NSW couple who suffered horrific burns in Black Summer bushfires
Alex and June Frew ran for their lives when a bushfire spread quickly to their property on the NSW south coast on New Year’s Eve. But they both suffered severe burns in the blaze — leaving behind a lifetime reminder of that terrifying day.
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June Frew calls them her “battle scars” — life-threatening burns from the Black Summer bushfires.
Almost seven months after her family feared the worst, Mrs Frew is slowly recovering from the burns she sustained to 52 per cent of her body as she defended her wildlife sanctuary and home on the NSW south coast.
“I was fighting to save the wildlife we had, so I feel like I was doing some sort of a fight and then the battle was within myself with all the burns that I had, so it became my battle scars,” Mrs Frew told The Sunday Telegraph.
“So I’m proud of them in a way too.”
Now wearing a full body compression suit to help heal her “war wounds”, the 68-year-old and her husband Alex were burned trying to flee a blaze at their property, near Bendalong, on New Year’s Eve.
The force of the fire knocked the couple down twice, with Mr Frew dragging his wife of 48 years away from the inferno to safety.
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Both were flown to Sydney, Mrs Frew was taken to the burns unit at Concord Hospital; one of 48 bushfire patients treated at the world-leading ward.
“My sister had to tell my mum, who’s 88 now, to be prepared for the worst because it’s not looking good,” the wildlife carer said
Initially in an induced coma for a week, Mrs Frew then spent four months undergoing skin graft operations and painful rehabilitation.
“They saved my life, what more can I say,” she said of the burns unit team.
Concord plastic and reconstructive surgeon Dr Justine O’Hara said December and January was a “very busy time” for the 10-bed ward.
“We were coming off the back of the volcano explosions on White Island and obviously the bushfire crisis was looming for a few months before but it was greatly in the northern areas,” Dr O’Hara said.
“So when it really took off around the Christmas/New Year period, and we were expecting 25-plus patients a day, it was very difficult to manage the patients that were here, the beds that we had available and the nursing staff that we had available.”
Burns unit director Professor Peter Maitz said he was incredibly proud of the team with staff returning from leave to help during the bushfire crisis.
“For surgeons in a senior position, it’s normal that you get phone calls at any time of the day – if you are on leave or not – and you just go in but for the nursing staff that’s not normal and it’s not part of their job description,” Professor Maitz said.
“There were many people who just came back because there was simply too much work.”
Cattle and sheep farmer Stuart Anderson praised the Concord unit, saying the staff were “absolutely great” when they treated his bushfire burns.
The NSW Rural Fire Service brigade captain was battling the Green Valley blaze in the state’s southwest on December 30 when his hands and face were severely burned.
“It was like a wave that was breaking and rolled over,” he said of the fire.
The father-of-two laid in the Murray River for about an hour and a half before an ambulance arrived and he was later flown to Concord for surgery.
“All my fingers were burned and blistered and my whole face was burnt,” Mr Anderson said, one of 10 firefighters treated at the burns unit.
“But you’d never notice now – no facial scarring at all. It’s really incredible.”
Professor Maitz said advances in burns treatment had improved the outcome for many patients with bioengineered skin — or “fancy plastic” — used on both Mr Anderson and Mrs Frew.
Mr Anderson said: “It’s like plastic gloves are put on your hands and a plastic face mask.
“That has to stay on for about 24 hours before they start to peel it away and remove it.”
Dr O’Hara, who operated on Mrs Frew, said “she had full thickness burns to pretty much 52 per cent of her which means the skin is all cooked and we have to cut it off and replace it with something else”.
“We didn’t actually have enough skin on the rest of her and she was so unwell that we used an Australian really novel product called BTM on her and that’s a dermal replacement.
“So basically we cut off her burn, we wrapped her in this very special plastic and she grows into that plastic to make almost new skin and then we put the top layer of the skin back on and we do that and can do it under control and slowly when she’s better.”
Mrs Frew is now patiently learning to use her fragile hands to carry out everyday tasks.
“My hands are beautiful compared to what they were,” she said.
Dr O’Hara said the grandmother was “a delight”.
“She came back a few weeks ago for us to do some scar revisions and laser on her and she’s doing well and that’s the wonderful thing – we get to see them back again in scar clinics and see how they’re doing,” she said.