The young jackaroo was checking fences at Brunette Downs Station, 550km northeast of Alice Springs, when a tyre blew on his 4WD while driving between paddocks and the vehicle rolled several times in late October 2015.

With six broken vertebrae, multiple deep cuts and abrasions, and internal injuries, time wasn’t on his side.

Fergus, who had only just turned 18 at the time and who had travelled from New Zealand to work at the station, was staring death in the face.

When increasingly concerned and frantic two-way radio calls to Fergus went unanswered, station workers set out to find him.

“They had been calling me on the station radio for quite a few hours wondering where I was,” Fergus said.

“One of the girls I worked with, Claudia, got sent out to see what was going on and found me lying by the Toyota.

“I had six broken vertebrae … my bottom lip was completely split up to the side of my face.

“Claudia radioed through for everyone else (and) the sound of her voice still haunts them when she called up, they knew something wasn’t good.”

Station workers, including a vet, did what they could to help Fergus but it was clear serious medical attention was required.

The Royal Flying Doctor Service was dispatched from Alice Springs but they were still a two-hour flight then a 40-minute drive from the crash scene.

By the time they arrived, Fergus was struggling to breathe, had an erratic heart beat and low blood pressure.

The RFDS doctor and flight nurse got to work, giving him blood, inserting a breathing tube and securing his body on a special vacuum mat to reduce the risk of spinal cord damage.

Fergus was then taken to the RFDS base and then flown to Adelaide, via Alice Springs, for treatment.

Despite having no recollection of the incident and for up to a week afterwards, Fergus has been told the stories of his survival by the station workers and is acutely aware of the work of the RFDS.

“They were just amazing, really,” he said.

The RFDS were also able to provide a reassuring hand for Fergus’ parents back in New Zealand, who received the harrowing news about their son in the middle of the night.

“It was the middle of the night when mum and dad got called up in New Zealand and they were able to follow my flight from Alice Springs to Adelaide (online), which provided a huge amount of hope for them,” Fergus said.

Fergus, now aged 19, continues to undergo physiotherapy as part of his rehabilitation but has made a strong recovery, to the point he returned to Brunette Downs last year and lives an active lifestyle on a farm in the Canterbury region of New Zealand.

He has the RFDS to thank for that.

Nurse responds to cattleman in crisis less than three months into the job

IT was late October in 2015 when Royal Flying Doctor Service flight nurse Fred Hawkins heard murmurs of a “big job” in outback Northern Territory.

The 30-year-old had only been in the role as a flight nurse based out of Alice Springs for less than three months and he was about to face his biggest challenge.

Jackaroo Fergus Gunn, 18, had been seriously injured in a vehicle rollover on remote Brunette Downs Station and Mr Hawkins was en route with a doctor and pilot.

“We weren’t actually sure whether he was going to be alive when we got there because it was a two-hour flight and 40-minute drive in a four-wheel drive to where he was,” Mr Hawkins said.

They arrived to find Fergus in a perilous state, badly injured, struggling to breathe and with internal bleeding.

“It is very likely he would have died if we had not arrived when we did. His life was in great danger,” Mr Hawkins said.

“Kneeling in the red dirt beside him, we discovered very worrying signs: low blood pressure, erratic heart rate, and fitful breathing.

“The first thing we gave him was a blood transfusion and we put him on a spinal mat.

“And all the time we had in our minds that he could go into cardiac arrest.

“It was a very tense situation.

Fergus was then flown to the Alice Springs base and then on to Adelaide for hospital treatment.

Thanks to the work of Mr Hawkins and his crew, Fergus survived.

“It’s good to be able to go out when people are really sick and to bring this high level of care and bring them into hospitals,” Mr Hawkins said.

Originally from Sydney, Mr Hawkins worked as a remote nurse in the APY Lands before joining the RFDS and said he was thoroughly enjoying his job after 18 months.

He has a long list of qualifications, including a Bachelor of Nursing, a graduate certificate in critical care and a graduate diploma in midwifery. He is a registered nurse, a registered midwife and a remote area nurse.

He has 10 years of nursing experience, including five years of tertiary emergency department experience.

Working for the RFDS is special for Mr Hawkins.

“It’s a good job,” he said. “Sometimes the hours are long, but it’s interesting (and) you never really know what you are going to be doing.”

Read more: How Flying Doctors saved the tiny Davis twins