Free Everything to Live For: The Inspirational Story of Turia Pitt by Turia Pitt

they were on their way to evacuate people with burns; details were unknown at that stage but they should expect patients at about 5.30 pm.
    Once in the air Paul then told Bryn that the location of the patients was on a ridge with room for only one skid. Nothing was said but each knew what the other was thinking and they flew over the magnificent landscape that would soon be enveloped in darkness. At that stage Paul declared it a ‘mercy flight’ as the casualties’ location was not a standard helicopter landing site (HLS). In the past Paul had carried out several medivacs, some in fairly confined spaces, but never from the side of a cliff with no room to land a helicopter; he knew this was going to be a tough and dangerous job and he was thinking how he could minimise risks to everyone involved.
    Dr Brahm assessed the situation and knew it was imperative that the women receive immediate intravenous hydration; believing Turia to be the most critical, she attempted to get an IV drip into her first. But by then Turia’s burns had caused her body to swell up with fluid making it impossible to find a vein. She turned her attention to Kate and successfully got a drip into her.
    Hydrating Turia was problematical. Dr Brahm could only give her small quantities of water to sip (which the others had done while waiting for help); the doctor was concerned about giving Turia too much water orally because of the risk of aspiration if she needed intubation in hospital. She gave some general pain medication orally; she did not carry stronger drugs, such as morphine or ketamine, because their availability is restricted in Australia and not normally carried by doctors for sporting events.
    However, by then the pain issue was moot as the burns were deep enough to have burnt off both women’s nerve endings anyway; what was of more concern was the possible irreparable damage to internal organs without urgent specialist medical attention.
    It was also too late for any effective cooling: on both Turia and Kate the burns areas were too large and too deep; in fact to have had any effect, cooling would need to have been started at least two hours earlier. While everyone had attempted to keep Turia’s and Kate’s burns cool, the small amount of water available had had limited effect. Dr Brahm tried to cover Turia with a space blanket but Turia could not stand anything against her skin.
    Dr Brahm, as a medical professional, was also aware that Turia and Kate needed life-saving escharotomies – surgical incisions to release the rigid and inelastic burnt skin to help circulation to limbs. This procedure would have to be done in a sterile environment. If it hadn’t been obvious before this, urgent evacuation was imperative otherwise these young women would die.
    Soon after, two volunteers arrived at the bottom of the cliff in a large four-wheel drive vehicle; they had come from checkpoint three and had driven through the burnt-out territory carrying containers of water and a camp mattress, which they started to haul up the cliff. Shaun made one trip down to help bring up some water and collapsed exhausted when he returned. By then there was an increasing number of people on the ridge. Sometime earlier, Ron Rutherford, seeing the activity there, had also made his way up the cliff with some water, leaving Mary to wait for the rescue he felt sure must be coming.
    With the arrival of the mattress, additional thought was given to getting Turia and Kate down the cliff if the helicopter couldn’t lift them off. Rod good-naturedly offered to be the test dummy when the men tried to make a stretcher-cum-lifting device out of the mattress and odd bits from their backpacks. Because Shaun, Trent, Wade and Brad had all been trained in underground mine rescue, they figured they could carry the injured young women down on a makeshift stretcher if they had to. But with the risk of further injury if they fell off, the idea was discarded as being too dangerous.
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