"I saved my baby. Then he saved me."
The Australian Women's Weekly|July 2023
In the aftermath of a horrific car crash Bek Bishop discovered she was pregnant. Doctors suggested she terminate the pregnancy due to her injuries, but Bek refused. Her son, Harry, became her reason to fight.
GENEVIEVE GANNON
"I saved my baby. Then he saved me."

The morning of the day in 2010 that everything changed, my life was on track. I was on my way to getting a law degree and in a happy marriage. I adored my stepson, James, and my husband and I wanted another baby. I was driving on the Monash Freeway when I saw the trees in the median strip shaking wildly. The last thing I remember was seeing the front of a truck. A semi-trailer jackknifed across the median strip on the freeway, crushing my car, trapping me inside.

Everything went black. I was in agonising pain, pinned under the steering wheel with the roof crushed around my head for what seemed like eternity. I recall hearing voices and crying “Help me”. Someone asked for my next of kin. I thought they were coming to say goodbye before I died. I later learned that when emergency services saw the smash they thought they’d be retrieving a body. They considered amputating my arm right there on the freeway.

I remember the moment air and light rushed in when they finally cut the roof off. I thought “I might actually survive this.” After three hours I was prised free of the metal carnage and flown to Melbourne’s Alfred Hospital for urgent care.

My injuries were vast and varied. Bleeding on the brain, a broken collarbone, fractured shoulder, severed tendons, broken hand, bulging discs and a haematoma in my leg. I needed multiple surgeries. And that’s just the physical injuries. The psychological harm was severe. I became anxious and fearful and experienced vivid, terrifying flashbacks.

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