KERANG high school student Mitchell Wilson is shooting for the stars – he dreams of a place in the Australian Olympic team.
And why not go for broke when you’re making the absolute best of a second chance at life. When you’re just 13 years old and just starting high school.
What Mitchell and parents Lee and Andrew have learnt in the past 18 months is never take a single moment of life for granted because “it is so damn fragile”.
In Bendigo last week the Wilsons got to meet – and thank – for the first time the mobile intensive care ambulance crew who helped save Mitchell’s life – backed up by some very rapid action by the local ambulance responders.
Mitchell’s father said his son was just 11 on the day he called him while halfway home from Echuca and asked him to turn off the watering on their small horse agistment property just outside the town.
“When we got there we couldn’t find him, we called out and I could hear the quad bike running, so I walked past one of our sheds and saw it but not him – not until I got closer,” Andrew recalled, still with a shudder.
His son, who hadn’t been wearing a helmet, must have fallen backwards onto some rocky ground as he had suffered a massive injury to the back of his head and was drifting in and out consciousness .
No-one is sure – Mitchell still has no memory of the whole day, let alone the accident, and would spend 21 days in a coma at the Royal Children’s Hospital.
A far cry from the shy teen at Ambulance Victoria’s Bendigo airbase where he finally got to meet MICA flight paramedic Nathan Widdeson, who arrived at the family farm in one of AV’s air ambulance helicopters and managed Mitchell’s condition on the way to Melbourne.
“We were worried Mitchell might have sustained a brain injury, and we also had to assess what other serious injuries he may have had,” Nathan explained.
“I performed an ultrasound on his chest and abdomen to check for a collapsed lung or serious internal injuries and bleeding.
“Preparations to place him into an induced coma were also made in case his conditioned worsened.”
Mitchell would be in the RCH for 69 days, with one, or both, his parents beside him the entire time.
But on Monday he was far more interested in talking about his future, not his past, and his new love – competitive shooting.
Taken up after his mother assured him there was no way he would be going back to football, or any contact sport.
And it has turned out to be an inspired decision by her, and selection by him, for a replacement.
“He asked us if he could try shooting,” Lee said.
“And we thought why not, even though some thought it a bit strange to have something going bang so loudly right next to his head.
“But he loves it – and he is really good at it too.”
So good he recently shot a 50/50 in a competition at Cohuna and is now looking forward to state trials in September.
“I do down the line and field and game, but like down the line most and am competing most weekends,” Mitchell said.
“Yes, I miss the footy, but I really like the shooting too.
“And I would love to become a shooter in the Australian team and go to the Olympics and maybe become a professional.”
Ambitions an incredibly long way from the conversations his parents had with doctors, which included “talking to us about turning off his life support”, his father said.
“At that stage we would have settled just to get him home in a wheelchair for the rest of his life,” he said.
“It all changed one day when he suddenly put his hand up in the air as if to say ‘hey, I’m here’.
“That day turned from one of the worst to one of the best.
“Words can’t describe how grateful we are – the paramedics and ACO not only saved his life, but their quick action also prevented a long-term disability.
“It’s a credit to everybody – the paramedics, the nurses, the doctors. If everyone hadn’t responded as quickly as they did, he wouldn’t be here.”
The family’s Bendigo trip proved to be a bit of a double occasion – not only was it the meeting and the thank yous, it was also Nathan’s last day with the team at the regional base.
Already living in Melbourne and commuting to Bendigo, the paramedic has been redeployed to Essendon after three years in the airwing.
“I’ve been a paramedic for nearly 16 years and Mitchell is just the fourth patient I’ve met post recovery – we don’t get the opportunity very often,” Nathan said.
“It’s lovely for a patient to think of you afterwards and want to catch up and say thank you.”
Incredibly Mitchell only required two surgeries – the first to remove a large piece of his skull because of swelling in his brain, and the second to replace it.
But he did have to learn to virtually walk again – the damage to the right side of his brain caused a lot of problem with his left side.
Shooting, his parents say, has dramatically accelerated the return of his eye-hand co-ordination and watching him today you would never realise he was on a walking frame not that long ago.
“Kerang Tech has been fantastic helping him make the transition from primary school – where he was when the accident happened – to the next stage of his school life. Staff, parents and students have all been marvellous,” Lee said.
And has Mitchell been back on a quad bike since getting out of hospital?
Yes, he said. Once, With a helmet on. For about 10 metres – and that was enough.
Today he has his sights set on a whole new future.
