Perth couple who lost legs in bike crash reveal costly new challenge
Perth husband and wife Dean and Sharon English each lost their right legs in a motorbike smash in September.
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They had been travelling around a bend on Great Eastern Hwy near Meckering, 130km east of the city, when they collided with an oncoming vehicle towing a caravan.
The couple were airlifted to Royal Perth and placed into comas, and spent about five months in a hospital room together, coming to terms with their new normal.
'Some days it's really, really difficult,' Dean told 7NEWS.
'We have our private moments where we sit there and have a cry.
'If I didn't have Sharon with me, I'd be absolutely wrecked.'
The couple faces months of intense rehabilitation at Fiona Stanley Hospital and will learn to walk again with prosthetics.
Dean's progress has been slowed by injuries to his hand, including a lost finger and shattered bones.
Police could not determine who was at fault for the crash, and their rehab is not the only challenge they are facing.
As a passenger, Sharon gets third party compensation. But Dean, a prison officer for 33 years, does not and he does not have health insurance.
He may qualify for an Insurance Commission payout but to get that he needs to pay for his own private investigator to prove he was not to blame for the crash.
That is likely to cost him tens of thousands of dollars and given he is unable to work, it is money he does not have.
With WA's road toll at a decade-high, Dean said his message is an urgent one.
'We wear the best of equipment all the time and I would urge anyone who rides a motorbike to make sure they wear proper PPE because that's what saved our lives,' he said.
His workmates have set up a GoFundMe to try and help with costs, and Dean is working to get back to work and the job he loves.
'I want to get back to normal,' he said.
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