Hay Point car crash victim Shannon Pacher meets Sarina QFES firefighter saviours

A car crash almost killed Shannon Pacher, but the Mackay dad’s life was saved by firefighters, doctors and nurses. He talks about the miracle of getting to spend Christmas with his baby.

In a Christmas miracle, Mackay man Shannon Pacher will spend the holidays with his beloved baby Ellie and partner Stacey Bell just six months after a shocking car crash sent him into a coma for a month.

He was driving to work at Hay Point when a drunk driver allegedly swerved into him.

Mr Pacher suffered critical head injuries in the June 5 crash and doctors gave him a four per cent chance of survival as he was flown from Mackay to Townsville University Hospital.

Meeting in mid-December with auxiliary firefighters Dean Hall and Acting Lieutenant Shannon Gardner, who worked to cut him free from the wreckage, Mr Pacher said he was thankful to the emergency services personnel and doctors and nurses who pulled him through darkness and back into life.

“What these guys (the firefighters) did makes that percentage go a lot higher,” he said.

Shannon Pacher, 13-month old Ellie and Stacey Bell will spend Christmas together after a remarkable rescue and recovery. Picture: Duncan Evans

Mr Hall had just clocked off from work at Hay Point when he got the call.

He raced to the smash and was first on scene, dialling back information to Ms Gardner, who was driving to the crash site in the fire truck.

Acting Lieutenant Gardner said it was a “confronting” and hazardous scene, with diesel leaking on the road.

Mr Pacher was pinned and unconscious.

A crew of five used cutters, spreaders and a pump to cut off the vehicle’s doors and b-pillar.

Acting Lieutenant Gardner said the crew “hustled” to get the job done.

“We were hustling because we realised how critical it was,” she said.

“The paramedics were there telling us we need to get him out now.”

The firefighters got Mr Pacher out of the wreck in 15 minutes.

“We worked really well as a team that night,” Acting Lieutenant Gardner said.

As paramedics pulled Mr Pacher from the wreckage, he went into cardiac arrest.

Shannon Pacher suffered critical head injuries in the June 5 crash at Hay Point and spent about a month in a coma. Picture: Contributed

“We honestly didn’t know if Shannon was going to make it at the end of the day,” she said.

“When we were pulling him out, we were thinking ‘this guy is in a lot of trouble’. It isn’t looking good.”

Ms Bell, 33, was at home with baby Ellie, who was six months old at the time and sleeping.

She went into “survival mode” to get through the harrowing days that followed.

“It was hard coming home to being a mum after sitting in ICU all day,” Ms Bell said.

When Mr Pacher came out of his coma, but did not know what had happened.

“I did wake up and then probably four or five days post-coma I would wake up and ask what happened,” he said, comparing it to the Adam Sandler comedy 50 First Dates.

“Every day she would re-explain what happened.”

Though he has no recollection of the terrible event and continues to suffer from memory loss, he recognised Stacey at the hospital.

Stacey Bell, Shannon Pacher and baby Ellie at Townsville University Hospital following the crash at Hay Point on June 5. Picture: Contributed

“When Shannon woke from his coma in Mackay, I actually got a fright because he moved,” Ms Bell said.

“Straight away, he squeezed my hand when I talked.”

Their love story began at the Caval Ridge mine, where they both met while working for BHP.

Ms Bell said she loved Mr Pacher’s “cheekiness” most and knew her husband had survived when she saw that in him again after the crash.

“He’d still play practical jokes on the nurses and things like that and that was pretty much when I knew it was still Shannon,” she said.

For Mr Pacher, the past six months reminded him just how lucky he was to match with Stacey.

“Look at the last six months,” he said.

“Stacey has been there, without a flinch.

“Absolutely unreal.

“To raise a six-month-old on her own, everything, while I’m sitting there in an induced coma.

“It just goes to show just how amazing she is, how resilient.

“I don’t know if I would have the strength to be able to do that.”

(From left to right) Sarina QFES Acting Lieutenant Shannon Gardner, Stacey Bell, one-year-old baby Ellie, Shannon Pacher and Dean Hall at the Sarina Fire Station on December 13. Picture: Duncan Evans

Mr Pacher, 32, said he had a “long road” ahead of him, with multiple surgeries to go and his life would always be marked by physical pain.

For Ms Bell, meeting with Mr Hall and Acting Lieutenant Gardner was “surreal”.

“We had spent a few months thinking about all the people that were there (at the scene) that night,” she said.

“But to actually meet them and hear some stuff we didn’t already know was pretty amazing, pretty emotional afterwards.”

For Mr Hall and Acting Lieutenant Gardner, seeing Mr Pacher walk into the station with Stacey and the baby is why they put on a uniform and take on the often brutal reality of their job.

“And then for Shannon to walk in the other day and we have been talking to Stacey on Messenger, it gets you choked up,” Acting Lieutenant Gardner said.

“It is just incredible.

“He is home for Christmas with his bub.

“It is why we do what we do.”