Yeah, I bitch a lot, I find it strangely relaxing to get moaning out of my system here, so that my wife and those around me can experience the 100% pure love that is me. But don't get me wrong, I'm loving our time in Australia, and some things make me appreciate where I am and what I've got. And once in a while (and it is very rare) the sarcasm has to end.
We went to the Grampians last week, had a great time, did some trekking, sat reading in the sun, watched the wildlife walk/bounce/fly by. On Tuesday morning we set off for Mackenzie Falls. You can check them out in our photos, they were beautiful. We walked to the base, had a snack, then went back up (it's a steep climb).
When we reached the top, we spent 5 minutes recovering on a bench. Some guy ran past with what we thought was a cup of coffee in his hand, cue sarcastic fitness remarks. Decided to go to the lookout point above the falls to get some more pictures, and whilst wandering we were passed by a teenage girl also running past. Sarcastic fitness remark number 2.
When we came to a curve in the path, we could see a crowd up ahead, and that's when the alarm bells started ringing. As we approached, we could see a woman on the floor surrounded by people, two of whom were performing CPR on her. Her husband was holding her head, and someone was talking to the ambulance service on the phone - luckily they got a signal, because our phones barely worked the whole time we were up there.
There are probably worse places to be stuck waiting for an ambulance, but this wasn't far off. The road up from the nearest town is constantly winding it's way up about 3000 feet of mountain, and takes about 20 minutes - you just can't rush it. The operator said about 15 minutes for a medic to reach us, and they had apparently been performing CPR for at least 10 minutes before we arrived on scene.
I wish I could tell you that I jumped in and gave assistance, but I didn't. I know the basics of CPR, but the man and woman helping her seemed to know their stuff, so I stayed well back but kept watching in case they needed someone to step in (CPR is very tiring). We stayed watching and waiting for the ambulance for maybe 30 minutes, and I can tell you now, the minutes stretch into infinity when it's divided into periods of 2 breaths and 30 chest compressions at a time.
And yes, all the time you're thinking "Should I be here?" It wasn't voyeuristic, we wanted to help, but there's nothing more that can be done; a couple of people were coming back with boiled sweets - it turns out that she was a diabetic whose levels had been all over the place recently, and from what her friend was saying to her at the scene, she wasn't taking good care of herself at all. She must have collapsed fast, they couldn't get her to eat anything before she was unconscious. So we all waited.
We finally heard the ambulance siren about 30 minutes later, and it took them another 5 minutes or so to reach the scene, where they started proper CPR which made the amateurs' approach look a bit weedy. They sliced the clothing off her top half, and obviously everyone looked away for a moment, but I guess by this point dignity wasn't the issue. Slowly more and more medics arrived, and 10 minutes later 2 first aiders and 3 paramedics were working on her. Her husband collapsed beside her, and you just feel terrible, watching all this, and not being able to help. Just going over and putting a hand on his shoulder felt like an invasion of his privacy - all we could do was watch.
I'd noticed her fingers almost as soon as we arrived. They were completely white up to her knuckles, which I guess suggested that their was no blood reaching her extremities. Someone had been checking her pulse before the medics arrived; it was very weak, and by the time the medics had been working on her for 10 minutes, it became apparent that the only thing keeping her going was CPR. They had a heart monitor and stopped every few minutes to see if she was pumping blood unaided, but it just wasn't happening. They tried several shots of adrenaline, and once the real medics arrived, they shocked her once, but she just couldn't get going again.
By this time, the air ambulance had been called, and the medics cleared us back a couple of hundreds yard due to the risk of falling branches (it's a wooded area), and they appeared to drop a medic from the chopper, but by this point we were quite far away, and started walking back to the car. It was hard for the helicopter to find a clear space, and he circled several times, but we don't think he spent long enough in one place for them to get her winched up. By that point, she had been undergoing CPR for an hour, and one of the medics on the ground had already made it clear that he thought they were pretty much done.
We didn't see her leave, either in the chopper or an ambulance, and we don't know for sure what happened to her, but honestly I believe she was dead long before the medics got there and it's credit to the people who kept her going that they didn't stop for maybe 40 minutes. We think her name was Marnie - they said it a couple of times whilst we were there, but we weren't really concentrating on chatter.
I don't know if this is the sort of thing a journal is for, but it was a terrible thing to witness, and something I'll never forget, and I guess I need it down in words for me as much as for you. If you take something from it, I suppose it should be the age old "do it whilst you can" cliche - that guy and his wife went for a gentle walk in the country, and an hour later, he'd lost her forever. I hope they'd had some fun in the preceding years, but watching him sobbing on that path as his wife died in front of him, I don't suppose that mattered to him at all. Life can be cruel, and it's sure as hell unpredictable, so get off your arse and enjoy it while you can.
