ILL TRAVELLER WINCHED OFF WHITSUNDAY ISLAND BY CHOPPER

July 15, 2022

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

ILL TRAVELLER WINCHED OFF WHITSUNDAY ISLAND BY CHOPPER

In a three-hour mission, RACQ CQ Rescue winched a person with a serious medical condition off a remote beach on Whitsunday Island yesterday.

The 31-year-old was travelling on a 13-metre catamaran in Hook Passage just after lunch when they began suffering seizures and required immediate medical evacuation.

RACQ CQ Rescue was tasked by Queensland Health about 1.30pm to retrieve the patient from the vessel located 120km north of Mackay, near Hook Island. After making radio contact with the boat and assessing the lack of landing opportunities on nearby beaches, a decision was made by the helicopter crew to winch the patient off the rocky shoreline of Cairn Beach, on the northern end of Whitsunday Island. The ill man was transferred from the catamaran to the beach by tender, accompanied by two others from the vessel.

The Mackay-based helicopter orbited the island before winching the RACQ CQ Rescue rescue crewman down onto the shoreline as the aircraft hovered about 15 metres overhead.

The patient was assessed and secured into an Air Rescue Vest and winched up into the helicopter accompanied by the rescue crewman before receiving further treatment from the doctor on board the aircraft. The winch and safe retrieval of the patient was completed within 20 minutes of arrival on scene.

The patient was then flown to Mackay Base Hospital in a stable condition arriving about 3pm.

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A 31-year-old patient suffering seizures was winched off Cairn Beach on Whitsunday Island yesterday by RACQ CQ Rescue.

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Please credit any released photos and video footage to RACQ CQ Rescue.
Please note: Full title of rescue service is RACQ CQ Rescue.

For further information please contact:
Naomi Noy
RACQ CQ Rescue
Ph: 0417 578 182