"I saved my baby. Then he saved me."

In the aftermath of a horrific car crash Bek Bishop discovered she was pregnant. Doctors suggested she terminate the pregnancy due to her injuries, but Bek refused. Her son, Harry, became her reason to fight.

- GENEVIEVE GANNON

The morning of the day in 2010 that everything changed, my life was on track. I was on my way to getting a law degree and in a happy marriage. I adored my stepson, James, and my husband and I wanted another baby. I was driving on the Monash Freeway when I saw the trees in the median strip shaking wildly. The last thing I remember was seeing the front of a truck. A semi-trailer jackknifed across the median strip on the freeway, crushing my car, trapping me inside.

Everything went black. I was in agonising pain, pinned under the steering wheel with the roof crushed around my head for what seemed like eternity. I recall hearing voices and crying “Help me”. Someone asked for my next of kin. I thought they were coming to say goodbye before I died. I later learned that when emergency services saw the smash they thought they’d be retrieving a body. They considered amputating my arm right there on the freeway.

I remember the moment air and light rushed in when they finally cut the roof off. I thought “I might actually survive this.” After three hours I was prised free of the metal carnage and flown to Melbourne’s Alfred Hospital for urgent care.

My injuries were vast and varied. Bleeding on the brain, a broken collarbone, fractured shoulder, severed tendons, broken hand, bulging discs and a haematoma in my leg. I needed multiple surgeries. And that’s just the physical injuries. The psychological harm was severe. I became anxious and fearful and experienced vivid, terrifying flashbacks.