Man rescued from Belgrave tree

jnm

Hi this is Jules again - Drew when you read this eventually - and hopefully you can soon, please just know that you have the most amazing family. your mother, father, step mother, brothers, cousins, friends, mates and even total stangers within the tree industry who have called me to offer support have you in their thoughts every hour of every day. you are a strong and stubborn bugger and you will get yourself out of this. you are doing so well already - it is going to be a long road, but rest assured that you have a huge support network around you..and i mean HUGE. All the rest aside the most important thing is you getting better, and we all doing our best to get you there, and i mean everyone!!

Thanks again to all the support from the industry - much appreciated, havn't forgotten about you guys - and HEY....BE SAFE.... as i used to say to Drew every morning before he left to go to work. Saftey is the most important thing above all.

thanks to all who have been involved, love, respect, and hopefully one day soon Drew will be able to post and tell his own story - i think that is his right.

Brobear

Again, I would like to thank everyone who has phoned me and passed on their best wishes for Drew's recovery.

Tracey Milne

To all the curious people out there, I have been advised by numerous tree companies in Victoria, my lawyer and work safe investigators to not comment on this web site, as cause of accident is still being investigated, all relevant documentation for my company was and is in place and all relevant equipment was and is well maintained and relatively new. Therefore I will still look at your comments from time to time but please leave it up to the investigators to determine the cause of the accident, and stop judging.

Bentreespecialist

I was not qualified to rescue your french climber at all Trev when i worked for you!!!

Bentreespecialist

I dont know exactly what happened in this incident but what I do know is as a climber I am responsible for the system being used and for the training of the ground crew. Mechanical devices in tree work can always break or be set up wrongly. I do not like to use rachet straps or any machine to lower, it is much safer to keep things simple and to rely on knots.
I hope the poor fellah recovers quickly with no long lasting effects unlike myself.

Bentreespecialist

I agree with you Tracey, it is terrible when you get injured let alone being injured at work. I myself was seriously injured at work, the boss was asked the questions as was the climber. I was not asked a single question by Work Cover. I hope you show some care to your employee unlike my old boss and old foreman. It destroys a workers confidence and makes them very bitter.

Brobear

Drew is not a bitter person and I truly hope that one day he will get the chance to tell his story. The unfortunate fact is that he may not remember this incident and due to its seriousness, perhaps it's better if he doesn't. As his mum, I watch over him and see small changes each time I see him. No-one can give us answers as yet but we live in hope Drew makes a complete recovery and lives a normal and healthy life.
To every person who has rung me and the incredible staff at the Royal Melbourne Hospital, I can only say "thank you" for taking care of my son.
Bless each and every one of you. Bronya S

Tracey Milne

Absolutely Bentreespecialist, I would be by Drew's side everyday or two if I was permitted to visit him in the hospital, but unfortunately I am not as I am not family. Drew was not just my climber he was also my supervisor and a very competent one at that responsible for all actions taken on job sites, if he said jump we said how high!

Eric Frei

Hmmm, I do not think so unless you are the employer. In many instances ground crew can be of higher qualifications than the climber, ground crew are responsible equally, everyone is responsible. Training, so you are a trainer and you clearly hire people of lessor knowledge and experience than yourself.

That's only your opinion and by what I know an ignorant one.

Not sure what effects you have but clearly your ideology and perspective is compromised. Knots in preference to splices is not superior, seen my video on knot-less rigging? So, how can you be the trainer when your bag of tricks is so limited?

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Brobear

To all the wonderful community out there, I finally have some good news.
Drew is making a remarkable recovery and is being moved to rehab hopefully tomorrow. He is fully awake, feeding himself, ambulating with help, had his first shower on Tuesday, and recognises most of his family and friends.
His surgeries so far have been successful and he now looks almost normal again. He is making every attempt to communicate with garbled speech but with help and time he will hopefully speak normally again.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank the amazing staff at the Royal Melbourne Hospital and also you incredible community for your well wishes and ongoing support through this difficult time.
Some time soon I hope Drew will be able to read all your posts. He told me today he remembers his accident, but only time will tell.
In the mean time, those of you who climb the trees as your job, please be safe and make sure those you work with are able to help you should something go wrong. Nature is a law unto itself, however, please make sure no-one ever has to go through this kind of pain and anguish again.
Thank you again to everyone who has contacted me and passed on well wishes to my son. I have kept all posts on this site to show Drew when he is completely well again and wanting to know what happened.
God bless you all. Bronya S.

Tony Knight

Best wishes to Drew and yourself Bronya. I have been looking in at this thread in the hope of good news and appreciate your time in posting and updating us. Hang tough Drew and kick arse in rehab.

Cheers

Tony

Eric Frei

Well that is great news, I wish him well and he's lucky to have such great friends and family.

