Warwick vet trampled by 1000kg bull praises rescuers who saved her leg
A veteran cattle station vet who survived being crushed by a 380kg horse is among the rising number of southwest Queenslanders requiring urgent aeromedical rescue from animal incidents.
Serious animal-related injuries are becoming a common occurence across the southwest, with LifeFlight called to 28 incidents in the often rough and secluded agricultural terrain.
Across the state, the aeromedical crew has attended 155 animal-related rescues in 2025 alone, making up 8 per cent of trauma missions.
The most common of these incidents are related to horses and cattle, bull strikes, machinery and rodeos.
Beef cattle veterinarian Sandra Jephcott could fill a book with the number of animal-related injuries she’s suffered through the sometimes dangerous and challenging nature of her work.
Trapped under and flung from horses, kicked and butted by bulls, Ms Jephcott has seen first-hand the impacts of farming and remote location emergencies in her three decades working on cattle stations.
The Warwick resident has relied on the help of LifeFlight’s aeromedical team countless times, with the latest back in June 2023 when an angry 1000kg bull trampled her foot.
Ms Jephcott was in the midst of loading two bulls from a small yard on a Western Downs property into a truck when they started fighting.
“They had their heads together pushing against each other and one of the bulls stepped on my right foot and he had all his weight on it,” she said.
“He tried to take my foot off my leg, he screwed it down into the ground.”
While she has a high pain threshold, the bull had managed to break Ms Jephcott’s fibula in two places and dislocated her ankle with a compound fracture exposing the bone.
“I wanted to swim in pain relief,” she said.
“Without LifeFlight, I could have lost my leg.”
This wasn’t Ms Jephcott’s most terrifying ordeal while working on a station. In 2008 she was flown to hospital after an almost fatal horse incident while mustering cattle.
“I was mustering cattle on my property near Condamine and the young horse I was riding somersaulted, trapping me underneath her,” she said.
“The horse weighed 380kg and her head was on my legs and her rump was on my head. The person mustering with me resuscitated me as I wasn’t breathing.”
Ms Jephcott was flown to the Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital where she spent eight days in an induced coma due to bleeding on the brain, spending a further three months in the Brain Injury Rehabilitation Unit at the Princess Alexandra Hospital with a partially paralysed left side.
“Because LifeFlight was able to get me to good medical care, I have regained 8 per cent of the use of my left leg and arm but have permanent left peripheral blindness,” she said.
LifeFlight Toowoomba-based clinical lead and critical care doctor Chris Jarvis said livestock related incidents were becoming more common.
“At the Toowoomba base we fly out to traumatic farming accidents regularly,” Dr Jarvis said.
“We probably attend more in Toowoomba given our geography. We are surrounded by farming land. Many of these involved people injured by large animals like cows and horses.”
SANDRA’S SAFETY TIPS
• Wear appropriate personal protective equipment (PPE) like boots always and helmets while riding.
• Know the temperament of the animals you are working with. Cranky, agitated cattle cause human injuries and so do young, nervous horses.
• Animal temperament is heritable and repeatable. That means if an animal is difficult at a muster or in the yards this time, it will be the same next time, and their offspring will have similar temperament. Keep records and identify animals with poor temperament.
• Move calmly and slowly around them so you don’t agitate the animals.
• Understand that their temperament can change when you change their environment. Bulls will happily graze together in a paddock but when the same bulls are brought into close confines of a cattle yard, they will fight. Try to keep them separate in individual yards to stop them fighting and hurting humans.
• Don’t allow yourself to get distracted or have someone watching out for you if possible.
• Always be aware of where the animals are in relation to where you are.
• Plan an escape route if you need to get away from the animal.
• Ensure you aren’t working alone – having someone to call for help is essential.
• Have a basic first aid kit in your car or in a bag that you carry around with you and understand basic trauma training.
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Originally published as Warwick vet trampled by 1000kg bull praises rescuers who saved her leg
