[Photoplay]

[Northern Territory, Australia]

Miracles, lady luck, the will to never give up, call it whatever you like but Rhett Survived
For complete story and more photographs.
[ Great Story if you have the time]

Link : http://www.lorellasprings.com.au/rhettsaccident.htm

Courtesy ~Peter Walker (Rhett's Dad)

Short story line.
On Friday 1st July 2011, slightly after 12 noon, Rhett Peter Walker, age 41 was a rear seat passenger in a NT registered Toyota Hilux dual cab ute while on the family owned 1 million acre private property Lorella Springs Station
As is usual, often when they travel on the many tracks on the property they tow a large grader tyre to flatten the track behind them.

This tyre was attached with a nylon "snatch strap" that is standard for most outback vehicles to assist other vehicles in boggy conditions.

The tyre hooked up, stretched the strap, then the connection to the tyre let go and fired the chain, shattering through the rear windscreen.

The chain smashed into the rear of Rhett's skull producing a huge haematoma, wrapping around his head, opening up a massive wound to the front of his forehead, across his left eye, shattering the bones around the eye and damaging the eye, smashing his jawbone, and cutting right through to the inside of his mouth.
We were all sure that he was going to die.
Because the property is one of the most remote in Australia, the doctors in the CareFlight plane could not arrive until 7pm that night, and Rhett was not loaded onto the helicopter until 10.30 pm that night.

Rhett at approx 8pm after being stabilised and on intravenous drip by CareFlight and after 1 hour of being cleaned up.

[U] 1 year on and Rhett survived.[/U]
Xmas 2012, Rhett sneezed and sneezed out a large chunk of windscreen glass that had gone in through his head from the rear windscreen during the accident.
The doctors who saw the MRI of his skull fractures told him that the only other MRI's they had seen,of skulls smashed that bad, had been on corpses.

[Kelseecat65]

Wow, he is lucky to be alive! What an interesting story/link!!

[tortoisemom]

I was in a car accident @ age 5 was thrown thru the windshield & I still get tiny bits of glass out of my forehead at random times. this guy too is fortunate to still be alive

[vagabond]

Amazing what the human body can take! Thanks for the great post and info!

[Sterlig]

What a cool read. He's a handsome "bloke" - does anyone know if he sustained any long term brain damage that would impair his ability to think, remember information, or speak?

[Photoplay]

Hi Sterlig
I agree He is a handsome "bloke". There is no further update on Rhett, so other than: He is partially blind in his left eye, and at present can only distinguish object shapes, not detail.
He seems OK, but to those that know him, you can notice he finds it hard to concentrate, stresses easily and doesn't delegate well. He is much happier, working his butt off, doing day to day jobs than dealing with business or difficult situations.
_______________
So my take on that is that he speaks, and probably loses his temper just a little thru frustration of not being able to problem solve/plan? All normal reactions to a head injury. The last little bit about him working his butt off, is great. Nothing makes you feel more normal and in control of your life than to earn a pay packet and be left to get on with your work. Especially where he lives on the property. Beautiful spot in the world.Swimming,Fishing, Boating, Hunting, 4 Wheel Driving,
LINK: http://www.lorellasprings.com.au/

[DannyDrama]

You don't fuck with tow ropes, that's for sure. I got in the way of one once and thank fuck it only threw me into a bush.

[Oswald2001]

People often don't take into account the amount of force that can be stored up in an extremely taught rope and/or chain.

They can, under the 'right' circumstances' literally cut you in half.

In less than a blink of an eye.

[MisterX]

amazing story

[Sharon]

Thanks for posting this incredible survival story