Lifeflight dash to save 10-week-old baby after crash near Bundaberg
The family was involved in a car crash, and Cooper seemed to have recovered, then his Aunty noticed something was very wrong.
A newborn baby has been saved in miraculous circumstances after he and his family were involved in a serious car crash in Queensland.
Cooper Pressler-McHugh was 10 weeks old when the car he was in crashed in Kalkie, north of Brisbane in November last year.
His mother Demi and father Sean were seriously injured in the crash.
The family were taken to Bundaberg Hospital. Cooper was initially released and cared for by his aunty Emma, while his mum and dad continued their recovery in hospital.
Cooper seemed to have recovered, but he started having seizures.
“He became unresponsive and was looked over at the Bundaberg Hospital emergency department,” Demi said.
“They made the decision that he needed to go to Brisbane.”
Cooper needed urgent transport to Queensland Children’s Hospital (QCH), 350km from home. He had developed swelling on the brain.
The LifeFlight Brisbane-based team picked up Children’s Health Queensland Retrieval Service (CHQRS) pediatric doctor Arya James and nurse Katie Allen. They all flew to Bundaberg to pick up Cooper.
Dr Arya said it was immediately clear that Cooper needed intensive care.
“It really hit hard when I saw his mum next to him, still recuperating from her injuries. She was so incredibly brave, holding his little fingers and taking a picture of him while they were lying in hospital beds next to each other,” Dr Arya said.
“We secured his airway before we got him back to Brisbane in the helicopter and Cooper was very stable on the evening flight. Cooper’s aunt made the trip back with us in the ‘helo’, and she was an absolute champ,” she said.
After just four days at QCH his aunty Emma and her husband drover Cooper back to Bundaberg.
And a year on, Cooper is thriving. He still needs some ongoing treatment because if complications from his brain injury.
“He’ll be on medication for the rest of his life but he’s okay, and without LifeFlight he probably wouldn’t be here,” Demi said.
