Thursday, August 24, 2023

Issue:

Mackay and Whitsunday Life

Not A Lucky Number For Chopper Rescue Crew

Images: RACQ CQ Rescue flew eight missions last weekend including retrieving patients from Keswick Island, Cape Hillsborough, Carmila and Olive Downs, bringing the total number of tasks already completed for 2023 to 18. Images supplied: RACQ CQ Rescue

While it’s revered around the world as a lucky number, eight ended up being an exhausting figure for our region’s rescue helicopter service.

It’s the number of missions flown last weekend alone by RACQ CQ Rescue, with rescue crews stretched across the length and breadth of our expansive Mackay, Isaac, Whitsunday region.

The incredible tally of rescue operations meant the helicopter service flew more than 2,300km in just two days. The busy weekend brings the total number of missions completed in the first nine days of the New Year to 18.

Two patients suffered life-threatening lacerations and blood loss in two serious accidents involving an angle grinder and a filleting knife last Sunday.

RACQ CQ Rescue was tasked to meet Queensland Ambulance Service paramedics on the oval at Carmila, about 80km south of Mackay, after a 68-year-old man suffered serious gashes to his hand and jaw while working with an angle grinder.

It was an incredibly lucky escape from what could have been a potentially life-threatening injury as the patient reported he was using a circular saw blade on an angle grinder to cut wood.

The tool ‘kicked back’ slicing both his hand and jaw, narrowly missing his neck.

He was treated, administered pain relief and transported to Mackay Base Hospital in a stable condition.

Then at 10pm Sunday, the rescue chopper was tasked to Hamilton Island, about 90km north of Mackay, to airlift a 60-year-old man who had lacerated his left thumb while filleting fish.

He sliced a chunk of flesh from the webbing of his hand between the thumb and forefinger and told the medical team had no feeling in his hand.

He was flown to Mackay arriving in a stable condition at midnight.

Earlier on Sunday, the Mackay-based chopper flew 270km to the new Pembroke mine site Olive Downs, 40km south-east of Moranbah, to airlift a 51-year-old Sunshine Coast man. The contractor suffered a cardiac issue and required urgent hospital treatment in Mackay.

RACQ CQ Rescue also flew more than 1100km on Saturday on four missions across the region, including two primary tasks on Saturday’s day shift which started with two back-to-back missions to treat and transfer two teenagers injured at popular local holiday spots.

RACQ CQ Rescue was tasked just after 9.30am by Queensland Health to assist a 16-year-old girl who had dislocated her knee at the bottom of a walking track at Cape Hillsborough.

The teen, from Rural View, was stranded on the beach with the tide coming in quickly. Walking back up the track or along the rocky shoreline was impossible.

After a 000 call, the Mackay-based chopper was dispatched with a doctor and critical care paramedic on board to fly 45km north to the popular national park and camping area. The chopper orbited the shoreline near Wedge Island several times before the decision was made to winch down a paramedic and rescue crewman onto the beach to secure the patient into a rescue harness. The teenager was then winched up into the helicopter and flown directly to Mackay Base Hospital in a stable condition.

Directly upon return to base about 11am, the helicopter crew was again tasked, this time offshore to Keswick Island, 30km east of Mackay, after reports a swimmer had suffered a suspected Irukandji jellyfish sting. The helicopter landed in the rain at the island airfield, near Basil Bay, and the 13-year-old, believed to be on holiday from Biggera Waters, was treated with pain relief and flown to Mackay Base Hospital in a stable condition. The teen was accompanied by a parent.

About 1.45pm Saturday, the helicopter flew to Collinsville to airlift a man with a serious cardiac condition and also later transported a patient from Clermont to Mackay Base Hospital who suffered injury from a fall from height while he was removing Christmas decorations at his home.

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