Rescuers and patient reunited after miraculous recovery from 30m fall

The miracle survivor of a 30m plunge from the top of a Far Northern waterfall has expressed heartfelt gratitude to a team of rescuers that without question saved his life.

THE only lasting injury that Craig Simpson has after falling more than 30 metres from the top of Emerald Creek Falls earlier this year is a tiny black spot in his vision.

“It’s a lot better than being dead,” the 25-year-old Cairns man said.

Just shy of nine months since he was airlifted to Cairns Hospital by the Rescue 510 helicopter, clinging to life by the slimmest of threads, Mr Simpson was this week able to properly meet the people who rescued him.

It was an emotional moment on Friday as he and his friends who helped save him chatted with Queensland Ambulance Service flight critical care paramedic Lauretta Howarth, retrieval doctor Shaun Francis, and others at the Queensland Government air base hangar.

“I’m forever grateful. That is one of the craziest rescues they’ve ever done, I think. And then they said that was like the limit of risk they would have taken to save someone,” he said.

“Luckily the pilot was so skilled he could get them in there and hold the chopper where it was, get them in and out. Everyone’s job, from the pilot to the doctor, they’ve all just done an amazing job.”

QLD_CPNEWS_WEATHER_27NOV21

The last thing Mr Simpson remembers in the lead-up to his fall was working the day before and then a conversation at dinner – though he can’t visualise where it took place.

He next remembers his dad asking him to squeeze his brother’s hand on his third day in hospital, and then five days later he was brought out of an induced coma.

Disoriented and shocked, he started trying to pull the many tubes off and out of his body.

“All of a sudden I hear (his friend’s mum) Erin say you’re okay. She just started explaining to me what was going on.”

On March 6, Mr Simpson and his friends had travelled to Emerald Creek Falls for a swim.

He and his mate Dylan Lazzaroni had climbed to the top of the falls and as they were coming back, there was a section they had to jump over.

Mr Lazzaroni ran and jumped, while Mr Simpson tried a two-foot leap across the gap.

He landed with his body weight behind him, and toppled backwards off the top of the falls.

“The face I gave them was just – aw, I stuffed up – as I was falling back,” Mr Simpson said.

The next Mr Lazzaroni saw of his friend of almost 20 years he was face down in a pool of water far below.

QLD_CPNEWS_WEATHER_27NOV21

He eventually located Mr Simpson at the bottom of a pool of white water.

“He pulled me out of that and we’ve then both gone over that, the next bit of the falls together, and he managed to pull me to the side and yeah I think that’s where he gave me the CPR,” Mr Simpson said.

Ms Howarth said it was the work of Mr Lazzaroni and Mr Simpson’s other friends in rescuing him from the water, keeping his airways open, and assisting her and her flight doctor as they worked on Mr Simpson that saved his life.

Water was roaring down the main waterfall and it started to rain as they winched down to Mr Simpson from the helicopter.

The rocks were slippery and there was so little space on the ledge they had to set up their gear above the scene, with Mr Simpson’s friends passing instruments and gear to them as they worked on him.

“Anything we needed, they were just amazing, and they helped us package him for the winch as well,” Ms Howarth said.

Mr Simpson ended up with a collapsed lung, significant head injuries, five broken ribs, numerous fractures in his spine and a fractured eye socket.

Doctors told his family after he arrived at Cairns Hospital that he had a one per cent chance of living.

But his will to live won out and he made a full recovery, even travelling back to the falls in mid-May.

He’s since gone back to camping, diving, fishing trips, and is back to spending time outdoors.

Ms Howarth said it was great to see Mr Simpson had recovered so well and was so positive and upbeat – yet also while recognising the severity of what had happened to him.

She said that after 11 years on the job, the resilience of people still surprised her.

“He’s a great example of that. That he can fall 20m … he fell hard on those rocks, to be submerged under water for a considerable period of time, sustaining injuries he sustained, and yet be ready to leave hospital a couple of weeks later, it’s astounding, it really is.”

Originally published as Rescuers and patient reunited after miraculous recovery from 30m fall