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What enables someone to survive the unimaginable—and emerge not only alive, but psychologically strong?
In this extraordinary episode of The Wellness Puzzle Podcast, I speak with Derrick McManus, a former South Australian Police officer who served in the elite Special Tasks and Rescue (STAR) Group. Trained as a sniper and diver, Derrick also received specialist counterterrorism training from the military’s elite Special Air Service Regiment (SAS).
While attempting to arrest a high-risk offender, Derrick’s life changed in less than five seconds. The offender fired 18 shots, striking Derrick 14 times. Critically wounded, Derrick lay bleeding for three hours before he could be rescued.
His survival was remarkable—but what happened afterward was equally extraordinary.
Despite expectations that he would experience severe post-traumatic stress disorder and require decades of psychological therapy, Derrick defied the odds. Just three months after the shooting, he attended a single appointment with the Director of the Adelaide Centre for Traumatic Stress Studies and was psychologically cleared to return to full duties with the STAR Group. His physical recovery, understandably, took much longer.
Derrick credits his response to the way he had proactively prepared himself—physically, mentally and emotionally—for the possible consequences of the choices he had made. He accepted responsibility, understood the risks and developed a powerful perspective that helped him remain resilient in an extreme and potentially overwhelming VUCA environment.
This approach has since evolved into the Human Durability model and forms the foundation of Derrick’s work through the Australian Centre for Human Durability.
In this gripping conversation, we explore:
- What it takes to remain composed in extreme circumstances
- The crucial difference between preparation and prediction
- Why emotional preparation matters as much as physical and mental readiness
- How personal responsibility strengthens resilience
- The role perspective plays during trauma, adversity and uncertainty
- Why durability is about more than simply surviving
- How Derrick’s experience can help us prepare for challenges in our own lives
Derrick’s story is confronting, remarkable and deeply inspiring. It demonstrates that although we cannot control everything that happens to us, we can prepare ourselves to respond with courage, responsibility and perspective.
This is a powerful conversation about preparation, perspective and the extraordinary durability of the human spirit—not to be missed.
To find out more about Derrick, Click Here
My website is www.andrewjobling.com.au
