Mount Isa senior firefighter David McCrindle has three decades of experience helping others on their worst day.
When he crashed his motorcycle in the ‘middle of nowhere’ – about an hour west of Camooweal in September 2023, he needed to trust that others would come to help him.
And they did. Four emergency teams rushed to his aid and today David had the chance to thank them.
The Mt Isa LifeFlight aeromedical crew flew in Queensland Ambulance Service (QAS) critical care flight paramedic Jake Graham.
The chopper landed at the same time as two QAS vehicles arrived on scene.
Paramedic Jennie Matthews and Camooweal Health clinic nurse Kristy Benjamin were inside the first ambulance and paramedics Jayne Herrick and Alecia Myles from Mt Isa station were inside the second.
Not long after the Royal Flying Doctor Service (RFDS) jet with Doctor Shima Ghedia and flight nurse Zak Tilbury touched down.
David was riding his Harley Davidson with a group of mates.
He noticed riders coming up behind him in his mirrors and drifted too close to the edge and came off the side of the road – his helmet ripping off on impact.
“I managed to keep the bike up for about 100 metres until I hit a termite mound in the long grass and then I came off the bike and landed in the bush,” David said.
“Friends who were riding with me, saw the cloud of dust and came back to help me.”
There was no phone service, but luckily a truck driver with a satellite phone stopped to let them call Triple Zero (000).
The main highway to the Northern Territory was shut down so the LifeFlight chopper could land on the road near David.
The QAS paramedic onboard the LifeFlight chopper and the local QAS paramedics worked together to stabilise David before he was driven 20km up the road to the Avon Downs air strip to meet The RFDS team, who then took over his care.
“This was a great example of working closely with the LifeFlight team,” Dr Ghedia said.
“Given the severity of the accident, we prepared for a broad range of medical conditions he could have potentially suffered.
“We examined the patient closely, continued to stabilise him and we gave him pain relief so we could safety transfer him to Mt Isa Hospital for further treatment.”
David had a concussion, five broken ribs, a punctured lung, a hip hematoma and a brain injury that kept him off work for four months.
“The pain was excruciating, and I was finding it difficult to breathe,” he said.
“It’s very difficult when you have an accident in such a remote area. It was a whole coordinated logistical effort by all involved.
“Three emergency services organisations worked together to help me. As soon as I knew the LifeFlight helicopter boys were with me, I could relax and let them do their job. That took a lot of stress away for me.”
