Demmler’s brush with death

By his own admission Craig Demmler is lucky to be alive. 

The multiple Group 1 winning harness racing reinsman was recently seriously injured in a track work fall at his Mount Wallace property on the western outskirts of Melbourne. 

“It was just a freak thing that happened, the horse went down and I didn’t land the best,” Demmler said. 

A sore and shaken Demmler drove himself to the Bacchus Marsh hospital where he underwent a series of x-rays and was subsequently sent home. 

“The following day I was bloated and in a lot of pain,  as if someone had stabbed me in the side, so I went back to the hospital where they thought that I had an appendicitis,” he said. 

Demmler took himself back to the Emergent Department where he collapsed and was rushed to the Western General Hospital. 

“They found that I had a Grade 4 ruptured spleen, a bruised liver and kidneys and broken wrist,” he said. 

Demmler spent several days in the Intensive Care Unit as doctors debated whether to remove his spleen. 

“It was touch and go whether they took it out,” he said. 

“The doctors told me that if I had waited much longer before going to the emergency department then it would have been lights out as the spleen was bleeding badly,” he said. 

Demmler is due to have further scans on his spleen next week. 

“That’s when they decide what they will do with the spleen,” he said. 

“The issue is that it could bleed at any time so I have to completely rest.” 

Demmler is recovering at the home of his father, legendary horseman Ted. 

Despite his ordeal, Demmler is not about to relinquish the reins on a permanent basis. 

“Naturally it’s been discussed but I think I’ll be back driving; I just don’t know when.” 

by John Dunne, for Harnesslink