A car crash survivor has been reunited with the hospital social worker who told him his pregnant wife and unborn twins were dead as he lay helpless and injured in bed.
Bronko Hoang awoke from an induced coma in tears and asking for his wife Katherine two weeks after the accident that tore life apart on September 20, 2018 in Westmead Hospital, western Sydney.
Hospital worker Kaylene Tanti was given with the unthinkable task of telling him his 23-year-old bride and children had died in the smash – before he screamed uncontrollably until doctors sedated him.
During an emotional reunion over the weekend inside the intensive care unit where Mr Hoang learned of his family’s fate, he threw his arms around the social worker and said: ‘I’m so sorry you had to carry the burden of telling me what happened.’
Bronko Hoang (pictured with his wife) awoke from an induced coma in tears and asking for his wife Katherine two weeks after the accident
Katherine (pictured left) was killed in the collision along with a 17-year-old learner driver. Hospital worker Kaylene Tanti (pictured right) told him that his 23-year-old bride and children had perished in the smash
‘Thank you for the support, for saving my life,’ he added, lunging forward to hug her The Daily Telegraph reported.
Ms Tanti described the grief in his eyes, and said she had often wondered how he was doing.
‘Telling him [the news] affected me. It was hard, one of the most traumatic circumstances I’ve dealt with. But I’m in awe of how well he’s done.’
Mr Hoang, a mental health worker, still has difficulty fathoming how he lost four members of his family on a familiar stretch of road in Orchard Hills as he taught his 17-year-old sister Belinda to drive.
The couple, who married in May 2018 (pictured), were due to become parents to two twin boys
Ms Hoang, 23, her unborn twins and her teenage relative who was driving the vehicle were killed during the smash (pictured)
Unlicenced motorist Richard Moananu had a blood alcohol reading four times over the limit and cannabis in his system when he got behind the wheel on the fateful night.
He started speeding on the wrong side of the road and crashed into the silver Mazda 3 – killing everyone except himself and Mr Hoang, who suffered punctured lungs, crushed intestines, a broken foot and a brain bleed.
Despite fractured memories after waking up from his coma, the widower could recall the heartbreaking moment he saw his unborn sons in the mortuary.
Roman and Archer were 13 days away from birth at the time of the crash.
Moananu pleaded guilty to two counts of manslaughter for the deaths of Katherine and a 17-year-old learner driver
‘I am so sorry Bronko, to you and your family. I never meant to take your loved ones away from you,’ the killer (pictured) said
In the morgue, they ‘looked alive’.
‘I prodded them, and said, ‘come on, wake up’. For a while I thought Katherine would come back, too. She was everything to me; my best friend, my wife and she was about to become mother to our boys.’
On Thursday, Mr Hoang will face 31-year-old Moananu in Penrith District Court during sentencing.
He pleaded guilty to two counts of manslaughter and one count of aggravated driving causing grievous bodily harm.
On the day of the collision, he had been drinking from 10.30am until 6.45pm while attempting to win money on the pokies after rain prevented days of him working as a brick labourer.
Bronko Hoang (right), the husband of Katherine Hoang, is supported by family and friends as they leave Penrith District Court in early October
A devastated Moananu told the court at a hearing in early October about growing up in New Zealand in a broken home with alcoholic parents who had gambling addictions, and a father who brutally bashed his wife and children.
He apologised to the victims and said: ‘I wish it was me who died that day,’ 9 News reported.
‘I am so sorry Bronko, to you and your family. I never meant to take your loved ones away from you.
In an incredible act of kindness, Mr Hoang said he did not want to live with anger and offered to meet with him to help him change his life.
Two hatchbacks collided while travelling down the Northern Road in Sydney’s west on September 20, 2018
‘I am forgiving you as I feel there is no need for anger and resentment and a fantasy that you can get an eye for an eye,’ he said.
‘After this is over, I want to sit down with you and understand you. I will still offer an olive branch to help you through your troubles.’
Mr Hoang said his body is now riddled with scars that remind him of the life he never had with his partner and two unborn children, but he told The Daily Telegraph that he found love again with a close friend who helped him through his grief.
Two weeks before the accident, he had a conversation with Katherine about death where she explained that if anything were to happen, she would like him to keep living for her.
While the new relationship doesn’t take away from the emptiness of his experience, Mr Hoang said he has a lot to be thankful for with his new partner.