Oakbank racing legend and Cudlee Creek fire survivor John Glatz is back at the track
Cudlee Creek fire survivor John Glatz is out of hospital after five painful months and has returned to the Oakbank racing club he loves after a horrendous brush with death.
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Oakbank racing legend John Glatz had not missed a committee meeting in 35 years – not even with a broken neck, before the Cudlee Creek fire almost took his life in December.
Five months after miraculously surviving the blaze that claimed his Woodside home and saw him placed in an induced coma for 10 days, the 76-year-old has returned to the historic Hills racetrack.
“I’m not sure if anyone else was keen to see me but it was great to be back in that (committee) room,” Mr Glatz exclusively told the Sunday Mail.
“Even when I fractured my vertebrae, we had two committee meetings in the spinal unit at the RAH – but this time I was in no state to hold an audience.”
Mr Glatz suffered burns to 60 per cent of his body during the fire that raged through Woodside that he tried to fight alone before he was overcome by smoke.
There have been several operations and days of pain and despair along the way to a slow recovery. He only left hospital this week and must wear a compression suit 23 hours a day for the next two years.
“I’ve lost weight but you wouldn’t know it wearing this (compression) suit and a big bulky coat,” he said. “But that coat is all I own – everything else went in the fire.”
Mr Glatz and his wife Merri are renting a fully furnished home in Woodside to stay close to family and the wider community that they have lived with for decades. A nurse attends every day to change dressings – and a physiotherapist twice a week – but he says the pain levels are nothing like they were at times at the RAH.
There, dressing changes could take three hours and he would need to be put under anaesthetic to dull the pain.
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Family and racing at Oakbank, under new chairwoman Arabella Branson, remain his passions and his focus.
“It’s been a very tough time for the club with no meetings over Easter,” Mr Glatz said.
“We’ve basically had no income for 12 months but still have all the costs of maintenance.
“Sponsors are wary about spending money with all the (COVID-19) uncertainty but Arabella is very switched on and hardworking and is doing a grand job.”
Ms Branson said the return of Mr Glatz – a former chairman of 25 years – to the clubrooms was a “big boost” in a difficult year.
