Leigh Doak knows better than most the importance of good neighbours.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The Cooriemungle dairy farmer can remember little of the night he came off his quad bike and lay unconscious in a ditch, but he knows who he has to thank for saving his life.
First to find him was neighbour Slava Sheuliuk. Triple 0 was called soon after and it was fellow neighbour Julie Vogels who formed part of the first response as a member of Port Campbell CERT (Community Emergency Response Team).
Ms Vogels and fellow CERT member Brad Hain worked in the dark and rain to manage Mr Doak’s head injury and keep his airways open until paramedics and the air ambulance arrived.
About three months on from the crash, Mr Doak is on the road to recovery. He was reunited with his rescuers yesterday and was full of thanks.
“I just know these people basically saved my life,” he said. “It shows how important it is in any rural area to have these volunteers.”
Mr Sheuliuk was returning home following the birth of his first child, Maxim, when he discovered Mr Doak’s overturned quad bike, turning the elation he was feeling to worry. “I got out of the car and called out ‘is anybody there’… then I found him.”
For volunteer CERT member Julie Vogels it was also personal – but the focus was his health.
“We got to him really quick and you could just tell, it was an instinct that ‘this is bad’.
Timboon ambulance officer Rhys Kensit said CERT was vital in this case. “We arrived about 45 minutes later,” he said. “A job can average three hours, if we’re on the job already we’re out of town and the next nearest ambulance is Terang or Camperdown”
It was the Port Campbell team’s third job of the day and for Mr Hain just his fifth since signing up to the team.
“I think I was running on adrenaline by that stage. It wasn’t until after Leigh was on the helicopter and gone that I sat down and thought about what we’d just done,” he said. “I’m proud of what we did and it was a good outcome.”