we were sort of walking. And, you know, we were probably about five hours from the car when I had my misadventure.
00:20:04
Speaker
Massive thanks for the support from the team at Paddy Pallon, who since 1930 have been leaders in travel and outdoor adventure. In fact, did you know that Paddy himself, a member of the Sydney Bushwalkers Club, was a volunteer in the original search and rescue arm of the Federation of Bushwalking Clubs in New South Wales?
00:20:22
Speaker
Hmm, nice one Paddy. What happened? happened? My wife was just in in front ah of me and as far as I can sort of reconstruct it, because because these things happen a little dramatically, i was coming through some tea tree onto a rock platform.
00:20:39
Speaker
The rock platform looked to me to be even, that it was a uniform rock with one colour of rock and lichen on it, but... ah sort of immediately past the tea tree where it where it opened up, it was actually another piece of the same rock sitting on top of that rock platform. So they looked identical and I didn't see that there was that there was a couple of drop-off between that piece and the next piece.
00:21:09
Speaker
I sort of went around the tea tree, saw the rock platform, and I think just sort of um looked looked out to looked out to see it at the view and kept walking um and stepped straight off this this couple of foot drop with my pack on on my back.
00:21:30
Speaker
You know, I didn't bang myself falling over or anything. You know, i didn't sort of bang my head or or arms or anything. I just went went down pretty pretty severely. You know, remember looking at my knee and thinking that doesn't look right. What did you see when you looked at your knee?
00:21:45
Speaker
Well, but a big hole behind my right kneecap, basically, where where the quadricep, you know i could have put my fist in behind my knee. um was It it yeah it looked looked horrendous, and I wasn't sure what i what I'd done at that at that point, so I was sort of lying on the on the ground, and it was a bit um a bit painful, and I i said, I'm I said to my wife, I look, I think um think I'm going to um pass out. So I did for about for about a minute ah and and then came to and it was it was sort of quite clear that that that um I'd gone from having very functional legs to not being able to move ah either leg, no leg function at all.
00:22:28
Speaker
Yeah, but at this stage you had no idea what the injury was. You just saw these gaping holes above your knees. Well, thankfully, when when when I fainted, it it all kind of smacked back a bit and and gone into more into bruising and swelling mode. um So they they just sort of looked looked horrible, but I couldn't move them. So I'm sitting on my sitting on my bum on on a rock platform with wind and rain coming in straight off the ocean.
00:22:58
Speaker
And so, yeah, we we sort of thought, oh, we've you know got to get a little bit more sheltered and and comfortable. um so I was able to just slide on my on my bottom and my hands back up to a rock that had a bit of tea tree overhanging.
00:23:15
Speaker
overhanging it and then um and then my wife and and daughter and her friend got busy and and got the fly and put the fly up over me and and um ah we we had an emergency blanket um and more dry gear so I sort of got...
00:23:32
Speaker
I had a dry bag with my you know with some thermals and stuff in it. So took that out and got got rugged up um and and put my sleeping bag around my legs once we were sort of under under cover and and set off the personal locator beacon. Well, so did you have, I mean, my first thought was, where's your pack? Because you you stepped off that, you said like ah about a two foot drop, was it? Yeah, so my pack was still on my back when I when i landed and and then we took that off um while I slid back up to the up to the rocks, but we had it had it handy. Yeah.
00:24:09
Speaker
Yeah. yeah And, yeah, ah've ah I've carried a locator beacon for for many years. um Now I've first got one, i was I was actually hunting in New Zealand, in the far south of New Zealand,
00:24:25
Speaker
and um ah near Tapanui and I was in the mountains there and i I'd gone down a ridge line and um and then slipped in some crown fern and slid about 50 metres down ah down a pretty steep slope and at the bottom of that I was just sitting there thinking I'd have just broken a leg um they would have found a skeleton at some point. It was really ah isolated spot. and And so after that, I bought ah i bought a locator beacon and thought, I've got have one of these with me but all the time. So there was no phone coverage here, is that correct, where you were? Yeah, no no phone reception where we were. There was phone reception not that far away, but we didn't know that.
00:25:07
Speaker
So letting off the locator beacon was the was was the the right thing to do.
Rescue Operations
00:25:13
Speaker
um And, you know, within an hour, we we heard a helicopter overhead. So the Westpac rescue helicopter had been at Marooya Airport and and they they got the message to to come and have a look.
