Family plead for chopper as doubt grows

Living with the traumatic memories of nearly losing two family members in separate horrific accidents, an Elgin family has bravely recalled the moments that changed their lives in an emotional plea to save the RAC Rescue Helicopter.

Jim and Doreen Roney, along with their daughter Laretta Rowe, each fought back tears as they told the South Western Times that without a rescue chopper the father and daughter would not be alive today.

On April 15, 2013, Mr Roney was repairing a fuel tank in a shed on his farm when he lit an oxy torch and the tank and shed went up in flames.

“The explosion shook the house,” Mrs Roney said.

Still “haunted” by the tragedy to this day, Ms Rowe was the first on the scene after she had just dropped her two sons off at the bus stop.

“She thought Jim’s leg had been blown off,” Mrs Roney said.

“I heard the explosion so I started running and we met, she was coming to ring triple zero. When I got there his shirt was on fire and I pulled that off of him, but the shed was also on fire.”

“I didn’t want to put any of the water on him because it was coming out of the horse trough and all I could think is infection.”

Mrs Roney worked frantically to do everything she could for her husband until help arrived.

In a twist of fate, the last person Mr Roney had spoken to on the phone was long-time friend and Capel Shire chief bush fire control officer Chris Scott.

Mrs Roney picked up her husband’s phone which had landed on the ground.

“I pressed a button to see what happened and Chris’ name came up and I screamed down the phone,” Mrs Roney said.

The close-knit community quickly rallied and two local paramedics along with a handful of people – who Mr and Mrs Roney call their “guardian angels” – were by the farmer’s side working to save his life.

Mrs Roney said she just tried to not make a fuss because “if he was going to die there, I was going to be right there”.

The rescue chopper – then the State’s only one and based in Jandakot – was despatched.

Mr Roney suffered burns to 52 per cent of his body, had skin grafts taken from other parts and received shrapnel wounds to his left leg, throat and hand.

He spent eight weeks in hospital and a further four weeks in Perth for physio and re-dressing.

Mr Roney does not remember much of the incident, but fights back tears as he talks about those who played a part in saving him.

“They are our tower of strength,” he said.

Unbelievably, the chopper again stopped the Roney family from losing a loved one when on June 25, 2015, Ms Rowe was flung from the car she was a passenger in when it crashed near Elgin Hall.

“She was scalped, she broke her neck in two places, broke her back, lost her spleen, punctured lung, broken ribs and all the cuts,” Mrs Roney said.

Mrs Roney gets emotional when she talks about taking her grandsons to the intensive care unit to visit their mother.

Amazingly, Ms Rowe made a full recovery and describes the result as winning lotto.

“I won lotto that day, my life is my lotto,” Ms Rowe said fighting back tears.

The emotions of Mr and Mrs Roney and Ms Rowe change to disbelief as they contemplate the possiblity of the Bunbury-based chopper service losing funding.

Doubt surrounding the chopper’s future has grown recently after the State Budget did not include funding after this financial year and Bunbury MLA Don Punch vowed to fight for the service.

The same day of Mr Roney’s accident – in fact 10 minutes after – a Donnybrook man was trapped under his quad bike after another horrific crash.

As Mrs Roney sat in the ICU waiting room with the man’s wife, both agreed one of their husbands might not have made it if the chopper had taken a different path.

“It just amazes me, there is no way Jim or Laretta ... they wouldn’t have survived without that chopper,” Mrs Roney said.

“I’m just absolutely dumbfounded (funding is not guaranteed).”

“And the areas the two helicopters cover – if there’s a crash up north and something happens down this way, which life do you choose?”

Ms Rowe struggles to find the words saying “we have to fight to keep it.”