Eight magnificent Queenslanders who saved grandma suffering intense heart attack in the outback

Clinically dead and 700kms from hospital on a remote cattle station, Karryn’s odds were stacked against her. But the quick-thinking actions of eight gritty Queenslanders achieved the impossible and saved the grandmother’s life.

A “widow maker” heart attack left a grandmother clinically dead at one of the country’s most remote cattle stations, 700kms from hospital, and what happened next has stunned doctors, paramedics and her family.

The odds were stacked against Karryn Dolan as few survive such a severe type of attack. She was far off the beaten track on the Cape York Peninsula and the nearest medical help was a Queensland Ambulance Service paramedic an hour and half away in Coen and hospital care was six hours away.

The isolated Cape was showing its most brutal face that night. The natural elements were all conspiring against the rescue. The roads were treacherous due to rain from a tropical low, there were deep mud holes in the red dirt, a cricket plague and a moth infestation and unbearable humidity. Survival seemed impossible.

But Karryn is alive and well — even after doctors told her family to say goodbye as she was at the end of life.

The miracle rescue of Karryn Dolan, who suffered a 'widow maker' heart attack involved eight people who worked fast to save her life.

Keeping Karryn alive was the focus of a relay team of gritty Queenslanders who pulled off an epic Outback miracle by bringing her back to life and getting her from Wolverton Station in Cape York to Cairns Base Hospital with her heart still ticking. Each and every one refused to contemplate letting the patient pass.

Karryn and her husband Peter were visiting Emma and Neville Jackson at their cattle station in late December.

“We head up to Wolverton Station a couple of times a year. Neville is a cousin and we love catching up with him and Emma and the kids. Karryn was with me out hunting for feral pigs when suddenly she collapsed. She was unconscious so I did some CPR and then put her onto the quad bike and sped back to the house. I remembered that a few months before Emma had said that the Royal Flying Doctor Service had provided the station with a defibrillator and shown them how to use it. I rode up to the property shouting and screaming. Karryn was not breathing and had no pulse At the front of the house Emma used the defibrillator three times. and I helped her with CPR,” Peter said.

While the machine shocked Karryn back to life her heart beat was not strong enough to sustain life.

“We had no time to think about it, we just did what we had to do until the ambulance arrived” Peter said.

Emma Jackson said she will be forever grateful to the RDFS for supplying the defibrillator. Without it Karryn would have had no chance of life,” she said.

Emma had never used a defibrillator before but the cattlewoman took charge.

“I’m so proud of my kids for helping that night. They are 17,15, 13 and six. When you live in remote areas like this you become used to having to pitch in and do what you can in emergencies. We didn’t really panic we just did what was needed,” Emma said.

Emma said the help of James Rollason, the triple-0 emergency medical dispatcher, helped save Karryn’s life.

Emma and Neville Jackson from Wolverton cattle station. The couple shocked Karryn back to life and drove an ambulance to the airport.

“He was amazing and once Karryn showed signs of life, talked us through determining whether the breathing was efficient or not and if CPR needed to be continued,” Emma said.

The Cairns grandma had recently recovered from having a stent put into her heart.

Emma took the lead with exhausting CPR for over an hour, with Peter supporting Karryn’s oxygen until paramedic Paul Spinks and assisting nurse Sandra Higgs arrived in the 4WD ambulance.

Medical dispatcher James Rollason gave medical advice over the phone.

Paramedic Paul Spinks raced from Coen to assist.

“At some stages of the journey to Wolverton we had to slow to 40kms/hr due to the awful visibility and moths and crickets were hitting the car. There was mud all over the windscreen and visibility was almost nil. Coen is a single officer station so I had to go looking for help from the single nurse at the nearby clinic. Thankfully Sandra Higgs came with me,” the paramedic said.

“I must admit I was feeling that we wouldn’t find the patient alive as I heard she was receiving CPR at the home and we were still an hour and a half away. Clinically none of it was good,” he said.

Nurse Sandra Higgs helped Paul in the back of the ambulance.

Karryn was 700km from nearest hospital when she suffered her heart attack.

Level-headed cattle station owner Neville was recruited to drive the ambulance back to the Coen airport for the Royal Flying Doctor Service flight to take Karryn to Cairns Base.

Peter and Emma followed behind.

“I’m not really a religious man but I prayed. I knew there was a long way to go before she would arrive at hospital in Cairns and she was in a bad way. Though Karryn is a fighter through and through and I could see how hard she was fighting in her eyes. Even when she made it to the hospital and the doctors said prepare for the end of life and brought the family into ICU on New Year’s Eve to say goodbye to her, I still had hope,” Peter said.

The journey back to Coen was stressful. The elements continued to attack while Sandra and Paul worked on Karryn in the back of the small ambulance.

“When we arrived at the airport the medics threw tarpaulin on the ground to put out the oxygen and other supplies. It was a makeshift hospital right there in the red dirt. Even then there was a massive attack of ants and they were into everything,” Peter said.

Karryn was then in the hands of Dr Rebecca Brady from the Royal Flying Doctor Service (Queensland Section) who was supported by Michelle Ball, the flight nurse who worked hard on Karryn that night.

Flying doctor Rebecca Brady kept Karryn alive during transport to Cairns Base Hospital. Picture: Liam Kidston.

“Karryn is extremely lucky to be alive today. The type of heart attack she experienced typically only has a 12 per cent chance survival rate — and that’s without the critical impact time and distance plays on emergency treatment across regional, rural and remote Queensland,” the doctor said.

“The station owners had been gifted and trained in the use of a defibrillator from the RFDS two years prior. This, in addition to performing CPR for almost an hour in such a challenging and emotive environment, was able to restore Karryn’s heart rhythm and keep her alive until the paramedics arrived. She remained in a critical condition and had to be placed in an induced coma with medications to help support her heart,” she said.

RFDS nurse Michelle Ball helped put Karryn in an induced coma.

“Even with the combined efforts of Karryn’s husband Pete, the station owners, Queensland Ambulance Service and RFDS, as we touched down in Cairns at 3.30am we hoped for but weren’t expecting a positive outcome. Incredibly today she is up, slowly getting about, walking and talking, and that’s why we do the work we do,” she said.

The team preparing Karryn for transport.

It was expected that if Karryn did survive she would likely have suffered brain damage but simply suffers from some short term memory loss which is likely to recover.

“She is even doing paper work for our small business in the hospital. You can’t underestimate Karryn,” husband Peter said.