Andrea Lehane tragedy: Grieving dad on life after alleged monkey bike hit-run death of mother-of-two
THE grieving husband of shopping centre hit-run victim Andrea Lehane has spoken of the moment he realised his wife had no chance of survival.
National
Don't miss out on the headlines from National. Followed categories will be added to My News.
THE grieving husband of tragic mother Andrea Lehane has spoken for the first time of the moment he realised his wife had no chance of survival, and his anger over the accident.
The 34-year-old nursing educator was killed on a pedestrian crossing outside Carrum Downs Regional Shopping Centre last month by a teenager riding an illegal monkey bike.
James Lehane told last night’s edition of A Current Affair, when he rushed to his wife’s bedside in hospital after she came out of emergency surgery he knew her injuries were “too great” to survive.
“I knew at that stage, I just knew,” he told the Channel Nine program.
“I walked over and touched her on the forehead and leant down and gave her a kiss and blood starting coming out of her ear and I just knew then she wasn’t with us anymore.”
Mr Lehane told how his wife had been preparing to go out for an evening with friends when she called him to ask what he wanted for dinner, just before she made her fateful walk to the shops just near their home.
Recalling their final conversation he said he told her: “Have a good night love. Have a good night with your friends.
“She said: ‘Yes I will, and, ‘I love you’. I said: ‘I love you back’.”
Mr Lehane wasn’t able to travel with his wife to hospital so he videoed her being taken away fearing it would be the last time he would see her.
Asked what he wished he could have told her if he’d known it would be their last conversation Mr Lehane said: “It would have been a long one, I would have discussed our lives to date, I would have talked about the kids, I would have talked about what we had achieved oh so many things.”
Speaking of the moment he heard about his wife’s accident Mr Lehane revealed he thought his wife was ringing on her mobile — but when he picked it up heard a stranger’s voice.
“It was another girl’s voice, and she sounded rather frantic. And she explained to me that she had picked Andy’s phone up and called me. And she said, ‘Andy’s been in a serious accident she’s been hit by a bike at the shopping centre’.”
“She said there is police, ambulances here everywhere. There is a huge crowd, and literally by the time that happened — my work is only five minutes down the road ... By the time I hung up from the phone I was in the car and driving there.”
Returning to the scene of the accident for the program, Mr Lehane revealed how paramedics were struggling to stabilise his wife on the road.
“She was going in and out of consciousness, resuscitation losing her heart beat, CPR; they just couldn’t get her stable enough to get her into the ambulance to take her to the ambulance helicopter ... they just couldn’t get her stable enough.
“Her injuries were just too great straight from the start.”
Speaking of the moment Andrea’s children were taken to The Alfred hospital to say goodbye, her mother Opal told the program: “They just thought mummy was sleeping.”
Asked how the couple’s two young children Ashley, four and Heath, three, are coping now, Mr Lehane says they don’t fully understand what has happened to their mother.
“They are just too young to realise,” he said.
“I was speaking to a professional the other day and apparently under the age of seven our brains are just not developed enough to comprehend death and I’m really seeing that.
“I think in a way it’s sort of frustrating because I want them to be with me in my mind and feel what i’m feeling but at the same time I don’t and it’s kind of a blessing in a way.”
Talking of a future without his wife, Mr Lehane told how he is now focusing on the children.
“Everything I do now is pretty much with Ashley and Heath in mind. I mean as a father I was beforehand but Andy filled in so much of that area she was such an excellent mum and just gave me the ability to go to work and try and earn a quid but now I’ve got to do all that too.”
Two weeks ago a judge agreed to bail Caleb Jakobsson, 18, the teenager accused of riding the miniature bike that hit Andrea.
Recalling the funeral service at the church were the couple married five years ago in Beechworth Mr Lehane told how hard it was to return.
“I stood at that exact same location and put a ring on my wife’s finger and that ring was supposed to be there forever - it got handed back to me by a surgeon,” he said.
Talking about life without his wife Mr Lehane gave a painful insight into his grief saying; “I mean I go to bed at night, roll over and give her a cuddle and she’s not there.
“We’d be driving somewhere in the car and I’d look across and give her a pat on the knee - she’s not there.
“I’ve just become so accustomed to being two people in life - basically being a team, being married to Andy who just leaving so instantly is just something I never thought I’d have to contemplate.
“It’s like half of me and my life is just gone.”
Talking of a future without his wife Mr Lehane told how he is now focussing on the children but admitted life was now full of “hurdles”.
“Everything I do now is pretty much with Ashley and Heath in mind,” he said, “We have to focus on creating this new life for the three of us now ... not on the negatives.”
To donate to the Lehane family fundraiser go to: aca.ninemsn.com.au
Stats every Boomer needs to see
We now have cold, hard proof that young Aussies are making a “rare level of sacrifice” – but it’s still not enough for them to get ahead.
‘Her, her, her’: Dad’s alleged dying words
An elderly grandfather found with fatal injuries in his home allegedly tried to tell his son his wife was responsible, a court has been told.