00:25:28
Speaker
So what time of day was this? This was about 10 o'clock in the morning. But in not great weather conditions. No, it was quite windy and and scats of rain coming through. so So we could hear the helicopter and it was sort of circling for for a bit and then it managed to to set someone down on ah on a rock, and on on the rock platform nearby, ah who came over and and and was able to
00:25:59
Speaker
able to provide some assistance. I should say just before the helicopter came, actually a guided tour, I think the Sapphire Coast guided tours, they came through and the and the guide with them was really helpful as well. He was just a really calm guy who had some recent training in wilderness first aid, so he he kind of gave a little bit more advice on on rugging up and I'd run out of gas for the jet boil. So he left us his his jet boil gas. So I was able to start heating up water and getting some hot tea into me to sort of fend off hypothermia and shock a bit. So what about your pain level at this point? that You said initially it was so bad that you'd passed out.
00:26:45
Speaker
Did that dissipate and reduce? Yeah, it was it wasn't too bad after the initial pain, so i was able to move myself up the rock and um I was okay. I was able to sort of make myself cups of tea and that sort of stuff while we were waiting for ah for help to arrive. So the Westpac set down, was it a paramedic who came to help?
00:27:09
Speaker
Yeah, he was a paramedic. he was so They weren't sure if I was in the water or not because the um the the the signal from the PLB was was obviously right on the coastline. So yeah he was actually in a wetsuit and ready to jump out of the helicopter to to do an ocean rescue. Wow. But yeah, they saw us on the on the shore and he came in and and was able to get in communication with the emergency services and and to have a chat to me and provide some assistance and start to think through how they how they were going to extract from
00:27:45
Speaker
They were thinking of of the helicopter being able to sort of lift me off the rock rock platform and put me over to where the nearest four-wheel drive track came in, which was a Pulpit Rock a couple of kilometres away.
00:27:59
Speaker
But the weather just turned further, so it was it was too windy and rainy for the helicopter to to come back, basically. He had to walk out in the end as well. Oh, in his wetsuit. In his wetsuit, here yeah, yeah.
00:28:12
Speaker
Wow, so helicopters gone, that's not an option anymore, and you're a few k's from a four-wheel drive track. Yeah. How did they get you out? Yeah, look, it was the the emergency services were just fantastic. There was a couple of National Parks and Wildlife Service um staff were at the site very quickly and they were, once again, really you know really calming and and helpful.
00:28:39
Speaker
And they also, that SES and ambulance were on the were on the way. So that yeah that was very comforting and and um not too long after that,
00:28:50
Speaker
The SES out of Eden and the ambulance and the police arrived. So there was a lot of people turned up, which was very comforting once ah once again.
00:29:02
Speaker
And the SES and the police and ambulance ah stretched me out. they They had a stretcher that had ah essentially a huge mountain bike wheel underneath it. Ah, a terror tamer.
00:29:13
Speaker
Oh, is that what it's called? Yeah, yeah. Terror tamer. Terror tamer, yeah. And they've got brakes on them too, yeah some of them. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, and it had brakes and it, yeah, so they got me in there. not a small person, so it was, you know, it took six people on that to wheel me out and it was across pretty rugged rock platform and boulder field. Yeah,
00:29:37
Speaker
to get me out. And look, I was, but by that stage, the ambulance officer had given me some some fentanyl, so I was probably in the best spirits of anyone after, at that point.
00:29:51
Speaker
And did they have some ideas about and talk with you about what they thought you had done in terms of an injury? not Not really. They weren't sure what was going on other than other than I couldn't operate the lower half of my legs. um and And so they they just splinted my legs. They had temporary splints and splinted my legs to keep them you keep them in in in a reasonable state. And then, yeah, got you stretched me out.
00:30:22
Speaker
Yeah. So ah who who had to carry your pack? Yeah. My daughter and her friend had walked out while we were waiting for the rescue to go and go and get our car and um and they they were getting a bit cold too. So they they got to the car and they yeah came back and carried my yeah carried my pack out. So how long did that take? Because like I'm just trying to imagine the journey back. Like you said, it would have been a lot of really difficult terrain.
00:30:54
Speaker
So, look, i i can't recall exactly. When I sort of work it back, I think I got to Bega Hospital by about 5 o'clock or something that night. So it would have been, know, sort of a total of seven-ish hours since the incident happened.
