Tradie dad paralysed from the chest down after freak accident
Married couple Jake and Carli Stevens were sleeping side by side in their Ballarat home at the start of the month when a blinding pain ripped through Jake's chest, jolting both him and his wife awake.
"Doctors said the pain he must have been in was out of this world... but he walked himself to the ambulance,' Carli, who scrambled to call Triple Zero, told Yahoo. "He was just so calm, I [was a] bit of a mess."
It was later discovered that the dad-of-two had suffered a catastrophic aortic dissection — a life-threatening condition that causes a tear in the aorta's inner wall. His determination to not distress his wife in the middle of the night during his moment of need is a perfect example of the kind of man he is, Carli explained.
"We've been together for 22 years, and we've been married for 16, so we kind of know each other well... I'm trying to stay positive... I know he's lucky to be alive," she said.
Jake, who works as a plumber, was rushed to a hospital in Melbourne where he underwent two surgeries, with his condition so "dire" that he had multiple different teams operating on him at the one time. During one seven-hour surgery, when doctors were desperately trying to save his life, he sustained a prolonged lack of blood flow to his spinal cord. The result was life-changing.
"He had such a long time without blood flow that he sustained a spinal injury and now has no feeling from the chest down to the rest of his body," Carli told Yahoo. "Doctors are saying it's potentially something that he will never be able to regain again."
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The couple and their two young sons, aged 10 and 14, face an uncertain future now that Jake will be unable to work as a plumber and is prepped for a wheelchair.
The financial insecurity and the mounting costs of tailoring their home to make it accessible has prompted loved ones to launch a GoFundMe page.
"We've got many different friend circles around us and they all love him. He's just got a really good attitude to life and he focuses on what's important to him and the people he loves," Carli said.
"He's a big cuddly bear."
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