Norfolk Island crash: LifeFlight jets deployed

Norfolk Island’s doctor worked “relentlessly” to keep three critically injured people alive after a horror car crash outside the tiny community’s hospital left a fourth person dead.

Paramedics meet a LifeFlight jet in Brisbane after a mass casualty event on Norfolk Island. Picture: LifeFlight

Norfolk Island’s doctor worked “relentlessly” to keep three critically injured people alive after a horror car crash outside the tiny community’s hospital left a fourth person dead.

The island’s doctor rushed to the scene after a car carrying four people crashed into a power and communications pole about 5pm (local time) on Thursday.

It is believed the driver, from Sydney, may have suffered a medical episode.

The crash left a man in his 70s dead and two women and a man – all in their 60s – with life-threatening injuries.

Retrieval Services Queensland’s Claire Bertenshaw said the group were tourists visiting the Pacific island, about 1500km east southeast of Brisbane.

She said the island doctor had to keep the trio alive for some time until two LifeFlight jets arrived from Brisbane and Townsville.

“She (the doctor) had worked relentlessly providing critical care to these three seriously unwell patients while awaiting the jets,” Dr Bertenshaw said, describing the crash as a “mass casualty incident”.

“The doctor on Norfolk Island demonstrated the ability to maintain a cool head and look after three critically unwell patients.

“It’s a very hard task to look after three very unwell patients when you know it’s going to be a while before other help arrives and she provided this care in an exceptional manner.”

Dr Bertenshaw said it took several agencies working together to co-ordinate the rescue of the three tourists, given the island’s distance and remoteness.

“This involved Retrieval Services Queensland, Queensland Health, Queensland Ambulance Service and LifeFlight Retrieval Medicine,” she said.

“Each organisation played their part in ensuring that every patient got the care they needed when they needed it and got to the place that could provide that care.”

QAS paramedics met the two jets at the Brisbane LifeFlight base and the three patients were taken to the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital.

The crash took out power, television and radio networks to part of the island, with residents alerted by text message that the disruption would likely last until Friday morning.