When Every Moment Counted for Lucy

 

When Lucy Padfield was pulled out from the bottom of her home pool, she wasn’t breathing and her lifeless body had turned blue.

In December last year, the Padfield family were having an afternoon swim in their backyard pool in their Tom Price home when their three-year-old daughter Lucy slipped off the edge of the pool and experienced a near-drowning incident.

“My husband pulled her out and started CPR but there was no response,” Amy Padfield said.

“The ambulance got called and the waiting felt like forever.

“After a few rounds of CPR, Lucy started breathing and crying and the relief was immense. We just couldn’t believe we had our Lucy back.”

Raced to the local hospital, Lucy wasn’t very responsive and the RFDS was tasked to retrieve Lucy to Perth Children’s Hospital to access specialist care. 

“She wouldn’t talk, wouldn’t open her eyes but she would squeeze my hand a couple of times but we knew she wasn’t our little chatty and feisty Lucy just yet,” Amy said.

As luck would have it, the Padfield family were relieved to hear the Rio Tinto LifeFlight PC-24 jet carrying RFDS medical crew had landed at Paraburdoo Airport, 70 kilometres away from Tom Price. Lucy was able to get to the care that she urgently needed and is back to being her bright, bubbly self today.

Our partnership with Rio Tinto plays an important role in supporting remote and rural communities to ensure the RFDS can be there for families like the Padfields, when every moment counts.