Dawn Fraser’s family has spoken of their fear of losing the Australian swimming great after she fell on the driveway of her home and sustained a broken hip and four broken ribs.
Fraser, 87, is convalescing in hospital after the “scary” incident last week that initially prompted fears she had suffered internal bleeding.
The four-time Olympic gold medallist, who had been recovering from recent eye surgery, tripped on the edge of the newly renovated driveway and landed hard on the ground.
She was taken to hospital after the ordeal, where it was determined that repairing the damage to her hip was too dangerous, so she underwent full hip replacement surgery.
Her daughter, Dawn-Lorraine Fraser, told media on Wednesday that Fraser was doing “so much better” but was “not out of the woods yet”.
“She is typical mum. She is up walking and as you know she was told to slow down, because she was walking too far and too fast,” Dawn-Lorraine said. “She has had a new hip, she has broken four ribs and she has a gash in her left arm.”
“It’s been scary … I thought we were going to lose her and I was told by the doctor that we were probably going to have to face that, and I couldn’t face that. Because even though she’s my mum I’ve always thought of her as being invincible.”
Dawn-Lorraine said she received a phone call from the hospital on the day of the surgery to ask whether she wanted doctors to try to resuscitate her mother should the procedure not go to plan.
“I said, are you serious? Are you asking me this question? Do you not know my mother?” she said.
“That’s the worst question someone could ask you when you’re not ready for it, and I said, ‘Yes, you will resuscitate her, my mother’s a fighter and you will make sure that you do everything to save her’.”
Fraser is recognised as one of Australia’s greatest athletes, having won eight Olympic medals, including four gold in the 100m freestyle, across three Games between 1956 and 1964.
In 1956 she was the face of the Melbourne Games, winning the first of her golds in the 100m freestyle and 4x100m freestyle. She also broke 27 world records during her career.
She was named Australian of the year in 1964, is an inductee of the Swimming Australia Hall of Fame and has an Australian sport award named in honour of her.
