Private Nathan Whittington (Army)
Inspirational 20-year-old amputee Pte Nathan Whittington has been named Army’s 2012 Blood Challenge ambassador.
The driver from 10FSB lost his right foot and subsequently most of his lower right leg on November 27, 2010.
Life-saving donated blood supplies were on standby but ultimately not required during the operations on his leg, but Pte Whittington still understands better than most the importance of blood for people with critical injuries.
Pte Whittington fell off a jet ski when a water skiing tow rope caught around his ankle in the accident in Townsville.
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“I remember being under water,” he said. “I remember the rope being pulled off, like it had loosened. I remember floating to the surface and thinking, ‘something’s not right here’.”
“My mate came over, and said ‘what’s wrong?’ I said, ‘I don’t know, my ankle’s a bit sore’, and lifted my foot out of the water. He realised before I did that my foot was gone.
“I remember waking up in the hospital and my sergeant and lieutenant were there, and saying to them “do I still have a job in the Army?”
As early as nine days after his accident in November 2010, Pte Whittington pushed himself well ahead of his projected rehabilitation program and began his own method of recovery.
“I was doing leg-raises with five kilos of weight on my stump and I was also doing push-ups, dips and everything to try and keep fit,” he said.
“I wanted to maintain my fitness and people were telling me I had to slow down, but I was killing it – I just wanted to do my own thing.
“I looked at it thinking this is who I am now and I can’t change that.
“There was no point sitting around on the bed and I just didn’t want a setback, I wanted to keep going forward.”
Just over 20 months later, after one of the best and fastest recoveries most of his doctors have seen, Pte Whittington has come a long way.
He’s gone from worrying about keeping his job after the accident to being nominated for a coming junior leader course and hoping to ultimately become a PTI.
After adapting to a prosthetic leg and meeting the high-performance manager from the Australian Paralympics Committee, he is now also in training for Australian international team sport selection in track and field. His speciality event is the 100m sprint.
“Next year there’s the US Marine Corps games for the wounded, injured and ill and the Arafura Games in Darwin,” Pte Whittington said.
“Hopefully I’ll make it on to the Australian athletics team and to the world championships in France in August 2013.
“But my long-term goal is the 2016 Paralympics in Rio.”