Long road ahead for Cassi West and her family

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By HARRY CLARKE

SIX months on from an horrific car crash in Chinchilla which hospitalised two teenage girls and shook their tight-knit community, the father of one of the victims has spoken in detail for the first time about the trauma which has turned his daughter’s life, and her family’s, upside down.

Sixteen-year-old Cassi West suffered what’s described medically as a severe penetrating traumatic brain injury on May 31 when the ute she was a passenger in speared off a neighbourhood street and ploughed through a front yard about 8.30pm.

Her close friend, 16-year-old Bree Critch, suffered sever facial injuries and after two weeks in hospital returned an “extremely lucky girl” to life Chinchilla.

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But Cassi today remains in full time, intensive rehabilitation at a medical facility on Brisbane’s bayside.

Her brain injury is so severe that she may never remember who her parents and friends are, Cassi’s father Michael West told the Caller.

The 18-year-old male driver of the ute is facing two counts of dangerous operation of a motor vehicle causing grievous bodily harm.

The 17-year-old driver of a second vehicle allegedly involved is charged with two counts of dangerous operation of a motor vehicle and failing to remain at the scene of a crash and obtain help.

Both drivers remain before the courts. Police allege the two were racing their vehicles along Wambo St when the crash occurred, travelling in excess of 100km/hr in a 60km/hr zone.

The West family – father Michael, mother Helen and brother Liam – has shared little detail of Cassi’s progress, other than with close family and friends, since the crash occurred.

But as the Chinchilla community prepares to come together to help raise money for her recovery at next weekend’s annual Christmas race meeting, Cassi’s family wished to provide an update and to thank the community for its outpouring of support over the past six months.

“We’d really like to just say thank you to the community. The support has been huge,” Michael said.

“That night absolutely destroyed us, waking up to a police officer in your face saying ‘your daughter’s been in an accident, go to the hospital’.

“It was just shock. Helen was in shock like I’ve never seen before. We were just a mess.

“I was not prepared for what I saw when I got to hospital. It took a long time to get her stable and then I went in the chopper with her to Brisbane. They were operating on her the whole way. They had to do a procedure and some of the things I saw were pretty traumatic.

“It was sort of like everything was in slow motion, seeing it happening in front of me. It was a dream – or a nightmare, more like it. I just couldn’t believe it. I didn’t want to believe it but it was right in front of me so I had no choice.”

The temporal bone in Cassi’s skull had been smashed and there was severe damage to her left ear canal. She was airlifted to the Princess Alexandra Hospital in Brisbane where she was placed in an induced coma.

“But after about three days she started breathing against the life support, and it was about a week after that the life support was turned off and she was breathing for herself,” Michael said.

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Cassi spent four months in the PA Hospital, during which time her condition transitioned from “post coma unresponsive” to a “minimally conscious” state.

She is now in a separate rehabilitation facility in east Brisbane, where she undergoes daily rehabilitation programs including physio therapy, occupational therapy, and speech therapy to assist with swallowing.

“She even has music therapy and she’s really responding to that,” Michael said.

“They say that music therapy opens up neural pathways and you’re more likely to advance. That’s something I never knew about beforehand. 

“She’s always been able to move her left arm but just recently she’s been able to turn her head and she’s now started moving her legs on command. This is a huge improvement and we’re very excited about it. They (doctors) initially said that she wouldn’t be able to move her right side.

“She’s transitioning to yes/no responses with verbal commands. She’s getting regular tests and it’s improving.

“It’s slow progress. This sort of injury takes a long time. It was a severe injury.

“She still has a piece of her skull missing. The temporal bone and around behind her ear is missing. They will be putting in a titanium plate to reconstruct the area and make it safe so that if she does start moving around it’s protected.”

Following the trauma of his daughter’s injury, Michael has recently returned to work in the Chinchilla district and is now the sole income provider for his family. He’s employed in the resources industry as a gas well site operator.

Cassi’s mother, Helen West, has moved to Brisbane to be by Cassi’s side during her recovery.  She had to leave her job at Chinchilla State High School, where Cassi was a student in Year 11.

“Helen’s been going ok, but she’s not a person to show her feelings so much. She keeps them inside,” Michael said.

“It’s been really difficult. There’s just so much on our minds and it’s just the loss of who Cassi was. 

“Cassi’s lost who she was. We don’t know if she’s going to remember us. It’s all up in the air. We just don’t know, but each time she shows these little bits of progress it gives us hope that she may have some sort of quality of life soon.

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“I don’t want to rush too far ahead and bring her back to Chinchilla before she’s actually ready. We want to get her as far as we can before we bring her home.

“There was no light at the end of the tunnel from the start, but now we’ve got a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel.

“Your mind always says ‘is this it? Is this as far as we’re going to go?’ and then she’ll surprise you with another little improvement. 

“At the start we were told that she would have no quality of life. We ask the doctors all the time but they don’t say. They say brain injuries are like snow flakes, they’re all different. 

“We don’t know how far she’s going to get and that’s the hard part. You can’t plan for the future.”