Paramedic Sonia Laura Grapes loses PTSD claim after bone retrieval horror crash

A Queensland paramedic, traumatised after retrieving a crash victim’s severed arm bone, has lost her bid to sue, with the court ruling she waited too long to act.

A Queensland paramedic says she was left traumatised after retrieving a crash victim’s arm from a tree.

A Queensland paramedic who retrieved a man’s severed arm bone from a tree after a horrific car crash has lost her appeal to sue over the psychological toll that followed.

Sonia Laura Grapes, a former Queensland Ambulance Service paramedic, was the first responder at a single-vehicle smash on Mount Tamborine in 2018, where a passenger’s arm had been almost completely torn off.

Court of Appeal Justice Peter Bradley noted in his judgment the “disturbing nature” of the accident.

“The appellant retrieved the passenger’s humerus bone from where it was lodged in a tree several metres from the vehicle,” Judge Bradley said in his judgment.

Ms Grapes spent about an hour at the scene providing emergency care but she said the trauma of that morning never left her.

In January 2021, she was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and major depressive disorder. By the end of 2020, she was unable to work.

But the court found that her long delay of six years in launching a personal injury claim meant she could not now pursue compensation from the driver or his CTP insurer, AAI Limited (Suncorp Insurance).

Ms Grapes had asked for an extension to the statutory three-year time limit under the Limitation of Actions Act, arguing that she didn’t become aware of the identities of the driver and insurer until late 2023.

However, Justice Bradley wrote that “a reasonable step would have been to have instructed solicitors to pursue this information with a view to making a claim” far earlier.

The Court of Appeal upheld the Queensland Supreme Court’s November 2024 decision to deny the extension, despite acknowledging Ms Grapes’ psychological injury and the extraordinary nature of her experience.

“She attended a serious accident,” Judge Bradley said. “She was confronted with the most disturbing consequences of that accident.

“She suffered a severe psychological injury. It never improved. After December 2020, she could not work at all,” the court acknowledged.

But the court was clear: “Even allowing for the hurdles Ms Denning (Kate Denning her solicitor) encountered in ascertaining the identity of the (driver) and (CTP insurer), it would have been within the means of the applicant’s knowledge if assisted by a solicitor to have discovered their identity by early 2022.”

Though Ms Grapes had reached out to her union’s lawyers in May 2022, they declined to act for her.

She later said she “did not feel mentally equipped to seek further legal advice” and it wasn’t until February 2023 that she again contacted a solicitor, who ultimately identified the CTP insurer in November.

Justice Bond agreed with his colleague’s findings and the appeal was dismissed with costs.

Originally published as Paramedic Sonia Laura Grapes loses PTSD claim after bone retrieval horror crash