‘You shoulder tackled a car at high speed and left your shoulder behind’
“You shoulder tackled a car at high speed and left your shoulder behind.” That is how a paramedic described Nicholas Hanania’s life-threatening crash but against all odds, the Belfield local survived.
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Belfield’s Nicholas Hanania cannot remember the horrific accident which almost took his life last November.
But he and his family know it is a miracle he survived because even the paramedics and doctors who treated him never expected him to live.
On Thursday Mr Hanania and his close family finally got to thank in person the doctors, paramedics and flight crew who saved his life after he crashed his motorcycle on at Brooklyn Bridge in the Hawkesbury last November.
Mr Hanania, then 25, was riding his Suzuki motorbike when he struck a car, causing a significant head injury, a severe separation of his right collarbone from his torso and multiple abrasions to both feet.
He was flown by a Toll Ambulance helicopter to Royal North Shore Hospital, with pilot Julian Holder recalling it was a very turbulent afternoon.
“I am very grateful and I wouldn’t be here without you,” Mr Hanania said at an emotional ceremony at the Toll Ambulance base at Bankstown Airport.
He was accompanied by his parents Saba and Marcella Hanania, elder sister Sarah and her husband John Karavasilias, brother Oliver, girlfriend Romina Turrisi and aunty Adrianna.
“I cannot remember anything about the accident or what happened afterwards.
“It’s taking a long time to recover and hopefully I can go back to finishing my engineering degree next year as I have got to move one.”
As experienced NSW Ambulance paramedic Tim Freer put it bluntly: “You shoulder tackled a car at high speed and left your shoulder behind.”
Brooke Cassell, who was in the first NSW Ambulance team at the accident, said: “We didn’t think he would survive and we are so happy to see him look so well.”
Dr Lucas Webb and paramedic Sean Cooke worked to save Mr Hanania and said he responded to his commands in the ambulance.
“But I would have never recognised you on the street if I had not seen you today as you were all swollen,” Dr Webb said.
Mr Cooke explained how scary the situation was with holes being punctured in his chest to remove the massive bleeding.
“There were a lot of unusual things with one being that there was lot of bruising on his shoulder which showed how much blood he had already lost,” Mr Cooke said.
“You (Nicholas) should have not survived the injury.”
Dr Geoff Healy, the anaesthetist at Royal North Shore Hospital, said “all ducks lined up for Nicholas” that day.
“The pre-hospital care he had on the bridge allowed him to be brought to hospital,” Dr Geoff said.
“Also the hospital had recently initiated Code Crimson where all the senior medical staff will come to the operating theatre and work together to save a life.”
At one time there were 30 staff in the theatre with Mr Hanania and for the first 24 hours he needed 80 pints of blood.
“There were a lot of unusual things with one being that there was lot of bruising on his shoulder which showed how much blood he had already lost,” Mr Cooke said.
“You (Mr Hanania) should have not survived the injury.”
Mr Hanania was accompanied by his parents Saba and Marcella Hanania, elder sister Sarah and her husband John Karavasilias, brother Oliver, girlfriend Romina Turrisi and aunty Adrianna.
For many hours that afternoon, his worried family — alerted by Ms Turrisi — had been calling police and hospitals when Mr Hanania did not respond to mobile calls.
“Nicholas always checks in with me when he has a break,” Ms Turrisi said.
“When he did not respond to my calls or text, I knew immediately something was wrong and called his sister Sarah.
“It is a miracle he is alive, we said a lot of prayers for him.
“Nicholas spent two weeks in a coma, three weeks in the ICU but when he awoke, he remembered a lot of things and recognised us.”
His sister Sarah Karavasilias said: “I was seven months pregnant and when I heard what happened to Nicholas, I just collapsed on the floor.”
Fortunately the fall did not affect the pregnancy and a few months later she gave birth to a son, whom she named Nicholas.
Ace Training Centre general manager Scott Watkins said it was a fine example of how all the NSW systems worked so well together to save one life.
Dr Healy said it was humbling to be thanked by someone whose life they had saved.
“It is rare that someone who was going to die is coming back with his family to say thank you,” he said.
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