00:31:13
Speaker
So it would have been a couple of hours on site and then a couple of hours to get me to the four-wheel drive, I'd imagine. What was going through your head while you were lying there or was the was it were you in a fentanyl fantasy land? Well, that that sort of they only gave me that when they got me in the stretcher because they thought it was going to be fairly bumpy and it was um and they thought that might might hurt a bit.
00:31:38
Speaker
um So, look, it was I guess I was kind of in that numb state of of um you know of not really knowing what was happening. I was quite... ah Obviously pretty concerned about about you know how badly damaged my legs were. I'd never experienced having total loss of leg function before. And and what I'd sort of seen was concerning me that that that you know I wouldn't be able to walk properly again.
00:32:05
Speaker
But be extremely grateful to to the emergency services folks. They were just um they were really professional. They were just lovely and calm. And, ah you know, we had quite good rapport on the way out, really, just ah amongst them. And they were all operating really well together. It was just great to see.
00:32:25
Speaker
how well are served we are by our our emergency services. and And, you know, a lot of them are volunteers. The SES folks are in particular are volunteers, but they're all just fabulous. I was extremely grateful. And at one point, I remember I remembermor just said, look, there's just, it seems to be so many people have turned up and the um National Parks person said, look, you know, when it's this ah isolated, ah we tend to over-resource it because it takes too many hours to get more resources if it's under-resourced. And um so that sort of explained the the, you know, the amount of people that have turned up. Yeah. And what was happening for your wife at this time?
00:33:10
Speaker
Well, you know, she was obviously pretty pretty concerned about my state and ah had been pretty worried up until the the point that the emergency services arrived. When you set off a locator beacon, you don't really know what's happening. It's just got a little red flashing light. So getting a um hearing the beat of a helicopter overhead was a huge relief to her.
00:33:35
Speaker
in the first place. We were obviously a bit concerned about our daughter and her friend as well. They were quite, you know, it was exposed place and when you're hiking um you're fine, but when you stop somewhere in that kind of rain and wind, a hypothermia is a risk for everyone. So so she was worried about about them as well. Thankfully they're very fit, so they were able to able to get out and come back in and carry the pack out and and do all of those sort of things. What do you think, you know, when you think about your experience of all the adventures and the trips you'd been on and and moments in your past where things maybe hadn't gone right, do you think there was things from the past that contributed and meant that you had a ah better experience? Yeah.
00:34:24
Speaker
Yeah, I think certainly having been in in fairly isolated and extreme spots, I do a ah bit by myself and I do a bit of deer hunting in New Zealand and in Australia where I'm going into very isolated country on my own.
00:34:41
Speaker
And I'm ah sort of acutely aware that if something goes wrong, I need a locator beacon, I need dry clothes, I need emergency blankets. So I think having thought those things through and having having them on me all the time is is is really important. i You know, i learn a couple of things.
00:35:00
Speaker
of extra lessons as you do from um from this experience and that's that one emergency blanket's probably not enough when you're in really extreme conditions. I had a um an insulated air mattress which we put underneath me as well to to sort of stop heat loss into the to the wet ground. But the paramedic with the Westpac helicopter had a couple of emergency blankets as well.
00:35:25
Speaker
And I ended up with three of them, you know, one sort of in under my raincoat and one around my legs and one underneath me. So a little, a few little extra bits like that, I think, I think are important. But having your base gear right. And if you're in wet conditions, right.
00:35:42
Speaker
or you're expecting wet conditions, making sure that you've got some dry gear in a dry bag. and ah ah ah In New Zealand, I'd always had in know thermals and a beanie in a dry bag.
00:35:54
Speaker
I'd sleep in at night and I'd also then have it back in the dry bag and ready it was needed.
00:36:02
Speaker
Do you have a personal story about an incident or rescue during an outdoor trip when something didn't quite go to plan? Maybe you got lost, injured, let down by some gear, preparation or something else. Look, honestly, it can happen to any of us at any time, regardless of how experienced we are.
00:36:20
Speaker
And it's by sharing these stories and tales that we can all learn and help to avoid them in the future. So if that's you, i'd love to hear from you. So please drop me an email to rescued at lotsoffreshhair.com.
