(Photo: RACQ LifeFlight)
July 19, 2017
It was a tragic crash that shocked Kingaroy … four young people returning from a happy day in Brisbane.
Taking a shortcut along Bellbird Road, something went wrong; the car rolled, went through a fence and ended up in a farmer’s paddock.
The 20-year-old driver was killed; the three passengers injured, one critically.
Twenty-two years later one of those girls – Jennifer Turner – has returned to thank RACQ LifeFlight Rescue and show crew members that miracles do happen.
Now 41 and living at Hampton, Jennifer recently visited LifeFlight’s Toowoomba base with husband Matt and son Charley, 4.
At age 19, Jennifer was a successful horse rider who dreamed of a long career, but her ambitions were taken away in the crash that nearly killed her, claimed the life of a friend and impacted a whole community.
It has taken more than two decades for Jennifer to come to terms with the day that her life changed forever.
She credits her survival to the crew of the rescue helicopter who airlifted her that dreadful day.
In June 1995, Jennifer and three other girls were on their way home to Kingaroy in a small Mazda after a crew training day at McDonald’s in Brisbane.
“The next second we were airborne and that’s the last thing I remember because I was knocked unconscious,” Jennifer said.
She was sitting in the back seat of the hatchback behind the driver.
“I got squashed from the boot which is how I broke my back and the front seat squashed in my face. My injuries were horrific,” Jennifer said.
She was in a critical condition with collapsed lungs, bleeding on the brain, broken back, fractured neck, broken fingers, broken jaw and cheek bones, smashed teeth as well as a severed optical nerve.
With darkness approaching and the car not easily visible from the road, one of the girls thought to put her jumper on the fence to help emergency crews find the wreckage. The other girl went to a nearby farm for help.
Jennifer was trapped in the car for an hour before being transported by road ambulance to Kingaroy Hospital and then airlifted to the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital.
Before the helicopter left Kingaroy, her mother and older sister were told by hospital staff to say their last goodbyes to her as they thought she might not survive the airlift to Brisbane.
“The doctor on the flight had to manually pump the oxygen bag to keep me alive the whole flight to Brisbane,” Jennifer said.
“They were incredible. No one thought I would make it. We owe my life to (the helicopter rescue service). Just to be walking and talking alive today is a miracle.”
The once active teenager’s recovery was slow and difficult with several operations including a facial reconstruction and two painful back surgeries. She had also lost the sight in one eye and needed to learn to talk again because her vocal cords were damaged.
“I was in an induced coma for two weeks. I basically needed to learn to walk again, first small steps up and down the hallway with a walker and then on my own. My family went through so much stress at this time,” Jennifer said.
It was two years before Jennifer could resume a “normal” life, but pursuing her passion for working with horses was no longer possible after the accident.
“It literally changed the course of all of our lives. I had only just competed at the National Show Horse of the Year and won Queensland Show Horse of the Year,” she said.
“I struggled for a long time after the accident to come to terms with not being able to ride and work with horses any more because of my injuries.
“When that was taken away from me it was a really difficult and upsetting time.”
Fast forward 22 years, Jennifer lives a happy life on a beautiful 80 acre property at Hampton, with husband Matt and four-year-old son Charley.
While she has daily reminders of that terrible day, including back pain and blindness in one eye she still manages to stay positive.
“While I am inhibited from doing some activities, I really am blessed to be alive, let alone walking and able to raise my own family,” she said.
“To look at me you would never know how badly I was injured. My story really does represent a miracle.”
2016-17 was a record year for LifeFlight for lifesaving missions with its aeromedical crews, community helicopters and Air Ambulance jets performing a record 5252 missions.
LifeFlight is a community-based charity that relies on donations from the public and community support to the LifeFlight Foundation
