Family of young medical student who survived remote cattle property crash advocates for LifeFlight

Lucy Scott lay on the side of a dirt road. Alone and frightened, she told herself help was on its way. 

The vehicle Lucy and her partner Jethro Tessan were travelling in on her family’s cattle property had hit a pothole and rolled. 

Lucy was thrown from the vehicle.

Her neck was fractured in two places, just millimetres from her spinal cord. 

Without any phone service, 50 kilometres out of Roma, Jethro was forced to leave her there to find help.

But the organisation that saved Lucy last August is now facing a funding shortfall in the South West.

‘The world stops’

Jethro made it back to the Scott family home on foot, to find Lucy’s parents. 

Her mum Kate Scott dialled Triple Zero (000).

Ms Scott has volunteered for aeromedical charity LifeFlight for years, but now she was on the other end of it. 

“Everything just slowed right down for me. I just couldn’t believe what had happened,” she said. 

Within 45 minutes, a LifeFlight helicopter was landing in their paddock.

“Hearing those chopper blades coming in and seeing that critical care doctor climb out of that helicopter and the paramedic come towards us was a feeling that I’ll never forget,” Ms Scott said. 

Ms Scott said an ambulance ride on rough country roads would have been dangerous, even if it had reached them in time.

“If she had to endure a road ambulance ride back into Roma, I hate to think what would have happened, because we had no idea that she had a fractured neck that was millimetres away from her spinal cord,” she said.

Lucy was flown to Toowoomba Hospital, where her spinal injury was monitored until she could go into surgery.

Funding shortfall

Since LifeFlight opened their South West hub in Roma in 2011, the service has been funded through a contract with Surat Gas Aeromedical Service. 

The contract funds 350 hours of flying a year, but last year for the first time the service surpassed its funded hours. 

LifeFlight Community Engagement Coordinator Lisa Bertolotti said the service was tracking towards a 70-hour shortfall for this year. 

“That’s due to the demand of the service,” she said.

“We see this gap in regional Queensland in our south-west region being overlooked.

“Having those services available in Queensland is essential. Without them there’s lives lost.”

Throughout the month of June, the Roma Saleyards are hosting the CashCow fundraising initiative, where farmers can donate a beast or a percentage of their sale to LifeFlight. 

Ms Scott said it was up to the community to keep the chopper in the air. 

They have raised $20,000 so far, with two more sale days left in the month.

‘Life in a neck brace’

After being discharged, Lucy was later diagnosed with a dislocated sternum, underwent three more surgeries, and ended up in ICU twice. 

“There’s only been a few cases of them worldwide,” Lucy said. 

“It was very close to my aorta. Apparently,  it was 3 millimetres off from touching it. 

“It’s quite freaky how lucky I am because even just during that time that I didn’t hit it. I would have bled out and not made it.” 

Still in her neck brace, Lucy returned to university on the Gold Coast, where she was studying medicine.  

Now in her fourth year of medicine, Lucy wants to work in retrieval medicine.  

“Just the impact that they had on me, that’s seriously incredible,” she said. 

“Just a stranger can come and be the one to change the whole course of your life and just be a reassuring face. 

“If I can in any way give that to other people, then that would be very fulfilling.”