Flying to Daisy’s rescue: Airborne angel saves thousands every year

The Royal Flying Doctor Service has saved thousands of lives in the past year, flying more than 7 million kilometres to pluck those in need from the farthest corners of the state and get them to the medical help they need.

QUEENSLAND’S airborne angel the Royal Flying Doctor Service has saved thousands of lives in the past year, flying more than 7 million kilometres to pluck those in need from the farthest corners of the state and get them to the medical help they need.

Among the thousands they’ve helped is little Daisy Streeter, whose pregnant mum Shantell Kennell was flown from Rockhampton to Brisbane in a desperate dash to give her unborn daughter a better start at life.

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Ms Kennell was 30 weeks pregnant when she was diagnosed with pre-eclampsia.

Daisy Jane Streeter, aged 12 months with mum Shantell Kennell at her home in Thangool.

Two weeks later, she was rushed to Rockhampton hospital, but when her blood pressure could not be brought down, doctors were faced with delivering Daisy early or flying her mum down to Brisbane.

“I went in that afternoon and at 1am they spoke to the flying doctors and at 8am I was on a plane to Brisbane,” Ms Kennell said.

Doctors at Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital managed to control her blood pressure and postpone Daisy’s arrival.

Pregnant mum Shantell Kennell was flown from Rockhampton to Brisbane in a desperate dash to give her unborn daughter a better start at life. Picture: Paul Sadler

“I went down there thinking I was having a baby that day, it was so scary,” Ms Kennell said.

“During the flight I was so scared, we had some turbulence.

“The nurse Peta was absolutely amazing. She held my hand and I cried.

“Daisy was delivered in Brisbane at 35 weeks and four days and she was in hospital for two and a half weeks, nearly three weeks.

“She was tiny when she came out. She was in NICU for three days and we couldn’t even hold her.

“It would have been scary to think if she was born three weeks earlier than that.

“She was four pounds four, 2012 grams. She was so small.

Daisy Kennell on board an RFDS flight.

“Without the RFDS we would have been buggered.”

Future Aviation, a two-week series in The Courier-Mail and The Sunday Mail in partnership with Brisbane Airport, Tourism & Events Queensland, Brisbane Marketing and PwC, has highlighted the opportunities offered by the new runway, which opens in the middle of next year.

RFDS Brisbane clinical base manager Clayton Judd said its crews had flown 2247 patients from 61 locations across Queensland into the capital city for treatment last financial year.

He said Brisbane was one of seven RFDS bases across Queensland which operated round the clock, ready to go wherever they were needed.