Jacqui Rich is celebrating life this Christmas.

The mother-of-two almost died in February when her quad bike rolled at her Wandoan cattle station and ruptured her spleen.

The Toowoomba-based LifeFlight SGAS helicopter aeromedical crew, including critical care doctor Christopher Jarvis and veteran flight paramedic Brad Solomon, worked together to save her.

“I used an ultrasound probe to scan her stomach and that showed there was a lot of free fluid, and that’s almost always blood,” Dr Jarvis said.

“She was very pale and when I checked her blood pressure it was low. Seeing that free fluid in her tummy meant an intra-abdominal bleed which is a job for hospital surgeons.”

The LifeFlight medical team started a blood transfusion. They were putting up the fourth and last bag of blood as they were flying over Chinchilla and realised it wouldn’t be enough.

Pilot Russell Procter needed to land at the Dalby Hospital helipad so the medical team could retrieve more blood. By the time they landed at Toowoomba Hospital they had given Jacqui six blood units.

Dr Jarvis said it was touch-and-go for Jacqui and every second counted.

“I thought she was going to die,” Dr Jarvis said. “I was nervous the whole way that we were going to lose her. She looked terrible, and we were a long way from a surgeon. We were pumping the blood into her during the flight, and it was still very low when we landed at Toowoomba Hospital.”

The entire Toowoomba Hospital surgical team including an emergency physician, a general surgeon and an anaesthetist – were waiting for Jacqui on the helipad.

Surgeons removed her spleen and 2.5 litres of blood from her abdomen. When Dr Jarvis called into see her the next day, she was sitting up in bed with rosy cheeks.

“I was really pleased Jacqui made it,” Dr Jarvis said. “Seeing her looking so well was great. It was a real team effort to save her. That’s the best part of the job, when you know we can make a difference.”

When Dr Jarvis introduced himself to Jacqui, she burst into tears.

“The LifeFlight medical team had it all under control,” she said.

“They knew exactly what to do for me. I think if they hadn’t of acted as quickly as they did, and without the knowledge that they had, I wouldn’t be here today. I really didn’t think I was going to make it.”

Jacqui says her gift this Christmas is spending time with her family. She’s also hoping to encourage 100 of her friends and family to donate $100 each to LifeFlight and for all Queenslanders to consider giving the Christmas gift of donating blood.

“I needed the blood of strangers to save my life,” Jacqui said. “Without it, I wouldn’t be here. I am truly thankful that LifeFlight were placed in my life that day.

“LifeFlight gave me the greatest gift of all, allowing me to continue my wonderful life, loving my family.”

LifeFlight is the largest employer of aeromedical doctors in Australia and has helped close to 90,000 people since taking to the skies 45 years ago.

Source: Lifeflight Queensland. For more information about our critical care doctor Christmas appeal: www.lifeflight.org.au/support-our-doctors/.