“In the flick of a finger your life really can change forever,” Joe Salu

 On August 30 last year, an unbalanced load of formwork shutters fell off a truck as Joe Salu was unloading in the yard.

He knew straight away something was very wrong as he lay on his back with a punctured lung, struggling to breathe. 

“I was sitting there waiting for the light and my mate Jason got my phone so I could call my wife,” he said.

Mr Salu went to the P.A. hospital and was operated on the next morning to remove multitudes of bone fragments from his crushed spine.

He suffered an incomplete break, but it was the bone fragments which damaged the muscles and nerves in his back, leaving him in a wheelchair.

The married father of two was told by doctors he probably won’t walk again.

When his employer said they wanted him back at work, he feared he might be left doing paperwork. But Wideform had a different idea, they paid for the dogger to complete a Self Erecting Tower Crane Ticket allowing him to continue working on site.

Now Joe is equipped with an electric chair and back to working full eight hour days.

Wideform hopes Joe’s position in the company will grow into a training role to up-skill their workforce.

Joe’s industrial accident has had a really big effect on workers and his return to work has had a ripple effect within the company.

Lots of physio and hydrotherapy lie ahead for Mr Salu, but he is hopeful he will walk again. He’s already made significant improvements, getting movement back in his thighs.

“I’ve been working with a group called ‘Walk On’ who’ve shown me people can and do walk again after being in a wheel chair,” he said.

It seems nothing can hold this 48 year old back; he’s been playing indoor basketball and still flies home to Wellington in New Zealand.

With support from his employer, and wife who’s been his “rock”, Mr Salu is looking to the future and setting new goals.

Joe’s determination has shown people that workers are not just  pawns, who to their company are replaceable.