00:36:33
Speaker
That's rescued with a D.
00:36:37
Speaker
Let's go back to Bega Hospital, which you said you got there about about five
Hospital and Surgery Journey
00:36:42
Speaker
o'clock. What happened when you got there? When I got to the four-wheel drive ambulance, and the the ambulance staff were just great, but it was a four-wheel drive ambulance that took me out to the tar road, which was probably about about half an hour, three-quarters of an hour drive um until you're out on the edrim. More bouncing around. Yeah, lots of bouncing around in in in that, and then into a normal ambulance. And, um you know, once again, what what fantastic emergency services we have. i was...
00:37:11
Speaker
you know Whilst bouncing around in the back of ambulances, I was given an ECG and and and and lots of assessment to make sure that I was stable and and okay.
00:37:22
Speaker
And then got to Bega Hospital and um ah once again, ah you know just ah lovely staff at Bega Hospital. They were fantastic. I was pretty quickly sent for an x-ray and a very experienced radiographer there was was able to It just gave me some some comfort in that in that there there hadn't been a lot of bone damage.
00:37:48
Speaker
but i on A couple of bits of kneecap had come off with the muscle, but not not sort of major breaks or anything like that or damage to the to the joints. So that was quite um are quite good.
00:38:01
Speaker
And then, yeah, was sort of just stabilised and fed and and in a nice bed. So that was that was good, but still, you know, pretty concerned ah without knowing what was actually wrong with my um with my legs. And it wasn't until...
00:38:17
Speaker
The next morning when when an orthopedic surgeon came to see me and I and i had a um i had an ultrasound as as well that I found they sort of found out what what the issue, you know, what had actually happened to my legs. I think i think the the ultrasound, the report said wildly detached quadriceps.
00:38:42
Speaker
Not just one, but two. Yeah, both both legs. So um bilateral quadricep detachment, I think, was the technical technical term. So could you put that into layman's terms for us? Like what what's come off from where? So basically the top the top muscle on your thighs that attaches to your kneecap and it it essentially is the weight-bearing muscle for bending your legs. So when you put your hand on your thigh, that that big muscle there ah had torn entirely off my kneecaps on both on both sides.
00:39:19
Speaker
So the tendons across there were were just ripped off. ripped off Wow. so So, Ross, this is now, what, five months since that incident? Yeah. What has happened between? yeah the Bega orthopaedic surgeon explained what what had happened and he said, look, you know they could undertake the procedure there, but given I lived in in um in Canberra and there was such a long recovery that I was better off
00:39:51
Speaker
transferring up to up to Canberra, which is the tertiary hospital to Bega. It's the sort of big regional a hospital. So Monday night I was transferred up from from Bega Hospital to to Canberra Hospital. And um and about half past midnight i I got woken up by...
00:40:12
Speaker
an orthopedic surgeon who who sort of asked me a whole lot of questions and and said I was going to be in surgery the next morning. And so Tuesday morning, I went into went into surgery, essentially reattached my quadriceps. So they drill holes in my kneecaps and then stitch the tendons fairly through those holes back onto the kneecaps and I had 38 staples. I think I had to sort of open my knees up quite a bit to get in there and do all of that.
00:40:45
Speaker
Yeah, and then and then into recovery. So it was about 10 days in hospital. in braces by the end of that i was able to wait there so i could sort of get up and with a frame um shuffle around a bit to you know go to the bathroom and that kind of thing but obviously no leg bending at all And then, yeah, it's been ah it's been quite ah quite ah and and an interesting few months. So the occupational therapy people at the hospital and the physios were also really good. They they came and assessed my my house. um I live in a little two-story townhouse.
00:41:23
Speaker
and getting upstairs just wasn't an option. So they they fitted the house out um for me with ah with a hospital bed downstairs and a frame and a chair and a stool for ah for my legs and what's called a leg lifter, which um because I can't couldn't lift my legs at all. I had to hook this thing over both feet to to be able to move my feet around all.
00:41:48
Speaker
and a toilet riser. So all of these things that you sort of take for granted, I've got a new appreciation for accessibility issues because, um yeah, I was very much, you know, i needed a ramp to get into into the back door, which is sort of only about four inch a four-inch step. i couldn't I couldn't get over a four-inch kind of step in the first while. Wow.
