About Us

Full Revs

Monday, 21st March 1988 began as a beautiful morning. After breakfast, Graham my son-in-law and I decided to finish clearing the last short section of the rear boundary. We were fencing the back of our fifty-three acre property. I explained to Graham how to fell the trees within a pre-determined area by cutting a scarf on one side, and then making a cut on the other a little above the scarf, and so on.

The bloodwood tree we chose to cut was on top of a creek bank, about twenty centimeters in diameter. I thought I had explained carefully how and where to drop it. I moved to the bottom of the creek to keep out of the way. After what seemed an unusually long time, I climbed up the creek bank to see what Graham was doing. He had misunderstood and had cut almost right through the tree. As I approached, the tree moved slightly and Graham instinctively ripped the chain saw backwards to avoid jamming it. It was at full revs. It hit me with a terrible blow in my lower right chest.

The chain instantly severed ribs and severely lacerated my liver and diaphragm. Blood gushed forth profusely so I staunched the bleeding and set off with Graham across the creek to a vehicle track.

Every breath was sheer agony. I kept going. Graham was in shock and at some point knelt in front of me so I could climb onto his shoulders. The bumping at each step and trying to control my breathing was unbearable. I asked Graham to put me down and sent him home to get the car and tell my wife Ruth and daughter Caroline. They brought towels which I clamped over a gaping wound in my chest.

Finally with the car, I managed to get into the back seat with my then wife Ruth. My girls yelled, “Go for it Graham!”. They followed.

The fifty kilometre drive over gravel roads and bumpy bitumen was horrific. I had to slow Graham down at each bump. I was in agony and trying to breathe.

At the Yandaran cross-roads an overwhelming thirst come over me. We stopped for water we kept in the boot. The car was an old Volvo Sports. The engine was hot and I had to explain to Graham how to start the motor by shorting out the solenoid points with a screw-driver while Caroline held her foot on the throttle. We left at high speed with Ruth beside me trying to comfort as I groaned with intense pain at each breath. She wanted to be with me even if I did not make it.

At Casualty I was conscious and got out of the car. A nurse directed me to a wheel chair. Our neighbour Jack Hanks was there having a treatment. I acknowledged him and said, “I’ve got myself cut up with a chain-saw mate!”

It was needles, X-rays and inevitable questions before I was rushed to the emergency operating theatre. Doctor McGregor and his team did their best in sorting out the mess – the liver gash was cleaned and packed with special spray foam, the diaphragm muscle was repaired and sutured, the ribs were re-positioned, wrapped and sewn over with the muscular tissue lining from the chest cavity to avoid sharp ends irritating or puncturing the lung. A liver drain was also inserted and then I was hooked up with tubes through my mouth and nose to a breathing machine. My life depended on this for two and a half days in the Intensive Care Unit.

I knew nothing of all this as I was completely sedated and immobilized. My loved ones took round the clock vigils and told me all about it after I woke on the Thursday morning and began breathing on my own again.

My wife and I were not members of a religious organisation or church group, but we became totally committed to what we found as the truth of the Gospel message, and who is now our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. We try to live by God’s moral laws, the Ten Commandments, as well as God’s created, natural principles for health.

Don Menkens