Sam Denic (left) with his saviour Louis Aspinall. Photo: Ben Smith.
Camera IconSam Denic (left) with his saviour Louis Aspinall. Photo: Ben Smith. Credit: Supplied/Supplied

A friendship forged from a fall

Ben SmithCockburn Gazette

AN 86-year-old man has been reunited with his ‘guardian angel’ after coming face-to-face with the truck driver who rescued him after a fall.

Sam Denic was walking from Beeliar Village Shopping Centre on October 10 when he lost his footing and fell in between two cars.

Mr Denic, who sustained a broken nose, remembers only the start of the fall.

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“I thought I was OK, but my head was hurting and then I looked and there was blood running down past my nose,” he said.

Mr Denic’s calls of agony attracted the attention of truck driver Louis Aspinall, who had just finished a delivery.

After locating Mr Denic, Mr Aspinall sprung into action. He sat the older man upright, tended to his injuries and attempted to attract the attention of other passersbys.

“When I got to him, the pool of blood was bigger than a table so I knew he’d lost a lot of blood,” Mr Aspinall said.

“I was using my shirt and hat to try stem the bleeding around Sam’s head.”

After catching the attention of a fellow truck driver, Mr Aspinall got him to call an ambulance and activated the fall detector pendent around Mr Denic’s neck.

Mr Aspinall said once people lent their assistance he realised the severity of the situation.

“This lovely old lady came along and picked up all the shopping Sam had dropped that had gone under the cars,” he said.

“She bought it back to Coles so they looked after it for him. And people from the shopping centre bought out rags to put on Sam’s injuries because my shirt and hat were gone.”

Despite his heroics on the day, Mr Aspinall said he had his own hero in the form of his boss Ian, who calmed him down over the phone after the incident.

“After seeing so much blood and looking after Sam, the adrenalin kicked in. I could’ve run around the local school oval four or five times,” he said.

“I rang my boss and he could tell by the tone in my voice something was wrong. He made me sit down and have a coffee before getting back in the truck.

“My mind was racing and he sensed that. He rang me two or three times just to make sure I was OK.”

Mr Denic said he was incredibly thankful for Mr Aspinall’s aid and met up with him to buy him a coffee this week.

“When you get hurt, you want someone to help you, and that makes you want to help someone else,” he said.

Mr Aspinall said he was just lucky he was in the right place at the right time.

“I lost my shirt and my best fishing hat, but I gained a new friend,” he said.

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