Heathcote SES volunteers welcome home man they rescued in a crash seven months ago

Jake Walker was met in the driveway by a small crowd carrying orange balloons.

SES vehicles helped form a guard of honour around the vehicle, driven by the 25-year-old's best friend.

Mr Walker's two young children were among the first to greet him. The volunteers who worked to rescue him after his Holden Commodore wagon hit a tree on a lane close to his family home, trapping him inside the driver's seat, followed soon afterwards.

The rescue on September 12 was one of the most difficult the Heathcote SES had ever performed, volunteer Sally Duncan said.

It was also one of the few the unit's volunteers knew to have had a happy ending.

"In 10 years, this is only the second time somebody has come and told us what has happened," Ms Duncan said.

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Sandra Koole, the SES commander on the day of the rescue, said Mr Walker's mother approached volunteers to thank them during a recent community event.

"I just got goosebumps, I thought it was just absolutely adorable that she came up and I suggested perhaps maybe we could have a welcome home," Ms Koole said.

"I thought it would be lovely that we could cheer [Jake] in as he comes in."

The opportunity to welcome Mr Walker home made Good Friday a very good one, indeed, for Marc Pitt, another of the SES volunteers who was part of the rescue team.

"This is just unbelievable. It's good to see, she's got a son back ," Mr Pitt said.

It was a day Sharyn Walker thought would never come.

"To go from nearly losing my son to still having him, it's a miracle and without the SES we wouldn't have him at all. They do a fantastic job," she said.

"Even during the whole process, up until now, they've checked on him every step of the way and for them to turn up today and welcome him back, it's amazing."

Mrs Walker said her eldest son got up on the morning of the crash, told her he loved her and said he would be back in 10 minutes.

She and her husband heard sirens not long afterwards.

"We didn't think anything of it and then we heard the helicopter, and all of a sudden my heart sank. I knew, before anyone told me, that it was Jake," she said.

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"My husband said, 'I'll go and look' and he came across the accident. He kept ringing me and saying, 'It's Jake, and it's not good'."

Her husband remained at the scene the whole time emergency services worked to rescue their son. Mrs Walker was stopped by police further up the road.

"To see the accident - the car - it's amazing he didn't die in it," she said.

She said the airbags in the wagon did not deploy.

Technical and long were among the words the SES volunteers involved in the rescue used to describe the process.

"It was an extremely difficult situation we were in," Mr Pitt said.

Mr Walker was airlifted to The Alfred hospital in Melbourne. His family followed.

"We were told he was on life support," Mrs Walker said.

"He was on it for nine weeks and for that whole entire time we weren't allowed to go and see him, because it wasn't a special circumstance."

Mr Walker was in hospital while the state was under strict COVID-19 restrictions.

"When we asked what a special circumstance was they would not tell us. They just kept saying we did not qualify," Mrs Walker said.

After 12 weeks in The Alfred, Mr Walker was transferred to a specialist acquired brain injury unit in Caulfield, where he spent the next four months.

He was then transferred to St John of God Hospital in Bendigo.

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Mrs Walker said her son still had a long way to go, with further surgeries planned. But he had made remarkable progress.

"We were told that he wouldn't wake up properly - he did. We were told he would never walk again - he's walking. We were told he would never feed himself again - he's doing it. Everything they told us he wouldn't do, he has done it," she said.

"We are just so grateful to the nurses, the doctors, especially the SES - everyone that was involved.

"The SES, they don't get enough gratitude. As far as we're concerned, they're unsung heroes. They need to be recognised a lot more than what they are."

Heathcote SES responds to between 120 and 180 call-outs a year, on average, including building damage, fallen trees, and road crash rescue.

Several of the volunteers who welcomed Mr Walker home said a departing ambulance was often the last they knew about the road crash rescues in which they were involved.

"Most SES workers, I think, have the philosophy they've done their very best job at that time," Ms Duncan said.

"The important thing is you do what you've trained to do and you use the skills you've got to do your best job there, but we very rarely find out anything."

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The entire unit was on high alert for the weekend because of the increased traffic on the region's roads.

"The message is: be safe, take a rest and revive before you travel on; be safe and look after each other," Ms Duncan said.

Ms Koole said SES volunteers didn't mind putting down their tools and heading off to help community members in need.

"But we'd rather see you home safe with your family," she said.

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