Quick thinking husband saves wife’s life

The rescue chopper was called to a national park, north of Mount Isa, just before 2pm.

It’s believed the patient and her husband, who were visiting the area, set out on a walk around 9 o’clock yesterday morning.

Several hours later the woman, aged in her late seventies, said she was feeling faint and collapsed.

Her husband told rescuers he dragged his wife into shade, left her with a water bottle and ran to find help.

The man managed to ring triple zero and find a Queensland Parks and Wildlife rangers hut.

RACQ LifeFlight Rescue’s Air Crew Officer, Greig Allan, said if not for the quick actions of the woman’s husband, the outcome would have been very different.

“If he hadn’t got help, she would have died,” he said.

“That would have been a tough decision, to leave her on her own, but it saved her life.”

With the help of Queensland Parks and Wildlife rangers, bystanders and a nurse from a nearby mine, the woman was taken to a location to meet the RACQ LifeFlight Rescue chopper.

“If not for the quick extraction of the patient, by Qld Parks and Wildlife staff, it would have been a different story,” RACQ LifeFlight Rescue Pilot, Russell Procter, said.

A Queensland Ambulance Service (QAS) Critical Care Flight Paramedic treated the woman for severe heat exhaustion.

“Due to the intervention of our QAS Critical Care Paramedic and the New Century Resources Mine nurse, she started to show signs of recovery,” Greig Allan said.

“When we picked her up, she was incoherent, she had no idea what had happened.”

Due to the distance travelled, the helicopter had to be refuelled at Century Mine, before returning to Mount Isa.

“Fuel is certainly a challenge up here, so we have to thank New Century Resources Century Mine staff and Hinterland Aviation for helping with the fuel,” Russell Procter said.

“Without them, the operation would not have been a success.”

The aeromedical crew said, despite her illness, the patient was in a stable condition and relatively good spirits by the time she was handed over to the staff at Mount Isa Hospital.