Elie Konings escaped death in a shocking road accident at Garvoc last year. Now life is more precious than ever, she tells BEC ZAJAC.
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Elie Konings says she has “been to the other side” and has come back to share what she’s seen.
“I saw many things — both good and bad,” she said.
“They were like visions, dreams, stories. It was like I was living another life. I saw myself being lifted up by God and he said ‘don’t be afraid’.”
The 39-year-old Camperdown resident was last August pried by paramedics from her car as it lay jammed on the edge of the Garvoc bridge, having been crunched to half its size by an oncoming car.
Ms Konings had a broken pelvis, knee, arm and ankle, her leg was smashed and her chest squeezed from the pressure above.
Police told her husband it was unlikely she would survive. But she did.
She is back home after almost five months unable to move in hospital, and initially being told by doctors she may never walk again.
About 7pm on August 21 last year, Ms Konings, who left the Democratic Republic of the Congo for Australia seven years ago, was driving on the Princes Highway from Warrnambool to Camperdown. She had just finished an art class at Warrnambool TAFE and was heading home for a job with an aged care client.
“I remember I had plenty of time to get to my job so it was going to be an easy drive back,” she recalled.
The next thing she remembers was a “friendly lady” tapping her on the shoulder.
“I felt as if I had been asleep. I was resting my head on my arm on the steering wheel and I looked up at her, embarrassed that I’d been sleeping in public. I laughed and I said, ‘What’s happened?’ She said, ‘You’ve been in an accident. You’re stuck in your car’.
“That’s when I felt panic and my heart started beating faster. My leg was trapped so I couldn’t move but there was no pain at all. I remember the lady asked me my name and I gave her my husband’s phone number.”
Ms Konings remained trapped in her vehicle for 90 minutes. She was worked on by ambulance officers for another 50 minutes before being put in an air ambulance and flown to Melbourne’s The Alfred hospital. Halfway through the journey, she was moved to a second air ambulance when the first broke down.
“They were like visions, dreams, stories. It was like I was living another life. I saw myself being lifted up by God and he said ‘don’t be afraid’.”
- Ellie Konings
She recalls waking up in hospital and feeling as though only five minutes had passed. In fact, it had been three weeks, the first eight days of which she had been in an induced coma in the trauma unit.
Ms Konings said that while in the coma she felt she was “somewhere” seeing lights, brightness, voices, and with a feeling everything would be OK.
“I saw my friends visiting me, sitting beside me, travelling with me.”
During the three weeks at The Alfred and a further four months at Geelong Private Hospital, Ms Konings was visited every day by friends from her Camperdown community, her church community and the Congolese and Angolan communities in Melbourne.
It was their support, as well as the nurses, physiotherapists and doctors, that “forced me back to life”.
She feels she’s been “brought back to life” to talk about what she experienced and to “do good for the God that saved me”.
“Some people get in an accident — not as bad as mine — and they don’t survive. They’re just gone,” she says, clicking her fingers.
“I’ve lost three friends since that night, one who died in a car accident. I’m no more special than them. I see it’s because I’ve been given a chance to live.”