Fathers Day came a little early for Pambula’s Bill Langenhorst this year.
He was able to show his daughter Kate, aged 19 that he could walk again thanks to revolutionary surgery he has received at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital over the past 12 months.
It was thoughts of her, and his sons Jack (23), Ben (25) and wife Karen that kept him alive seven years ago as he lay bleeding to death in the bush.
A diesel mechanic by trade, Bill was extremely lucky to survive a shocking accident in Nadgee State Forest in 2003 when a piece of logging machinery he was working on re-started out of the blue.
Caught in the machinery, he suffered severe trauma to his right leg and part of his lower torso.
His good mate of more than 20 years John Turbet had been working with him and called for help with Eden paramedic John Schoonderwaldt arriving by Ambulance with another paramedic Simon Whittaker of Narooma.
Bill fought to stay alive for an hour and 10 minutes, finally lapsing into unconsciousness when he heard the blades of the Snowy Hydro South Care helicopter with an anaesthetist and trauma doctor on board.
He had lost a dangerous amount of blood so the chopper stopped at Merimbula Airport to pick up blood from Pambula hospital for a transfusion.
When he survived the night, doctors removed his right leg.
He spent three months in Canberra Hospital, undergoing surgical skin grafts twice a week during the first month.
The couple had been building a house in the hills west of Pambula, which at its steepest point, is six metres off the ground
“We’d dug all the posts ourselves and when we got back the community had got the bearers on and my brother Rex moved up to help us finish it with a builder,” he said.
Karen said the project helped Bill to stay positive in the two years it took for him to return to work.
“He even crawled out on the joists to do the floor, I just couldn’t do it,” she said.
Because of his height and a short femur, only 100 millimetres remained after the accident, using a prosthetic leg was painful and unstable so crutches and a mobility scooter were his only options.
During a brief attempt at skiing with Paralympic coach Ron Finneran, Bill discovered he’d never represent Australia on the snow.
“I should have tried the sitting down style, I had two outriggers joined to the ski by wires and they were the brakes,” he said.
“I fell and broke my femur.”
Twelve months ago Bill became the fourth person in Australia to undergo revolutionary Osseo integration limb surgery at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital.
In a three-hour operation, Swedish surgeon Rickard Branemark, inserted a 100 millimetre piece of titanium into Bill’s femur.
The bone was left to grow around the implant for six months and in December last year Bill had another three-hour operation for doctors to insert an abutment into his new titanium femur.
A high tech prosthetic leg is fitted to this abutment using an Allen key.
A blundstone boot and explorer sock are fitted to the prosthetic and Bill is well on his way to being hands free again.
Bill will continue to need physio to keep his back straight and will regularly visit Caulfield Rehabilitation Centre to learn how to walk over the next six months.
The leg has a high tech knee, which locks when he puts weight on the heel, and unlocks when the weight transfers to the toe.
“It’s weird,” he said when walking along the veranda using rails for support.
“I’ll still need the crutches for another six to 12 months, but I’m really looking forward to being hands free.
“I can hold my wife’s hand when I walk instead of bloody crutches.”
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