Three months after suffering critical head injuries in a shocking accident at Nerang, Russell Auld left Princess Alexandra’s Brain Rehabilitation Unit with all his motor skills functioning correctly.
“My family was told there was a good chance I would have brain damage and for at least a month I was telling the nurses we were in London and that I had bought the hospital,” said Russell Auld.
On Friday 28 March, the Ambulance Coordination Centre in Brisbane made a life saving call when it sent RACQ CareFlight’s Doctor to a shocking road accident involving a ute and truck. The accident on Spencer Road Nerang was too close to task the helicopter so Dr Renee Beer went by road ambulance.
The front of Russell’s ute was mangled around him. Rescue workers ripped the roof and doors off the vehicle, but his body was trapped.
“When I arrived he was deteriorating fast, the blood from extensive head and facial injuries was flooding his airway, we didn’t have long,” said CareFlight Dr Renee Beer.
Dr Beer said Paramedics already at the scene had started resuscitation, but as is often the case with head injury patients, Russell was thrashing around resisting treatment.
CareFlight’s Critical Care Doctor had the drugs to put Russell into a chemically induced coma and place him on life support there on the roadside.
“If Dr Beer had not have been at the scene so quickly that day I wouldn’t be here, her skills saved me and for that I can’t possibly thank her and RACQ CareFlight enough,” said Russell Auld.
CareFlight’s medical model allows Critical Care Doctors to perform vital procedures at accident scenes that otherwise would be delayed until arrival at an emergency ward. When the RACQ CareFlight helicopter is not on a job, the QAS Paramedic rostered on the chopper can be tasked to road jobs and often the CareFlight Doctor is sent to assist if the patient is critical.
“Meeting Russell in hospital with quality of life is what the job is all about, those many years of study have paid off right here,” said Dr Beer.
Russell is now living in Cairns with family.
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Media Contact Renee Buckingham 0421 381 023