A man who was trapped under three concrete slabs with only a few centimetres of breathing space for 65 hours has revealed how the horrifying ordeal marked the beginning of decades of trauma. Stuart Diver, a ski instructor, was just 27 when his home was engulfed in a landslide that crushed their house and claimed the lives of 18 people.
The incident occurred at Bimbadeen Lodge in New South Wales, Australia, which was hit by 4,000 tonnes of mud at 11.35pm on July 30, 1997. Their home was struck by a two-storey building known as Carinya Lodge, which was also caught up in the slide.
The impact trapped Stuart and his wife Sally inside their three-story concrete home. Despite his desperate attempts to save her, Sally tragically lost her life during the incident.
For the next 65 hours, Stuart battled against the immense weight of the debris, freezing temperatures, and the mental strain of survival. In his 2012 book ‘Survival’, he detailed the experience and spoke to the Guardian about the lasting trauma from the event.
He described the terrifying experience of being trapped inside the crushed building wearing only his boxer shorts and discussed how the immediate aftermath affected his ability to process what had happened. He told the publication: “I look at that 27 years on and I can’t work out how I survived. I was in so much physical pain from the cold.”, reports the Mirror.
When he was eventually rescued, Stuart felt an overwhelming sense of relief and elation, but his emotions were short-lived. Realising he was the sole survivor, he chose to keep his emotions in check to avoid upsetting the families of those who had perished.
He recalled: “I already had my own loss with Sally but when you magnify that with all the other people that was a big burden. That first six months definitely took a toll on my mental health. I never got a chance to grieve properly. For me, that emotional side, at that point, was very much a personal thing. If I wanted to cry, that was for me to cry.”
As Stuart struggled to come to terms with the trauma he had endured, he turned to alcohol to cope. It was during this difficult period that he met Rosanna Cossettini, who had been part of the Thredbo community where he and Sally had lived.
The pair began dating two years later and eventually got married. However, their happiness was short-lived, as Rosanna was diagnosed with breast cancer. Despite undergoing multiple rounds of gruelling treatment, she went into remission.
The couple welcomed a daughter, Alessia, but their joy was tempered by Rosanna’s subsequent diagnosis with metastatic cancer, which was deemed incurable. Stuart devoted 11 years to caring for Rosanna until she passed away, and he expressed his gratitude for being able to bid farewell, a chance he didn’t have when his first wife, Sally, died.
Despite experiencing multiple traumas, Stuart insists that these events will not shape his identity. He remarked: “The great opportunity of my life – coming through these multiple traumas – is that they’ve all taught me so much.”