A patient suffered serious leg injuries and substantial blood loss after being gored between the left knee and groin by a wild bull on a property about 95 km west of Mackay.

RACQ CQ Rescue, as part of the Queensland Health Aeromedical Retrieval Network, was tasked about 15:30 hrs on 18 August and flew directly to the scene within 25 minutes, landing in a paddock, just minutes after ambulance crews arrived.

The flying trauma team, with a doctor, critical care paramedic and rescue crewman onboard, spent 45 minutes stabilizing the patient for the flight before airlifting him to Mackay Base Hospital in a serious but stable condition at about 17:30 hrs. It is believed a wild bull jumped a fence to ‘mingle’ with domesticated cows.

Earlier that day the Mackay-based rescue helicopter was tasked by Queensland Police after a mayday call was received from a vessel near Bowen. Two people, a man and a woman, were onboard a six-metre boat about 25 km north of Hayman Island when one experienced a serious cardiac episode.

RACQ CQ Rescue was tasked at around 10:45 hrs and flew 45 minutes to the scene. A rescue crewman was lowered into the water and a critical care paramedic went down the wire onto the small boat to administer CPR as the helicopter circled overhead for about 40 minutes. The helicopter returned to the PCYC oval at Airlie Beach to wait for the rescue crewman and paramedic to return to shore via boat before heading back to base in Mackay.

Late afternoon the day before, a 63-year-old Victorian tourist was winched off a rocky ledge on Wolfang Peak, about 50 km north of Clermont, after she became lost and fell more than 10 m down a rock face.

RACQ CQ Rescue was tasked at about 15:00 hrs and flew direct to the volcanic plug peak, about 260 km south-west of Mackay, landing in a grassy paddock nearby to speak with rescue crews about retrieving the injured woman and her exact whereabouts on the mountain.

As the rescue helicopter hovered about 10 m overhead, the rescue crewman was lowered down onto a small rock ledge to secure the woman into a rescue strop before both were winched up into the helicopter. The entire winch rescue of the woman off the rock face took less than 10 minutes.

RACQ CQ Rescue has already completed 374 missions this year, with every hour the helicopter is in the air on task costing the community-funded service about AUD$10,500. The Bell 412 rescue helicopter and crew services rural and remote communities across Central and North Queensland and is often the difference between life and death for hundreds of patients each year.