A Queensland tourist’s Easter Saturday outing to Litchfield National Park ended with her helicopter flight to Royal Darwin Hospital this afternoon.
Park rangers alerted medical teams from Batchelor Health Clinic and CareFlight when the woman collapsed while walking back up the stairs from Florence Falls shortly before 12.30pm.
Because there is no emergency helipad near the falls, Darwin’s CareFlight rescue helicopter had to land with the help of park rangers on a road several kilometres away so the crew doctor and flight nurse could team with clinic nurses treating the woman.
Visitors to the park notified the rangers when the 61-year-old woman collapsed and was initially placed in a parked vehicle near the start of the walk into the popular falls.
When the woman’s condition further deteriorated the CareFlight doctor and flight nurse worked to stabilise her.
After stabilisation the woman was placed on one of the helicopter’s mobile intensive care modules before a St John Ambulance crew drove her with the medical team to where the helicopter had landed beside the road.
The CareFlight rescue helicopter crew flew the woman to Royal Darwin Hospital where she remained in a stable condition on arrival at 3pm.
