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Dad, Ambos and PA save Arden

22 Oct 2026
Arden Coy is well into his preparation for his first Ironman in Melbourne next month. Pictured right during his recovery at PA with his father Daniel.

Arden Coy is lucky to be alive, let alone preparing to tackle his first ever Ironman event next month.

Arden credits the emergency and surgical teams at the PA, and the ambulance officers who rushed him to hospital, along with his quick thinking, calm, and collected father with saving his life following a horrible accident in September 2025 almost claimed his life.

Arden was helping his father Daniel to do some fencing work on the family property at logan Village, when after having 30 holes for fences had already been dug, he got a little to closer to the auger drill which caught his clothing and violently pulled him downward.

The drill would tear apart his leg, including severing the vital femoral artery and cut deep into his abdomen.

“It kind of ripped up my whole abdomen. Dad had to cut me off it; I was hanging horizontally. I was so wedged into the tractor auger.

“It cut my femoral arteries, so there was a lot of blood. Dad took off his shirt and put pressure on it. He saved my life there. Then the Ambos came. Luckily, there was one around because they said otherwise it probably wouldn't have been looking too good.

“Dad just went straight into action. A lot of people would have freaked out and probably freaked me out and that probably would have been it. But no, he stayed calm. He just did what he needed to do. He saved my life for sure.

“I was taken straight to the PA Hospital. This was at like 12. And then I went into this emergency surgery till 4am the next day where these people at the PA, the surgeons, I think Dr. Calvisi and his colleague Fraser, saved my life.

Arden's is incredbly grateful to the PA Hospital emergency and surgery teams for saving his life after the tractor auger accident cause serious injury to his leg and abdomen.
The Canterbury College teacher, 23, will take on the St Kilda Ironman next month, raising funds for the PA through the event as his way of saying thank you for the lifesaving care he received. Before he could even think about tackling 2km swim, 90km bike ride and a 21km run on the 8th of November, he’d undergo multiple surgeries and a lengthy rehabilitation process, a journey that’s changed his attitude to life.

“I think I had four more surgeries, and I was there for about a month,” he explained.

“The first one was like a blood diffusion and to clean up all the wounds and fix the artery that had been opened. Then there was just another clean and then the next one was to get a flap. It's like a skin graft, but it also has muscle as well. They made a flap taking it from my left leg. Then they did another operation on a skin graft. I was there for about a month. Obviously, the surgeons were amazing. Dr. Robert Calvisi and Fraser and all my OTs (occupational therapists) and physios. I still remember all their names and all the nurses in ward 1D, like they were just unbelievable.”

“Gratitude is the only thing I really have. One of the surgeons gave me a gratitude book, on the second day I was there. That kind of really shaped what the journey was going to be like from the get-go for me, gratitude was the main driving force of it all.

“I call it a superpower. Just appreciating every little thing now compared to before, I just feel like some people, myself included, can just get so caught up in everything apart from just appreciating the little things. When I truly thought, I was going to die, it all got put into perspective, I suppose. things can be taken away tomorrow, so you’ve just got to make the most of it.”

It was lying in his hospital bed during his stay that Arden made the decision that once he was well enough, he would take on the challenge of on an ironman.

“In the hospital bed for some reason I was high on the pain meds and I said, I'm going to do an Ironman,” he said.

“I've never done one before or anything like that. I just said, “I’m going to do it”. Since I could run, around six months ago, I've booked this in and just been training as hard as I can to get ready for it.

“The point of doing it is I just wanted to prove that I'm going to be more fit than I was before the accident.”

You can donate to Arden’s efforts here.
Arden with sister Kat and on a recent adventure says raising funds for the PA is the least he can do for helping save his life.

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