MICHAEL Wilson's widow is continuing to campaign to make it easier for specialist rescue paramedics to get income protection and life insurance.
Kellie Wilson and the NSW Health Services Union are separately lobbying the NSW government to ensure that other families are not left in a financially difficult position after a similar death.
The union says that while life insurance and income protection is available to paramedics, it is either not offered by some insurance companies or is too expensive for rescue paramedics such as Mr Wilson, whose work involved being suspended from a helicopter.
"We are launching a campaign in the industrial courts in the hope of achieving for our members parity with other workers on a helicopter in having income protection and life insurance as part of their working conditions," the Health Services Union's NSW secretary Gerard Hayes said.
Mrs Wilson, of Gymea Bay, said she and her children, Eliza, 16, Grace, 13, and Hugo, 7, missed Mr Wilson every day.
"Michael's commitment to his role, together with his skills and expertise, led to countless rescues," Mrs Wilson said.
"Thanks to the expertise of our state's SCAT [Special Casualty Access Team] paramedics and their ability to undertake rescues in such variable conditions, countless lives have and continue to be saved.
"My priority remains on caring for my family and ensuring that every effort is made to ensure an accident like Michael's never happens again."
Fading light a factor in paramedic's death
GYMEA Bay paramedic Mick Wilson, who died during a cliff rescue at Carrington Falls, south of Wollongong, was accidentally pulled from a rock ledge by a helicopter that was meant to lift him and his patient to safety.
A report into the accident, released by the Australian Transport Safety Bureau last Thursday, found that due to the fading light, the experienced paramedic, 42, and his patient were inadvertently dragged off the rugged cliff ledge by the rescue chopper that was supposed to winch them out.
Mr Wilson, a special rescue paramedic, was part of an emergency crew sent to the falls on Christmas Eve 2011 to rescue an injured canyoner.
The man had been abseiling near a waterfall, known as Bridal Veil Falls, about 4.15pm when his rope failed and he fell onto a rock ledge.
Another canyoner activated an emergency locator beacon, sending a rescue chopper to the scene.
Mr Wilson abseiled down to the injured canyoner and was planning to winch himself and his patient to the chopper as it hovered near the cliff ledge. But the air crewman on board was unable to see all of the winch cable in the fading light before commanding the chopper to move upwards, the report found.
While the crewman believed he received a hand signal from Mr Wilson, indicating that he and the patient were ready to be winched, that was not the case.
"The low light conditions prevented the air crewman from seeing the winch cable . . . and led to the patient and duty paramedic being unintentionally pulled from the ledge," the report said.
"Given the low light conditions that existed at the time of the winch, it is possible that the [air crewman] may have misinterpreted the duty paramedic's movement in preparing a stabilising rope as an indication that he was ready to be lifted."
Mr Wilson and his patient were pulled off the cliff and plunged about 15 metres onto the base of the waterfall.
The injured canyoner, who ultimately survived the rescue, told investigators he and Mr Wilson were tangled in rope when they came to rest in the water.
He managed to untangle the rope and then remove Mr Wilson's harness and equipment before another paramedic arrived.
Mr Wilson died a short time later.
The injured canyoner was winched to safety and taken to hospital on Christmas Day.
A trauma surgeon found Mr Wilson died from internal bleeding due to fractures in his pelvis, consistent with a fall from a height.
He was the first NSW paramedic to die on duty in 30 years.
The bureau identified several safety issues relating to training and use of the chopper's lighting and radios and said the accident highlighted the dangers associated with "modifying established procedures in order to complete a difficult, and potentially not previously experienced, rescue task".
