The Bundaberg-based LifeFlight crew flew 416 missions during the financial year and undertook 36 search and rescues.
It contributed to a record 8,173 people helped by LifeFlight overall– more than 11 per cent higher than the previous year.
LifeFlight’s fleet of helicopters, air ambulance jets and specially trained medical teams, including LifeFlight critical care doctors, flight nurses and Queensland Ambulance Service (QAS) paramedics, helped patients with a range of illnesses and injuries.
Memorably, the crew was called to airlift an elderly man after he fell and struck his head on a cruise ship 80 nautical miles off the coast.
The helicopter crew lowered down a Queensland Ambulance Service (QAS) flight paramedic to the ship where the patient was treated and winched into the chopper before being airlifted to Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital in a stable condition.
The patient was just one of 267 people helped by the Bundaberg crew, with missions ranging from marine stings, snake bites and motor vehicle accidents – all in the organisation’s 26th year of service to the Wide Bay-Burnett Region.
Late in 2023, the crew performed four ocean rescues in a week, including winching an injured man from the deck of a 20-metre trawler after a 200kg steel frame fell and pinned him to the deck.
In January, the Bundaberg crew treated and airlifted four people in two days from K’gari following a spate of marine stings.
Other missions included airlifting a toddler from the North Burnett Region to Bundaberg Hospital after she was bitten on her foot by a snake, and a motorcyclist who was taken to hospital from the Fraser Coast region after his motorbike collided with a car.
Key stats for 2023-24 financial year
- 267 people helped
- 668 flight hours
- 8,177 people helped across the LifeFlight network
LifeFlight Chief Operating Officer Lee Schofield said the Bundaberg-based crew demonstrated a high degree of aeromedical excellence during the past financial year.
“The missions run the gamut of emergency care and rescue operations and show how our crews face vastly different situations with fortitude and strength,” he said.
“It demonstrates how crucial LifeFlight’s operations are in helping people who need emergency medical assistance in remote locations far from major cities and hospitals.
“We couldn’t be prouder of how all our critical care doctors, paramedics and air crew have conducted themselves this past year often in very trying circumstances.
“They rescue people right across regional Queensland and for that we owe them a debt of gratitude.”
LifeFlight Medical Director Dr Jeff Hooper said the organisation continued to lead the way in the aeromedical sector with world-leading standards of care.
“This is often while our crews deal with extremely challenging conditions, whether that is stabilising a patient mid-air, winching down a paramedic to the side of a cliff face, or rescuing people stranded in the ocean,” Dr Hooper said.
“Our teams have the specialist emergency medicine skills required to provide the best available treatment to people, who are often in remote locations, while battling the elements.
“Our critical care doctors, nurses and paramedics are a mobile intensive care team and their rapid aeromedical intervention often mean the difference between life and death. That’s why the work is so important to hundreds of thousands of people living in regional Queensland communities.”
The Bundaberg-based LifeFlight rescue helicopter and crew service the Wide Bay-Burnett region and beyond.
Since taking to the skies 45 years ago LifeFlight has helped close to 90,000 people.
LifeFlight rescue helicopters contribute to the Queensland Emergency Helicopter Network via a fully costed agreement with the Queensland Government which came into effect April 2024.
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