{"id":749049,"date":"2026-06-20T15:18:31","date_gmt":"2026-06-20T15:18:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/749049\/"},"modified":"2026-06-20T15:18:31","modified_gmt":"2026-06-20T15:18:31","slug":"family-of-young-medical-student-who-survived-remote-cattle-property-crash-advocates-for-lifeflight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/749049\/","title":{"rendered":"Family of young medical student who survived remote cattle property crash advocates for LifeFlight"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lucy Scott lay on the side of a dirt road. Alone and frightened, she told herself help was on its way.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The vehicle Lucy and her partner Jethro Tessan were travelling in on her family’s cattle property had hit a pothole and rolled.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Lucy was thrown from the vehicle.<\/p>\n

Her neck was fractured in two places, just millimetres from her spinal cord.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“I woke up on the ground and was obviously just in horrific shock. I just knew that it was bad,” Lucy said.<\/p>\n

Without any phone service, 50 kilometres out of Roma, Jethro was forced to leave her there to find help.<\/p>\n

But the organisation that saved Lucy last August is now facing a funding shortfall in the South West.<\/p>\n

‘The world stops’<\/p>\n

Jethro made it back to the Scott family home on foot, to find Lucy’s parents.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Her mum Kate Scott dialled Triple Zero (000).<\/p>\n

Ms Scott has volunteered for aeromedical charity LifeFlight for years, but now she was on the other end of it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Everything just slowed right down for me. I just couldn’t believe what had happened,” she said.\u202f<\/p>\n

\"Lucy<\/p>\n

Lucy Scott was flown to Toowoomba Hospital in a LifeFlight helicopter after fracturing her neck in a vehicle rollover. (Supplied: Kate Scott)<\/p>\n

Within 45 minutes, a LifeFlight helicopter was landing in their paddock.<\/p>\n

“Hearing those chopper blades coming in and seeing that critical care doctor climb out of that helicopter and the paramedic come towards us was a feeling that I’ll never forget,” Ms Scott said.\u202f<\/p>\n

Ms Scott said an ambulance ride on rough country roads would have been dangerous, even if it had reached them in time.<\/p>\n

“If she had to endure a road ambulance ride back into Roma, I hate to think what would have happened, because we had no idea that she had a fractured neck that was millimetres away from her spinal cord,” she said.<\/p>\n

Lucy was flown to Toowoomba Hospital, where her spinal injury was monitored until she could go into surgery.<\/p>\n

\"Lucy<\/p>\n

Lucy Scott with her mum Kate Scott. (Supplied: Kate Scott)<\/p>\n

Funding shortfall<\/p>\n

Since LifeFlight opened their South West hub in Roma in 2011, the service has been funded through a contract with Surat Gas Aeromedical Service.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The contract funds 350 hours of flying a year, but last year for the first time the service surpassed its funded hours.\u00a0<\/p>\n

LifeFlight Community Engagement Coordinator Lisa Bertolotti said the service was tracking towards a 70-hour shortfall for this year.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“That’s due to the demand of the service,” she said.<\/p>\n

“We see this gap in regional Queensland in our south-west region being overlooked.<\/p>\n

“Having those services available in Queensland is essential. Without them there’s lives lost.”<\/p>\n

\"Men<\/p>\n

Graziers can donate a beast or a percentage of their sale to support LifeFlight. (Supplied: Maranoa Regional Council)<\/p>\n

Throughout the month of June, the Roma Saleyards are hosting the CashCow fundraising initiative, where farmers can donate a beast or a percentage of their sale to LifeFlight.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ms Scott said it was up to the community to keep the chopper in the air.\u00a0<\/p>\n

They have raised $20,000 so far, with two more sale days left in the month.<\/p>\n

‘Life in a neck brace’<\/p>\n

After being discharged,\u202fLucy was later diagnosed with a dislocated sternum, underwent three more surgeries, and ended up in ICU twice.\u202f<\/p>\n

“There’s only been a few cases of them worldwide,”\u202fLucy\u202fsaid.\u202f<\/p>\n

“It was very close to my aorta.\u202fApparently,\u202f it was 3 millimetres off from touching it.\u202f<\/p>\n

“It’s quite freaky how lucky I am because even just during that time that I didn’t hit it. I would have bled out and not made it.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Lucy<\/p>\n

Lucy Scott (left) in hospital with her partner Jethro Tessan. (Supplied: Lucy Scott)<\/p>\n

Still in her neck brace, Lucy returned to university on the Gold Coast, where she was studying medicine.\u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n

Now in her fourth year of medicine, Lucy wants to work in retrieval medicine.\u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Just the impact that they had on me, that’s seriously incredible,” she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Lucy<\/p>\n

Lucy Scott with her parents, as she graduates from a bachelor of biomedical sciences at Bond University. (Supplied: Kate Scott)<\/p>\n

“Just a stranger can come and be the one to change the whole course of your life and just be a reassuring face.\u202f<\/p>\n

“If I can in any way give that to other people, then that would be very fulfilling.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lucy Scott lay on the side of a dirt road. Alone and frightened, she told herself help was…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":749050,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,48166,86214,44,359847],"class_list":["post-749049","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-emergency-medicine","tag-lifeflight","tag-news","tag-remote-queensland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/749049","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=749049"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/749049\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/749050"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=749049"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=749049"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=749049"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}