CareFlight crews joined forces with first responders and clinic staff from Adelaide River, Pine Creek and Katherine yesterday evening, when six people – including three children – needed urgent medical treatment after they were injured in a single vehicle crash on the Stuart Highway.

CareFlight, who operates the Top End Medical Retrieval Service on behalf of the NT Government, was alerted to the plight of the family of six, after the vehicle they were travelling in rolled about 5km south of Emerald Springs, half way between Katherine and Darwin.

The CareFlight Top End Rescue Helicopter with a flight doctor and flight nurse on board landed on the highway at around 6pm, before airlifting a woman and her baby daughter to Royal Darwin Hospital. Both patients had sustained head injuries and arrived at RDH in critical but stable conditions.

Meanwhile, a King Air turbo-prop aircraft was tasked to Tindal airstrip near Katherine to medivacc a six-week-old boy, an adult with shoulder and head injuries, an adult with a suspected fractured arm and a 10-year-old child to Darwin in stable conditions.

CareFlight crews praised the efforts of all first responders, clinic staff, St John Ambulance and NT police on scene.