Every parent's worst nightmare

On the 16th of October 2012, two month old baby Troy took a turn for the worse, experiencing severe breathing difficulties. His condition was getting steadily worse so the Westpac Rescue Helicopter was called. Troy’s mum Carol was facing every parents worst nightmare.

“Troy’s breathing was getting worse and he seemed for some unknown reason to be choking. We just grabbed him and went searching for the local ambulance. Once we got to St Johns they reassured me that things would be ok and when I saw the rescue helicopter coming in, I felt even more reassured.”

It turned out that young Troy’s problems were caused by a previously undetected allergy to the milk formula that he had taken. Today he is a happy and healthy 10 month old boy.

“One of our deciding factors in coming to a rural community to live, is knowing that we have great local emergency services and that in dire situations we can rely upon our own rescue helicopters. The rescue crew are just amazing.”

Troy’s rescue was one of almost 800 missions carried out by your rescue helicopter crews last year and this simply would not have been possible without your help.

“I’d really like to thank all of you who have helped the rescue helicopters in the past and I urge you to help them again this year, so they can continue to help more families like ours.”