April 23, 2026
It took only seconds for Mondure farmer Clive Weier, 89, to lose his right hand in an auger but a split-second reaction from his neighbour saved his life.
The incident, which happened when the augur suddenly restarted while Clive was trying to clear it, occurred in March last year.
Clive was airlifted by LifeFlight to Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital and underwent emergency surgery but unfortunately his forearm could not be saved.
However, Clive is back on his feet these days, and full of praise for LifeFlight and the knowledge of his neighbour, Graham Terry, which saved his life.
LifeFlight Critical Care Doctor Daniel Bundock praised the quick-thinking by Graham.
“I clamped my hands around his arms, put him against the wheel, sat him down and held his arm until (his son) Leigh got the tourniquet and his phone and rang the ambulance,” Graham said.
“He was obviously in a lot of shock and pain, and I moved him around, sat him down. We never, ever let go of his arm.”
Graham said he had done a first aid course about 35-40 years ago.
“I knew I needed to stop the bleeding and get him comfortable … I tried to calm him down and I couldn’t stop his pain. I could only stop his bleeding,” he said.
“I just reassured him, he’s going to be okay, it’ll hurt and it’ll do this and that, and I got him to deep breathe and count and all sorts of stuff. It’s just something that I knew, something that I did.
“I think it’s essential for everybody to learn trauma training skills, it’s just so handy because you never know when it’s going to happen.”
Dr Bundock, who met up with Clive again recently at LifeFlight’s Toowoomba base, said every second counted in an emergency.
He said he would have done exactly the same thing as Graham if he had been first on the scene.
“What Clive’s son and neighbour did saved his life, indisputably,” Dr Bundock said.
“They had good knowledge of early trauma principles and knew to apply direct pressure to stop his haemorrhage.
“Clive’s neighbour put two hands around his upper limb and compressed as hard as he could.
“Clive’s a pretty lucky man. He’s lucky because of where the injury was, he’s lucky because of the type of injury he had but he’s also lucky because the people around him had knowledge of the basic principles of trauma care.
“Their ability to think clearly in that minute and step up when they were needed is why Clive’s back on the farm today.”
Dr Bundock said the first minutes really do matter after an accident, which is why LifeFlight had its First Minutes Matter program.
He said country Queenslanders should invest in learning life-saving skills.
“These people work around heavy machinery and animals … and accept the dangers and risk that come with that,” Dr Bundock said.
“With that risk, comes a responsibility to yourself and other people who live in your community.
“We are trained to be calm in those moments, but calmness comes from a skillset that you know that you have.
“People in the community can develop a skillset as well by attending courses, thinking about trauma care, and learning how to use equipment and the basic principles of it.”
Clive recently celebrated his 89th birthday and has gone from being right-handed to embracing a “she’ll be right” attitude using just his left hand.
“I woke up and thought, ‘well – I’ve got to move on. I can’t bury my head in the sand and think I can’t do this and I can’t do that. I’ve got to think positive and I’ve got to get on with my life. It’s happened. It’s history. There’s nothing I can do about it’,” he said.
Clive was so grateful that good trauma knowledge saved his life that he organised a First Minutes Matter workshop at Mondure.
Dr Bundock said seeing Clive looking so well was a highlight.
“Doctors are people, too,” Dr Bundock said. “We carry a bag of patients around in our heads our entire lives. You want to know that they’re doing well.”
- External link: First Minutes Matter Program
What an awesome practical first aid message to the rural and regional communities