The RACQ CareFlight rescue helicopters and crew were kept busy over the weekend, called to eight missions between Friday and Sunday night.

Both Gold Coast and the Toowooomba helicopters and crew were kept in the air, attending to five patients hurt in falls from height, one injured in a car accident, one trail bike accident and one medical patient.

On Friday, the Toowoomba helicopter and crew were tasked to Warwick Hospital to assist a 58 year old man who fell 6 metres from a ladder.  He fractured his femur in the fall, and the RACQ CareFlight helicopter and crew airlifted the man to the Toowoomba Hospital in a stable condition.

On Saturday the Toowoomba crew were called to a farm at Felton East.  An 83 year old man had fallen from a ladder while cutting leaves from a tree to feed his stock.  He fractured his pelvis in the fall and was airlifted to the Toowoomba Hospital in a stable condition.

In the meantime, the Gold Coast helicopter and crew were tasked to the Brisbane airport to meet a Royal Flying Doctor Service fixed wing aircraft carrying a 69 year old Calliope man.  The man had sustained head injuries in a fall from a ladder.  RACQ CareFlight transported the man to the Gold Coast Hospital in a critical but stable condition.

Overnight on Saturday night, the Gold Coast CareFlight crew were tasked to two missions.  At 1am they flew to the Gold Coast Hospital to assist a 64 year old Coombabah man with internal bleeding from a medical condition.  He was airlifted to the PA Hospital in Brisbane in a serious condition.  While at the PA Hospital, the crew were called to Toowoomba Hospital to assist a 33 year old man Toowoomba man with head injuries after a two and a half metre fall from a balcony.  The man was airlifted back to the PA Hospital in a stable condition.

Sunday morning the crews still didn’t stop.  The Gold Coast team were called to Toonumbar in northern NSW to assist a 17 year old Kyogle boy who suffered spinal injuries in a trail bike accident.  He was airlifted to the PA Hospital in a serious but stable condition.

The Toowooomba CareFlight crew flew to Texas on Sunday morning to assist a 24 year old local man who sustained abdominal injuries in a car accident overnight.  RACQ CareFlight airlifted the man to the Toowoomba Hospital in a stable condition.

Late Sunday afternoon, the Gold Coast helicopter and crew were called to Warwick to assist a 22 year old Japanese holiday-maker, who sustained spinal injuries in a paragliding accident.

RACQ CareFlight has recently expanded its service, with a helicopter and crew now located at the Clive Berghofer CareFlight Centre at the Toowoomba airfield, joining the team that is located at the Gold Coast airport. 

RACQ CareFlight is a charity that provides a medical and rescue helicopter service to residents and visitors to the area bordered by Gympie in the north, Lismore in the south and Goondiwindi and Roma to the west.  Each mission costs an average of $7,000 and this is at no cost to the patient.