Townsville paramedic coordinates medical aid to Forrest Beach during flood crisis

Experienced paramedic Jim Overall has spent the past five days supplying resources and equipment to residents of flood-ravaged Forrest Beach.

Operations manager of 1300MEDICS, James Overall. has coordinated supplies to flood-ravaged Forrest Beach.

For the past five days, experienced paramedic Jim Overall has supplied thousands of dollars of supplies, clothing and medical attention to residents of flood-ravaged Forrest Beach.

The operations manager for 1300MEDICS had been using his connections and his own pocket to airdrop resources that had been dwindling in Forrest Beach – a town that has been cut off from the rest of North Queensland due to severe flooding.

Mr Overall started these particular acts of alleviating the community after he and his colleagues saw a Facebook post shared by a paramedic working for Mr Overall, from Forrest Beach Surf Lifesaving Club.

“They put out essentially a call for help that they were completely cut off. They had no resources. They were running out of food and water,” Mr Overall said.

Forrest Beach homes under water. Pics Adam Head

“Their volunteer surf lifesavers were going door to door, doing first aid, and running a little clinic where they could.

“Thankfully we had the resources and the connections within town to start making stuff happen.”

Mr Overall messaged Forrest Beach surf life-saving club and offered to help the healthcare professionals. Soon, there were donations and offers of assistance rolling in.

One particular act was supplying roughly six kilos of baby formula to relatively newborn premature baby twins who were running out of formula.

Another instance was ‘raiding Big W’ to get as many resources for families who were suffering.

“We raided everything we could from Big W,” Mr Overall said.

Jim Overall. Photo: Supplied.

“We bought heaps of baby clothes, baby formula, nappies, blankets - everything we could there.

“And then we just used the local resources, sent emails out to Rivers and Kmart – anyone in town who had clothing – to be like ‘hey, what can you guys donate to these families.”

Mr Overall also helped organise two helicopters, sending in thousands of dollars of medical supplies and specialist baby formula.

“We were ready to get back and had a third helicopter essentially on standby for myself to fly in if we really needed to provide obstetric care to a lady who was miscarrying.

“Thankfully, we got some messages back from the nurses that they heard the baby’s heartbeat at about seven o’clock at night.

“I cried. I was holding my breath just to make sure that people were okay.”

The former military advanced medical technician explained how he was motivated by his military background and personal history, including an experience with pregnancy loss.

“My wife and I have experienced pregnancy loss and we lost our baby in 2021 - born sleeping,” said Mr Overall.

“With that experience, I would never be able to sit there go ‘there was a baby hungry and I left them hungry’.”

Amid all of the goodwill and effort, Mr Overall still has further plans to help the community.

“The phone’s been going crazy. We’re just in talks at the moment of whether I can get a team up to either Cardwell or into Crystal Creek.”

Originally published as Townsville paramedic coordinates medical aid to Forrest Beach during flood crisis