January 31, 2017
Friday the 13th is unlucky for some, but for Blackbutt 10-year-old Bryce Lees it turned out to be lucky after all, despite being bitten by a snake.
Bryce was walking down to lock up the family’s chickens as part of his daily chores about 7:00pm when he accidentally stood on the snake, which he described as “black with diamonds on it”.
Trained by his dad in what to do if bitten, quick-thinking Bryce put his T-shirt as a bandage on his leg, before jumping on a family quad bike to alert his mum.
“We always told the kids: ‘If you ever get bitten by a snake, always look to see what type it is’,” his mum Melissa said.
“He looked and then he took his shirt off and tried to wrap it around his leg.”
Melissa called 000 as soon as she saw Bryce had been bitten mid-calf.
An ambulance crew was quickly on site, followed soon afterwards by an RACQ LifeFlight helicopter from Toowoomba.
After landing in the family’s horse paddock, the LifeFlight crew quickly transported Bryce, accompanied by his mum, to Toowoomba Hospital.
Melissa, a nervous flyer, was reassured throughout Bryce’s airlift.
“LifeFlight was great. The crew gives you a run down on everything and tells you what all the noises are. That really helps to calm you down,” she said.
Following a series of blood tests, Bryce left the hospital the following day.
The family believe it was probably a carpet snake – another lucky strike.
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Bryce was one of 279 patients who received lifesaving treatment from RACQ LifeFlight Rescue helicopter crews around Queensland during a record-breaking summer holiday period.
The number of missions flown from December 10 to January 22 was up 19 per cent on last year.
Lifeflight attended 26 motor vehicle or motorcycle accidents; 46 life-threatening accidents or emergencies where helicopters landed at the scene; 183 inter-hospital transfers; nine search and rescues missions and eight neonatal retrievals.
Toowoomba was the busiest LifeFlight base in Queensland with 83 missions, followed by Brisbane with 79 and the Sunshine Coast with 63.
