TO her friends, Gayle Shann's life was an outback fairytale.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The daughter of a North Queensland grazing family, she was beautiful, an accomplished horsewoman and immensely popular.
Four years ago the 27-year-old married Mac and the couple went on to live their dream of running a station, west of Mackay.
But in a split second, the fairytale was shattered.
Soon after dawn on August 9 last year, Gayle, Mac and a friend were busy building a new fence around the station's homestead.
They were digging post holes with a heavy machine; Mac was in the operator's seat and Gayle was beside the drill, shovelling soil.
Suddenly the back of Gayle's glove caught on a fast-spinning pin.
It gobbled her arm and flung her body around at least six times, repeatedly slamming it between metal bars and the hard ground.
Mac quickly turned off the engine, ran to the digger and saw Gayle's bleeding, battered body hanging limply off a pole.
He thought she was dead.
Mac called for help as his friend carried Gayle to the house and covered her with a blanket.
An ambulance rushed from the nearest town; it would take one-and-a-half hours to arrive, the flying doctor would take two.
For most of that time, Gayle was conscious. She begged Mac to move her right arm because it was in so much pain.
He lifted the blanket and saw the arm was missing.
``She kept on saying she was in terrible pain, asking what was going on,'' he said. ``I just kept telling her it was going to be all right.''
But when the doctors arrived they were not so sure. Gayle had lost a lot of blood. They operated in the farmhouse to stem the flow.
They told Mac to say goodbye _ possibly forever. Then they drove Gayle to the airstrip and flew her to Townsville.
Mac followed by car, driving for more than five hours along deserted roads not knowing whether she was alive.
By the time she reached hospital in Townsville, doctors were confident Gayle would live. But her injuries were horrific.
Her right arm was severed at the shoulder.
Her left arm was crushed, needing three plates and 20 pins. Her left knee was mangled, her spine was damaged and four ribs were smashed.
Two days after she arrived in hospital she woke surrounded by family. They told her she had lost her right arm.
She vowed it wouldn't defeat her. She could ride with one arm _ with special reins she might even be able to compete.
But a few days later doctors said her left arm was useless. The nerves had been wrenched from her spine.
``Being under the influence of painkillers, I just seemed to take it on board. I didn't fully understand the implications.''It was not until Gayle left hospital after three months that she realised how helpless she was.
She could not eat, wash or go to the toilet by herself.
Before the accident, she and Mac had done all the farm work on their own.
``It was our dream _ getting married and doing everything together, just the two of us,'' she said.
``But that's never going to happen. I can't help him and he's got to look after me. That's very difficult to accept.''
She also worried about Mac, who is three years younger.
``I realised what a workload was involved in looking after me,'' she said.
``I started thinking about how Mac was going to cope. He's only young, he wouldn't want to be burdened with someone like me.''
Gayle's recovery has been slow and she still has days when the pain in her neck and back is overwhelming, but she is improving all the time.
One of the biggest burdens is the so-called ``phantom pain'' in her right arm, which is constant and unlikely to ever go away.
``They say the way the accident happened affects the pain you get,'' she said.``I'm getting (pain which feels like my) fingers bending back really hard. They say that might have been my last memories of the pain.
''The drought is making things only harder.
The property is the driest it has ever been, and cattle are dying almost every day.``If it would just rain I think Gayle would feel 10 times better,'' Mac said.
Gayle is hoping medical marvels will help her.
She underwent world-first surgery involving swinging live nerves from the severed right arm to the left in the faint hope it might restore movement.
Another option is a bionic arm known as the Utah arm, although her muscles are not yet functioning well enough to support it.
Meanwhile, she is trying to find things to do. She has a computer keyboard she can operate with her feet and has learned to dial the phone with her toes.
``I think: `Can I learn to love the computer?' There's only so much time you can spend on it, I find, but I've got to learn to enjoy other things,'' she said.
``I still want to play as much of a role as I can on the station.''
They plan to modify the house with taps Gayle can operate with her knees and hope to one day buy a foot-operated vehicle.
The rural community has rallied, organising fundraisers everywhere from Moranbah to Greenvale, near Gayle's childhood station.
A charity auction at Moranbah, to which farmers donated bulls, artwork, even a dam, raised $140,000. Another in Rockhampton raised $40,000.
Despite all the uncertainty, Gayle no longer fears becoming a burden to her husband.
Mac adores Gayle and is a tireless and tender carer. He feeds her, washes her, puts pillows under her slinged arm and brushes the hair from her face.
She is happy in his hands.
``Mac has been wonderful,'' she said.
``He doesn't want to hire a carer. He reassures me all the time that he wants to be the one with me.''
Perhaps the fairytale continues after all.