Saving Eli Jarick: The amazing effort to save boy who fell 6m from tree

A distraught mum says she thought her son was dead after he plunged six metres from a backyard tree to the ground. WATCH the amazing effort to save her boy.

A Queensland mum says she thought her son was dead after he plunged six metres from a huge backyard tree.

Sarah-Jayne Jarick heard the snap of a tree branch and the loud thud of her son Eli crashing below.

‘The crack and thump it made I kept hearing over and over again for a while.’’

When she looked out her bedroom window the mother-of-two braced for the worst as her 13-year-old boy lay motionless.

“He was laying down and his eyes were open, and he was not breathing and I honestly thought he was dead,” Mrs Jarick said

The Bundaberg woman says if it was not for the RACQ LifeFlight Rescue community-funded Critical Care Doctor and the Queensland Ambulance Service (QAS) Flight Paramedic, Eli’s outcome might have been horribly different.

“Our family is together, because of LifeFlight. Without LifeFlight, Eli might not be here, and our family would be missing a piece.”

Eli’s family and friends joined 258 others at a soiree in the Bundaberg LifeFlight hangar on Friday night, raising close to $80,000 to help expand its Critical Care Doctor program.

LifeFlight Critical Care Doctor Richard Parker catches up with Eli’s family: dad Matthew, Eli, mother Sarah-Jayne, and sister Michaela.

The Bundaberg-based aeromedical team worked alongside QAS ground crew for over an hour at the scene to treat and stabilise Eli before he was flown to Queensland Children’s Hospital.

Eli had punctured lungs, a sprained wrist and a traumatic brain injury in the March accident.

Critical care doctor Richard Parker with Eli Jarick – the 13-year-old boy he saved at Pine Creek near Bundaberg in front of the tree Eli fell six metres from in March.

Critical Care Doctor Richard Parker and long-serving QAS Flight Paramedic Kevin Charteris recently dropped in to the Jarick’s Pine Creek home to check on Eli’s recovery and surprise him with an invitation to visit the LifeFlight base for a chopper tour.

During the emotional reunion, the aeromedical team explained to Eli’s family that the doctor-only procedures Dr Parker performed in the backyard, as well as the emergency care he received during the one hour and 40 minute helicopter flight to Brisbane reduced the swelling to Eli’s brain – saving his life.

“When I saw Eli, he was laying on the ground under the tree and the first thing I thought was that he needed a helicopter to Brisbane to the Queensland Children’s Hospital,” Dr Parker said.

The Jarick family in front of their Pine Creek home. From left to right: Eli’s sister Michaela, Eli’s mother Sarah-Jayne, Eli and his dad Matthew.

“We put Eli into an induced coma, put a tube down his throat so that we could control his breathing and monitor his progress during the flight.

Eli underwent a procedure which only a doctor can do.

As he was going under, his devastated mother was by his side, talking to him and stroking his hair as she did for much of the flight.

“That was just horrible thinking you are saying goodbye to him,’’ Mrs Jarick said.

“I was just like please don’t let him die. What is our family going to be like if we don’t have him.’’

Dr Parker said it was “difficult to know exactly how bad Eli could have been, but what I am certain of is without those early interventions from a critical care perspective, he wouldn’t be walking around as the kid he is today.”

‘LIKE INTENSIVE CARE SERVICE IN CHOPPER’

Kevin Charteris, who has been a QAS Flight Paramedic on the Bundaberg-based rescue service for 26 years, drove Dr Parker to Eli’s house on the day he fell out of the tree and worked alongside him to offer lifesaving emergency care.

He said critical care doctors boosted the in-helicopter care to the equivalent of a hospital intensive care unit.

The backyard tree Eli Jarick fell six metres from in March.

“The level of care that the flight paramedics can provide is to a certain level and the Critical Care Doctors that come on board with us now during the day shifts provide that extra level of care,” he said.

Dr Parker said LifeFlight was seeking community support to extend the Critical Care Doctor program from the current seven-days-a-week to one that covers the night shift as well.

“In August 2022, we went from being a group of doctors working only on weekends for three days.

SUPPORT NEEDED TO GO 24/7

“The community funding increased enough to allow us to go seven days and service the community up here, but only on the day shifts. Now what we are asking is to be able to do 24/7 coverage so that we can cover the Wide Bay and Burnett region.”

Eli has recovered well, is back at school and thankful to those who helped him – especially Dr Parker.

LifeFlight Critical Care Doctor Richard Parker with Eli Jarick – the 13-year-old boy he saved at Pine Creek near Bundaberg in front of the tree Eli fell six metres from.

“I’m very grateful for what he did,” Eli said. “I’m just glad he was there.”

And so, is the rest of his family, including Dad Matthew and sister Michaela.

“We were lucky that Dr Parker was there because he was the only one that could put him to sleep and that’s what saved his brain,” Mrs Jarick said.

“I honestly believe that having Dr Parker here is why Eli has made the recovery he’s made.

LifeFlight Critical Care Doctor Richard Parker, the 13-year-old boy he saved in March Eli Jarick, and Queensland Ambulance Service (QAS) Flight Paramedic Kevin Charteris in front of the tree Eli fell from in his backyard.

“If it had of been half an hour earlier and he hadn’t started work or late one evening and he wasn’t here, I don’t even want to know what would have happened if he hadn’t of been here to do what he did.”

The family actually live under the flight path of the helicopter. “You never ever think it is going to be coming for you,’’ Mrs Jarick said.

Dr Parker said having Critical Care Doctors on board the LifeFlight Rescue helicopters means critically ill patients have access to instant emergency specialist care.

“Accidents happen anywhere, any time and they happen in the blink of an eye,” Dr Parker said.

“You know, kids need to be kids, but accidents do happen, and we hope to be there when they do.”

The Bundaberg-based RACQ LifeFlight Rescue helicopter and crew service the Wide Bay-Burnett region and beyond.

You can donate here to help the Bundaberg-base to secure Critical Care Doctors on the choppers at night.