Val’s Story

What happened?

My life changed forever on 23 January 1998. At around 2pm, we encountered trouble while landing our small plane at a friend’s farm in Jerramungup. The plane crashed and caught fire. The pilot and I managed to escape, but tragically, he lost his wife and I lost my husband.

The pilot sustained burns to 60% of his body, and I suffered burns to 85%. Friends at the farm placed me under a shower to cool my injuries until local nursing staff arrived. Once we were stabilised, the Royal Flying Doctor Service flew us to Royal Perth Hospital.

My treatment and recovery

In the months after the crash, I wasn’t expected to live. I had numerous operations and complications with infections. I also had to have parts of all my fingers amputated. My days consisted of having dressings changed and physiotherapy. 

Coming to terms with my facial disfigurement was one of the hardest things to overcome, especially as there was a lot of scarring and entire parts of my face missing. The team did a wonderful job reconstructing my face.

After 10 months I was discharged from hospital. Daily tasks such as cleaning my teeth, reaching a light switch and eating were still difficult to do. I needed help with showering and new dressings before putting on a full body suit. I went to RPH four days a week for physiotherapy sessions.

My life now

Today life to me is fairly normal and quite busy. I spend time with my five grandchildren, and also love to garden, cook and go out socialising.

I am still dealing with ongoing health problems and find it hard in summer because I can’t regulate my body temperature.  

Despite all of this, I am so grateful for the life I have. Fiona and her dedicated team in the Burns Unit gave me such wonderful care and showed so much compassion and support over the years. I’m so grateful to all of them.

Val