Shattered Femurs are Not Shattered Dreams

"In 1989, I was involved in a vehicle accident.

I shattered both my femurs, both my legs and spent 4 hours wrapped around a tree, in the dark, at night.

I thought we'd never be found... We were off the side of a country road. The driver was okay, he just had a few cuts and was bleeding. He'd cut his wrist from the glass and the windscreen so I provided first aid to him and kept him calm. It was terribly awkward to get out since both my legs were wrapped around a tree on the passenger side. At that point your brain switches meaning I was calm and lucid. It's got a switch in it, so when it gets too much, it turns off the pain. I didn't feel any pain whatsoever. But that's your body working to preserve life. If I'd felt pain I would've blacked out, and if I'd blacked out, it wouldn't've been …such a good outcome. I probably would've passed away. So your brain says "Righto, we need to keep him conscious so switch off all the nerves, and that way he stays alive".

At the three, four hour mark, it was getting a bit cold and I thought "Oh well, let's see how this goes. This could be a bad night"

After two cars had gone past and seen nothing and we thought "Oh well that's it."

And then the third one goes past and we thought "Oh well, there's nothing we can do about it now."

And then that car turned around and came back.

Then we got rescued. A policeman drove past, on his way home. He saw the car on the side of the road, thought "Oh it's just another car", kept going, and then something in his mind got him to turn around and come back.

We had the police air ambulance helicopter turn up. A friend of mine who was a paramedic was in the helicopter and he wasn't expecting me to be alive. When he flew in from Essendon they said "when you get there the passenger will be dead" because 9 out of 10 people die from this sort of injury. They rocked up and he looks in the car, and when I was sitting there conscious and said G'day to him, he jumped back about three feet.

Flying from there to the hospital, I was the 13th passenger in that helicopter. It was on a Friday, and all the other 12 patients died once the helicopter hit the ground. So they kept the helicopter a foot off the ground. The ambulance men came and got me while the helicopter was still hovering above the ground, and they got me out and put me in there.

I'm an inch and a half taller than I used to be, because since both the bones shattered, they had nothing to measure anything so they guessed at my height.

I had steel pins in my legs, screws in both hips, both knees, all that sort of stuff. I had to learn to walk again. And I don't like hospitals. My motivation was that I need to get out of hospital. So I just worked hard to get out as soon as I could. The morning after the surgery, the surgeon said "Okay so you're going to walk this afternoon." And I said "Okay, give me as much drugs as you can and I will." And I stood up and I remember waking up in bed again because I blacked out. Then that afternoon I took three steps, four steps, and just went from there. It took me about 3 months in a wheel chair, then crutches, then walking sticks, and then less than a year later I passed my physical fitness test for the army.

I don't see anything in it … There's nothing special. Anyone and everyone can do it should they be put in the same circumstances as me, it's whether they want to is the difference. And that goes back to your impossible bit. If you want to achieve the impossible, you probably can."

- Derek Simpson

If you've survived an impossible accident like Derek, send us your story!!

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