News Club - Life or limb...

Life or limb…

I’ve spent my fair share of time in hospitals - not because of issues with my health, I hasten to add. Both of my parents had illnesses that required months of treatment before long stints in palliative care. Before that, there were almost daily visits to a much-loved grandfather who spent years receiving care after a devastating stroke. 

What it gave me was an appreciation of how close we all are to an accident or health event that can upend our lives and change things forever. I was reminded of this recently when we had Australian of The Year Richard Scolyer (who has incurable brain cancer) in our studio - Kate’s interview with him will be out on Wednesday. 

Life happens, but there’s something about the situation that this tourist found himself in that is so attention-grabbing that it made me stop in my tracks - it’s different to almost every other accident where injuries just happen in the moment. In his case, a decision had to be made because of an impossible situation. I can’t imagine how I’d feel, and I hope I never have to find out… 

So our Club Picks this week: 

1. This Guardian article captures the experience of those involved in the weekend’s rescue efforts. The location, the position of the man in the water, and the efforts to get him out before having to amputate his leg above the knee were epic. “We do train for these types of scenarios, but this one was out of the box,” said one rescuer. 

2. If you go online and search for ‘amputation after getting stuck’, there’s a shocking number of news reports - but let’s highlight a case with a happy ending. Matilda Campbell is the woman who was stuck upside down between rocks for 7 hours last month after falling 3m into a rock crevice as she tried to retrieve her phone. The ABC News interview with her afterwards when she went to thank her rescuers is worth a look. “I'm not the survivalist I thought I was,” she said. 

3. Remember the big earthquakes in Turkey that claimed 50,000 lives last year? They also left about 100,000 with injuries, and the United Nations estimates that about 70% of those now have a permanent disability as a result. Many of those are amputees because to free them from the rubble, limbs were lost. This Al Jazeera article looks into how some are coping.   

4. Limbs 4 Life is the Aussie advocacy group that seeks to empower amputees with knowledge and support. It’s done some work with consultants KPMG and estimates there are 160,000 amputees in Australia currently, and estimates that will increase to 305,000 by mid-2050. The reason? The rise of diabetes.  

If adventure sports are your thing, you likely know the risks involved and do it anyway. All the power to you. But we’re heading into the time of year when we’re on the roads/moving about/having fun, and accidents can happen. So at the risk of sounding like my parents when I was in my late teens and about to drive for hours to the next party - stay safe and call me when you arrive. Ok, maybe not that last bit…