CareFlight’s Top End Rescue Helicopter has made a long trip over water to treat and retrieve a woman injured on a fishing boat today.
The woman in her 50s sustained serious hand injuries aboard a fishing boat north west of Gove.
According to friends aboard the fishing boat, the woman was reeling in a fish she had caught on her line when it was taken by a shark, causing the line to catch around her hand leaving her with serious hand lacerations.
The woman received initial first aid treatment on board the boat, before she was taken by a speed boat housed on the fishing vessel to meet CareFlight’s clinical team.
Operating the Top End Medical Retrieval Service on behalf of the Northern Territory Government, CareFlight tasked the helicopter at 10.15am this morning, landing just three hours later on the nearby Rimbija Island, the furthest island in the Wessel Islands from mainland Australia.
CareFlight’s medical team provided additional treatment and pain relief to the woman, before loading her onto the helicopter for the flight to Royal Darwin Hospital via Maningrida for fuel., making it a round trip of 740 nautical miles, or 1,372 kms.
The woman is reported to be in a stable condition.