00:42:12
Speaker
And then, yeah, it was very very sort of sedentary. The first six weeks were just in straight splints um with no bending at all while that initial tendon ah healing took place.
00:42:25
Speaker
And then ah I went into a set of of um what they call radius of movement braces that ah you could adjust how much I could bend my legs and started off at 10 degrees and then over the next six weeks progressively went through to 90 degrees.
00:42:47
Speaker
That came off on the 20th of February, those braces came off. Yeah. And I've been able to, um you know, just in increase my mobility since then. So I'm on quite a sort of a ah ah daily physio routine to try and and um build my leg strength back up. So, you know, quadriceps.
00:43:09
Speaker
not being used for for three months essentially have have really atrophied quite a lot. So I've got these skinny little skinny little legs and big bony kneecaps now. When I sleep on my side, I have to put a pillow between my knees because they're banging on each other because there's no muscle there.
00:43:28
Speaker
But, yeah, sort of building it back up and um and getting, you know, Amazing progress. Every few days I sort of think, oh, gee, and I couldn't do that that three or four days ago and now now i can. So I'm able to go for you know four or five kilometre walks on on flat paths. Oh, yeah.
00:43:47
Speaker
I went and bought an exercise bike from the arms from the the tip shop, which has lots of them, um and and put that in the backyard. So I'm doing some, I've got to do some cycling and lots of quad exercises and those sorts of things. So on on the way back.
00:44:05
Speaker
Yeah, on the way back. So, i mean, it still seems like such a long time. Like, you know, everything's relative, but, you know, for an injury five months ago, it still feels like a lot of water under the bridge to get to the point where you can walk, like you said, 5Ks on flat ground.
00:44:26
Speaker
Can you talk about the other part that needs to heal or the other stuff you go through when
Recovery Challenges and Gratitude
00:44:32
Speaker
you've got an injury? Like there's the physical part, but especially for someone who's been so active and so used to to moving around, how how did you handle the the the other side? Yeah. Yeah, look, it's um I guess a lot goes through your mind when you when when you're in that sort of a circumstance with ah with a long recovery. I've just been so grateful that I will be able to walk um again. um it was amazing.
00:45:05
Speaker
Very confronting to me that I might not be able to to do bushwalking and hiking in particular, which is which is what I absolutely love. I don't know if I'll be able to run um ah ah again and I'll have to, you know, I'll see what happens with that. i think I'll be able to cycle again. So that to me was a very positive sort of incentive. I just felt very...
00:45:31
Speaker
privileged to be in a country that has such great healthcare available um to me. and i And I guess, you know, I've always taken my legs so much for granted as as these things that just operate, you know, when you're when you're slugging through the bush and carrying stuff. And yeah, so i appreciate them a lot more. And I was just trying to stay very positive about that journey. i i I got quite frustrated when the braces came off because I sort of thought, oh, you know, that the braces will be off and I'll be, you know, leaping and jumping around the place. um
00:46:07
Speaker
but But it's really just... just coming back to earth and grounding myself and going, no, this is a long slog. It's going to take another three months at least to get back to a reasonable state of leg function. My wife's been fantastic. She's a really positive person.
00:46:31
Speaker
positive person and a very keen chef. So she's been doing sort of, you know, right through that period. was doing weekly food plans that were, you know, very healthy, know, lots of fish and protein and vegetables and all of that stuff to keep.
00:46:47
Speaker
I've had lots of friends dropping in and seeing me, which has been wonderful, and dropping off piles of piles of books I've been sort of doing a whole lot of reading and, yeah, just trying to trying to keep positive around, um you know, around those things and not yeah not dwell too much on being sedentary. I'm ah i'm a very outdoors person and it it's been pretty interesting being, yeah, being essentially confined to one part of the house for for quite a while.
00:47:16
Speaker
So can you drive? I can drive now, yeah. ye So I've been down the coast for for a bit and and sort of able to go out on the beach and throw a line in the water. Didn't catch anything, but it was just nice to be there and and and and and to be able to to sort of begin to yeah to walk around in in the bush a little bit. I'm i'm not...
00:47:39
Speaker
very stable on on ah slopes or or or rough terrain. but don't But, you know, I can navigate it slowly. So, yeah, just sort of getting out and starting to do some of that.
00:47:52
Speaker
And then right through I've been very focused on I'm just doing you know doing my physio, doing what I'm told by the by the professionals and and being rigorous about it.
