Urban Jungle
It
is hard to fathom that a motor cyclist could lie meters away from the
edge of major arterial road in the heart of the suburb of Lane Cove mere
20 minutes drive from the heart of Sydney with two broken legs
screaming in agony unnoticed and his cries possibly ignored by the
passing traffic for three days. Exactly 72 hours after losing control
of his motor cycle and rolling to the edge of a shrub studded embankment
the motor bike rolling and snapping the distal part of his left femur
and fracturing his right tibia and fibula the healthy and fit 25 years
old Simon, a civil engineer employed in nearby North Sydney, who had not
lost consciousness started to scream both in agony and cry for help. A
scream and a cry from the soul and the spirit of a young man that became
an echo reflected back to Simon by the sound of traffic few meters
away. 
The
steep slope of the embankment made it hard for Simon to crawl towards
the edge of road with his right leg now swollen and becoming blue and
his left leg also swollen an throbbing with pain Simon rolled and
grabbed the stem of a shrub above his head and with the strength of his
arms managed to slide himself some two meters away from the road.
Surely someone should be able hear my scream or a passer by will see
me. On the third day with his strength fading and close to losing
consciousness at 9 am on a Saturday three teenage boys walking on the
edge of the road heard Simon fading moans and cry. Ambulance conveyed
Simon initially to nearby North Shore Hospital and few hours later to
the operating theatre of Prince of Wales Hospital. Two of the finest
orthopaedic surgeons and their experienced assistants operated on Simon
for good six hours.
Some
two weeks after the operation Linda a nursing sister in the orthopaedic
ward told me about Simon and the story he had narrated to the nursing
staff. I was both intrigued and curious. Intrigued by the fact as to
how something like this could happen in the heart of a suburb and major
arterial road bustling with life almost 24 hours a day and curious as
why it took three days before three teenage boys by pure coincidence and
chance happen to be passing by heard Simon moans. I made suitable time
and wheeled Simon from his bed to a small park inside the hospital
ground and asked him to narrate his story to me. Simon narrated the
exact story that Linda had told me and with tears rolling on both cheeks
told me that his parents resided some 3 kilometers from the spot and
all sort of thoughts were racing through his mind before the three lads
found him. Simon was adamant that few people must have heard his load
cry for help the first 24 hours. His final words during our
conversation were: ‘you
know doc I think I ha greater chance of survival if I was in real
jungle in Africa but what I believe saved me is the Lords’ Prayer that I
kept reciting during my ordeal’.
I
am happy to say some six months later Simon made near full recovery and
returned to work driving brand new red coloured Honda Civic.