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Brobear

Some more great news about Drew.
He actually had his nurse ring me tonight so he could speak to me. His speech at times is still somewhat difficult to understand, but he is making incredible progress.
He is walking on his own, eating by himself although he tells me it isn't like steak and chips yet. He spends much of his day resting and sleeping but this can only be good to allow the brain to completely heal.
He is scheduled to hopefully return to the Royal Melbourne Hospital soon to have the piece of bone put back on his skull. His doctors assure me this is reasonably low risk and he should only be in hospital for a couple of days and then back to rehab for more therapy.
Again, I would like to thank all the people who have made this journey with us and have sent us all good wishes and love.
Bronya S.

Brobear

Tracey there will be a time when Drew's friends will be able to visit him. At present his family are the most important people in his life and it is only right that we should be the only ones to see him at present.
Over the past five weeks I have come to know from Drew's friends who are his friends and those who are also important in his life. Never fear, you will be able to visit him but just not yet.
Bronya S

Drouin Tree Service

Thanks for the update and a speedy recovery

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Drouin Tree Services | Excavator Hire - Drouin and SE Gippsland | Landclearing Melbourne

Brobear

Hello again all you wonderful people,

Andrew is making excellent progress although there is still a long road ahead of him. He understands what has happened to him and all he wants now is to get well and come home.

To those of you who have been in touch with me, I just want to say thank you again. To know that so many people out there have been touched by Andrew's accident and have made the effort to contact me has been truly remarkable. You will never know how much your support has meant.

Andrew today for the first time truly laughed and seemed happy. He misses his dog Gemma and understands he must stay in Rehab until he is well. When I left him tonight, he was happily listening to John Williamson singing "True Blue" and seemed genuinely content for the first time in eight weeks.

His therapy will be exhausting over the next few months, but for the first time since the accident, I can truly say now we see real progress and healing. His team are outstanding and this experience has changed not only Andrew but his whole family.

We are also a lot closer to finding out what caused this tragedy and I sincerely hope once we know that we can prevent anyone else in this industry from ever being hurt again.

Again, thank you to each and every one of you for your good wishes and support. You "tree people" are just amazing. Please stay safe.

Regards, Bronya

Tony Knight

Good on ya Bronya, sounds great progress is being made. We look foward to further updates and certainly appreciate any info that can make the industry safer.

Cheers

Tony

Brobear

Hello again,
Been a while since I've been on here but I felt it better to wait until I had some really good news to report.
Andrew has had his last (we hope) round of surgery to replace the bone on his skull. He bounced back pretty well from that but still complains of a sore head which is understandable given the injury.
He is quite mobile also now. He has some impairment to his right arm and leg however it really only slows him up and doesn't really stop him from doing things. He is able to do everything for himself now and even took himself off to the hairdressers to get a haircut this week.
His speech is pretty good however this is certainly going to take a while to get it back to normal again. He is working really hard at his speech therapy and occupational therapy as he's really frustrated sometimes not being able to articulate and have a normal conversation. He seems to know what he wants to say but has trouble actually saying it.
He still suffers with double vision and hearing issues but considering we nearly lost him only 14 weeks ago, he has made a remarkable recovery.
We hope this coming week that he will be coming home. Yes finally coming home. He still has a very long way to go with regular speech therapy, occupational therapy and physio but just being out of a "hospital" environment can only be good for him. He is really looking forward to being "out of that place" and having some kind of normality back in his life.
Worksafe are now very close to handing down their findings on the accident. It will be really nice to have some closure there and hopefully no-one will ever be hurt from an accident like this ever again in the future.
Drew's memory centre certainly has been affected but with plenty of love and patience, hopefully we can help him put back the pieces of his life.
Again, I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has contacted me and sent good wishes to Drew. Once home, we are hopeful that Drew's recovery will be helped along with phone calls and visits from his friends and family. I will certainly be showing him all the posts on this site and also the letters I've received from such caring people some of whom we don't even know. Your kindness at this most difficult time has been greatly appreciated.
Drew has already started talking about getting back "into the trees" but he knows he's got a long road in front of him before he ever lifts his feet off the ground again. We hope he can if that's what he truly wants to do.
So I will post again when he is home and again I just want to say thanks.
Cheers for now Bronya

Done it

Hospitals are great places to out of, I'm sure he'd agree.

Best wishes Drew.

Bentreespecialist

Great to hear he getting better, all the best for the future. I am tired of hearing about accidents, tree cutting is a dangerous game. We lost another cutter down in the Otway region this week. RIP Barry Fulton you will be missed.

Eric Frei

Slowly more truths come out about this story, seems we are clear on who did the rescue.... not sure WTF a metal counterbalance is but I reckon a friction device for lowering.

A hero of high order - People - News - Free Press Leader

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