"Raw with grief": White Island volcano victim finally wakes from coma to find husband and stepdaughter died
Adelaide mother and engineer Lisa Dallow woke from a coma and received the heartbreaking news that her daughter and husband passed away in the White Island volcano tragedy.
Lisa, 48, told relatives how she and other tourists fled for their lives as rocks rained down on them during the eruption on December 9.
She woke in Melbourne’s The Alfred Hospital burns unit and was given the news that her daughter Zoe, 15, and Gavin, 53 had passed.
Relatives told The Advertiser that she was devastated.
“Lisa is awake and has been told about Zoe and Gavin, so she now knows what has happened,” a family spokeswoman said.
“It took a while for it to sink in and then she just kept saying she can’t believe they had died.”
The family spokesman also said that Lisa had some memories of the volcano erupting.
“She remembers it exploding and then telling everyone to run,” she said. “She then recalled how rocks were falling everywhere and hitting her on the back.
“She remembers thinking: ‘When are they going to come and rescue us?’ The next thing she knows is she is in hospital wondering where she was.”
After Lisa missed Gavin’s funeral at Adelaide Oval last month, her family has delayed Zoe’s memorial in the hopes that Lisa can attend as she undergoes intensive rehab.
“She wasn’t able to go to Gavin’s funeral, but we are hoping she could make Zoe’s, so they have delayed it until she is a bit better,” the spokesperson explained.
“It will be Lisa’s decision, so we all just have to wait and see. It is so devastating for everyone. We are still raw with grief.”
Lisa was critically injured after suffering life-threatening burns to almost 60 percent of her body and is currently receiving high-level care from Australia’s top trauma doctors.
“It really is a slow road to recovery, Lisa has been up and down,” the spokesman said.
Photo credits: Adelaide Now