 The Guess Who - Florida |  crushed car |
|---|---|
 Carl's rescue |  Post coma 2008 |
 Firefest UK 2014 |
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@CarlDixonmusic
List of injuries.
Head trauma
Crushed right eye
Broken right orbital bone
Face lacerations
Cracked C7 vertebra
Collapsed and bruised lungs
Liver lacerations
Internal bruising
Dislocated and shattered right forearm
Exposed fractures
Missing flesh and bone right arm
Multiple deep lacerations to upper arm
Multiple fractures right thigh
Multiple fractures left knee
Exposed fractures left shin
Missing bone and flesh both legs
Lengthy deep gashes to both legs
Multiple broken fingers & toes
Comatose for 10 days
Post traumatic stress syndrome
Traumatic Brain Injury.
Ian Ireland, Rescuer and first on the scene, Ballan CFA
THE MVA 2008
In 2008 Carl was touring the USA as lead singer of The Guess Who but there were family issues troubling him. The band gave him two weeks off to travel to Australia, where his family awaited. Leaving a recording studio in Melbourne, he set off to return to country Victoria He was stressed, tired and lost. For a brief few minutes Carl forgot that in Australia they drive on the other side of the road, the left. Thirty years of driving on the right hand side in North America was his "auto-pilot". Soon after turning off a freeway onto a dark country road he collided his small rental car at highway speed head on into an oncoming driver in a large 4WD, fortunate for him. The other driver attempted to avoid hitting Carl. Instead his big Land Cruiser went up the hood and over the top of Carl's vehicle, crushing him inside. The other driver was thrown from his vehicle and suffered lacerations to his head, an injured back and a broken ankle. Miraculously the first few people on the scene had medical training and aided the other driver and Carl. Within minutes medical help was called in. It took an hour and forty-five minutes to extract Carl, by then barely clinging to life. That urgent delicate work was carried out by determined volunteers from the Ballan CFA (Country Fire Association) led by Ian Ireland. Ian had radioed in local paramedics and specialists from Melbourne. The police at the scene asked the paramedics "what are his chances?" the answer came: "no hope for this guy". Yet the dedicated teams and volunteers stuck to their mission to do their very best to save Carl. Broken and unconscious, yet somehow still alive, Carl was airlifted to the Alfred Hospital in Melbourne where surgical teams worked through the night; first a 17 hour round of surgery then a 19 hour round of operations to save his life and limbs. The prognosis was that if Carl awoke from his coma he could wake up quadriplegic, have brain damage, possibly be blind and may still lose his left leg. The doctors had done extraordinary work; their patient entered the stillness of an induced coma. Now it was all up to Carl...