00:48:04
Speaker
A couple of times I overdid it a bit, trying to get a bit too enthusiastic, and then and that you I sort of ended up with ah you know swelling my knees right up and having to sit there with a bag of frozen peas on them for quite a while, thinking, you know,
00:48:19
Speaker
just reminding myself to do what I'm told and be patient, you know, just take it as it comes and do the physio. So I'm seeing a good physiotherapist at the moment and he's got me on a good program and I'll just stick to that. Yeah. So what's the prognosis from here then? Well, the prognosis is, look, it's not a common injury. So when I kind have a look into it, there's sort of mixed stuff. But the prognosis is pretty good. tendons are fully healed but probably not at 100% strength. But that's okay because I'm not doing any high jumping with them or anything. Yeah.
00:49:04
Speaker
and um um And so the prognosis is really that I should have greater than 90% function by twelve by the 12-month sort of point.
00:49:16
Speaker
um And and i would I'd imagine that as things improve on a kind of ah a weekly basis at the moment, I'd imagine that I'll be walking quite well within um you know within a couple of months. i'll be I'll be back sort of having some nice little day day walks and things like that, I'm hoping.
00:49:38
Speaker
Oh, sounds great. So I have a couple of questions. Yeah. one of them, i mean, one is actually a logistical one. And I'm so curious, when you couldn't bend your legs, how do you even, like were you housebound? Because you can't get in a car if you can't bend your legs. Yeah. That's right. So i had I had these splints on that held my legs straight so so I could walk in a stilt-like fashion with ah with a frame or with crutches, ah not able to lift my feet much at all, sort of almost sliding them along the ground.
00:50:11
Speaker
And for my hospital visits, my wife would take me to the car and we had a slide sheet from the hospital that we put on the back seat. and um And I'd sort of put my bottom on the edge of the on the edge of the back seat and my wife would lift my feet up and then shove me backwards along the... And I'd slide a lot across the seat and sit sideways and then the reverse of that at the um at the hospital to go to an appointment. So...
00:50:39
Speaker
quite yeah Quite awkward not being able to bend be your legs. And it was only really when I could get to 90 degrees with the braces that I could sit in the front seat of the of the car to go to my last sort of appointment when they um when they took the braces off.
00:50:57
Speaker
um So, yeah, pretty much stuck at home for you know for six weeks other than going out to the hospital. Were doctors able to explain to you how the injury happened in terms of mechanically?
00:51:11
Speaker
Was it a ah force or what actually created the injury? Yeah, so I guess it's a massive force on the quadriceps from the shock of coming off that height with a backpack on and the quadriceps trying to stop my legs from from buckling, so tensing up to stop buckling. um And and it it just happening with so much force and so quickly that that the tendons just tore through.
00:51:39
Speaker
Part of it this sort of injury affects people more of my my age because you're losing elasticity in your tendons as well. in fact, you know I was mentioning that that castle walk to you that that my wife and I did. and And when we were coming out of that, I remember watching a ah group of young guys that had camped further out from us.
00:52:02
Speaker
came past us and there a bit of boulder hopping involved off boulders down onto the track and they were just sort of leaping and bounding with their packs on and and chatting and and shot past us. and ah you know and And my days of jumping off rocks onto the ground are long gone because there's no elasticity there. You sort of felt like yeah feel like your pelvis is exploding in two directions when you jump junk more than a foot or so. So I think that The combination of that massive force and then having being older, just having lost elasticity and in tendons meant that they tore rather than ah rather than being able to absorb the shock. Amazing. One of the questions that comes up quite a lot is is linked to your comments about how lucky we are to be here in a country that has such great healthcare system and support around us.
00:52:59
Speaker
And it's linked to the question of insurance and the cost of rescues and that kind of thing. Were you covered by ambulance insurance or how did that work for you? So I've got hospital cover um insurance that includes ambulance cover.
00:53:15
Speaker
And so that that covered the ambulance costs came in at about $1,800, which seems incredibly cheap to me for for an isolated rescue and to professional staff as part of that. Everything else was was through the public system, you know, being a a a traumatic emergency incident. um Yeah, I was just sort of pushed through the system without any costs, basically.
