It’s hard to imagine experiencing a worse run of bad fortune than that of the Proelss family over the past 12 months.
At the weekend tragedy struck the Mount Clear family for the second time in a year and now they are reaching out to the community for assistance in their time of need.
Former St Patrick’s College student Ricky Proelss had recently moved to Queensland to work on a cattle farm near the remote township of Alpha, almost five hours west of Rockhampton.
A lover of all things outdoors, the 23-year-old had embraced the life as a ringer from the top end and had immersed himself in the work.
“He's born for the outdoors and loves working with his hands, he's been really happy up there,” Steve Abbott said of his little brothers move.
A group of Ricky’s friends from home had embarked on a “trip to the tip”, driving through New South Wales and Queensland en route to Cape York and had stopped off in Alpha to visit their mate.
Ricky and his 10 friends set up camp about 70 kilometres from the township, lighting a bonfire before settling in for the night.
But just after 4am on Saturday tragedy struck, when Ricky got up from his sleep before accidentally stumbling into the still burning fire.
His painful burns were intensified by the condition of his shirt, which was covered in oil after spending the afternoon fixing a power steering pump on his ute.
Remarkably, one of the campers, Jake Marshall, had completed a first aid course just weeks earlier that detailed how to respond in the case of severe burns.
For more than an hour Jake and his fellow campers were forced to put their limited skills and resources to good use to keep their mate from going into shock.
The group remained on the phone to the ambulance service while they travelled the 70 kilometres to the remote campsite, using every drop of water available to keep Ricky cool.
When emergency services finally arrived Ricky had suffered severe burns to more than 50 per cent of his body.
He was rushed back to Alpha before being flown to the Royal Brisbane Hospital by the Royal Flying Doctor Service, where he remains in a critical but stable condition.
“That was really hard for (his friends), because you’d feel a bit helpless but they stuck in there and did all the right things,” Steve said. “The guys he was with really did save his life and they jumped straight into action.”
Ricky’s tragic injuries come while the family is in the middle of dealing with another medical dilemma, with mum Katrina Proelss battling a rare blood cancer known as Myelodysplastic syndrome, or MDS.
Katrina first noticed symptoms of the uncommon disease about a year ago when she would go through phases of deflated energy as well as severe stomach pains, which would ultimately be attributed to a spleen which had swollen to double its usual size.
She has spent the past year regularly in and out of hospital, including for the removal of her spleen. Katrina herself only managed to get out of hospital on Monday, less than two days after Ricky’s tragic accident.
“It was a pretty long build up (to the MDS diagnosis) and there were a lot of unknowns during that time,” Steve said of his mum’s condition. “One day she would be ok and the next she would be struck down.”
The 57-year-old is now preparing to undergo a bone marrow transplant in September, which may provide a potential cure to the illness in some instances can turn into a more aggressive form of leukaemia.
However, the transplant itself is a potentially dangerous procedure, with a risk that the new marrow may be rejected by the body.
In the best case scenario she will be required to stay in close proximity to hospital for three months, while a full recovery could be up to 18 months away.
In what now seems like a cruel joke, the family was also victim of a callous theft in August last year when three cars were stolen from their Mount Clear address, with two of the vehicles being written off.
Despite the family’s incredible run of ill fortune, they say they have been blessed by a remarkable volume of support from family and friends.
A GoFundMe page was set up on Monday to assist the family with their expenses as they try to care for two people across two states.
The guys he was with really did save his life and they jumped straight into action.
- Steve Abbott - Ricky Proelss' brother
In just over 24 hours the fund had received more than $45,000 in donations, well in excess of the family’s stated target of $12,000.
While sisters Tamara Abbott and Jemma Proelss are currently in Brisbane with Ricky, the remainder of the family is now intending on flying up to meet them on Wednesday thanks to the windfall financial assistance.
“Ricky and Mum are the kind of people who don't really know how to accept stuff and are always giving … so to see that coming back is unbelievable,” Steve said. “We will be forever grateful.”
Katrina will also make the journey, despite the fact she had been due to have her fifth round of chemotherapy earlier this week. She will receive the treatment at a Brisbane facility soon after stepping off the plane in order to be with her severely injured son.
Meanwhile, Ricky remains in an induced coma and is expected to be hospitalised for up to four months. He’s not anticipated be able to return home to Victoria for at least another six weeks.
“We’ve had our fair share of situations to deal with and there's a lot going on at the moment, but as we've done in the past we'll keep pushing through,” Steve said.