00:53:44
Speaker
Amazing. Amazing. We are so lucky. um So thinking now, now where you are you've got this this goal ahead of you with your your daily physio and that's the sort of set plan to get to you get you to the place you want to be What's changed for you and what have you learnt through this journey, do you think?
Reflections and Future Adventures
00:54:09
Speaker
Well, I've ah ah i've certainly learned appreciate the its functionality of being able to to walk um and also trying to be, I think the the sort of term for it is more mindful of of um experiences as i'm as I'm doing them and to look at things you know, the the positives and the pleasure from it. Like it was the light to light walk was absolutely fabulous up until that moment. And I still remember a lot of it um very, very fondly. And I'm you know i'm sort of hoping my wife and and daughter and a friend do as well, because you sort of end up with the only memory being the traumatic kind of event rather than
00:54:55
Speaker
than enjoying it. And i'm I'm really looking forward to being able to do some of that again. So I think my first outing will probably be an overnight hike next spring or summer in the in the snowy mountains. And we'll pick somewhere that's not Not too far or too rugged, but but just have a nice walk up there and go to a river and camp somewhere overnight and then walk back out again. So I'm just really looking forward to being able to do that. And I think i think I've always been a little...
00:55:31
Speaker
overly optimistic at times about my ability and pushing it a bit in the in the bush. So just being, I say, more mindful, enjoy and savour the experience more and just be be careful and and take take my time a little more.
00:55:48
Speaker
Is there anything you want to mention that we haven't talked about already? Always had the right gear is important. I still think or you know for Australians the that snake bite is one of the... It's not frequent, but if it happens, you really need to...
00:56:08
Speaker
immobilise yourself straight away um and um and you you know if you need antivenine really quickly. So um personal locator beacons and immobilisation are really, really important. The fatalities that we have tend to be ah People who take more than about four hours to get um you know to get help or are unable to immobilise themselves. and that's um So that one's always sort of top of mind. But then you know hypothermia and those sort of misadventures, um were a real a real concern. a A friend of mine in New Zealand had to be pulled out of the West Coast with ah with with a helicopter with hypothermia because of a series of of misadventures that he he had walking. Yeah.
00:56:55
Speaker
yeah And my last question your beacon. So you had a PLB, you set it off. Did the manufacturer replace it for you with a battery? They replaced the beacon. So I did a little story for their website, so Ocean Signal with a Rescue Me personal locator beacon, sent them that with some photos. They've published that on their website, and when they do that, they send you new beacon, and I sent my old one back to them. So I've got a brand-new beacon which will last me another seven years. Well, hopefully you won't have to use that. Yeah, hopefully won't have use it again. Oh, look, it's been so nice hearing your story, Ross, and to hear speak of these places that you clearly know and you love so much that go deep into your story and your history. Thank you so much for sharing them with us and for the story of what happened and, yeah, that incredible process to have you where you are now five months down the track.
00:58:04
Speaker
And just all the best for the next five months. And I look forward to seeing photos of you out in the snowies on your first overnight hike in the not too distant future.
00:58:16
Speaker
Great. Thanks, Cara. And i yeah I look forward to getting back out there. And I think that sort of, you know, always being kind of forward looking on, on um you know, what' what are the good things coming and and being able to get out in the bush is just such an important part of that. like ah I suppose like a lot of people my age, we're right into bird watching and there's never a shortage of of um ah birds when you get out in the bush and it's just a ah great a great thing to do. Apparently it's not just for folks of ah our certain age at the moment, Ross. It's ah the young the young folk today. They are, um yeah, flocking, dare I say, flocking to birding, which is really exciting, really exciting. There's always something to see. It's great.
00:59:03
Speaker
Yeah, we just have to slow down and be quiet enough and be still enough to listen and to look and find them. so it's all around us.
Podcast Wrap-Up
00:59:14
Speaker
If you've enjoyed this powerful story or one of the many others from my super generous guests, you can help more people connect and hear these valuable lessons simply by leaving a five-star review. And why not even click that little bitty share button on your podcast app and help your outdoorsy mates find it too.
00:59:34
Speaker
The Rescued podcast is produced on the unceded lands of the Gondungara people of the Blue Mountains of New South Wales. I pay my respects to the elders past and present and acknowledge their enduring connection to and care for country.
00:59:49
Speaker
Special thanks to our sponsors, Paddy Pallon. This has been Lots of Fresh Air production.