Trio relishes second chance
LifeFlight patients reunited with team who saved them
RETURNING back to the helicopter that flew them to life-saving treatment was a surreal experience for three former LifeFlight patients yesterday afternoon.
Jenny Ballon, Sandy Morris and Connor Sharpe all returned to the base to be reunited with the team who saved their lives.
The trio shares a bond like no other, but what they also share is a new lease on life.
Connor Sharpe, for example, has taken his expertise with the saxophone to new heights since being told he can no longer pursue rugby league.
In September of 2015, Mr Sharpe fell to the ground in the middle of a Brothers Junior Toowoomba Rugby League game - what happened next, he does not remember.
“I died,” he said.
“I had a cardiac arrest, my heart stopped beating and I had to be defibrillated twice.
“According to doctors I had an eight per cent chance to live outside of hospital and less than 1% chance to keep all my motor skills.”
The Toowoomba schoolboy is now planning for a musical career, an application to join the Queensland Conservatorium inspired partly by his dance with death.
For the budding saxophone player, his own jazz club in Melbourne would be the dream.
Or anywhere overseas - he hasn’t quite made up his mind yet.
“I want music to take me where I want to go,” he said.
“It’s pretty cool, it’s not every day that you die and get to come back and to play the saxophone.”
Sandy Morris is also taking a more enthusiastic approach to life.
As a volunteer firefighter, Mr Morris is no stranger to the LifeFlight team, but being a patient was a new experience even for him.
Mr Morris had a seizure which resulted in the LifeFlight team scrambling to land on the Gatton Showgrounds at 11pm and save him.
A day he said is grateful for, as he is able to watch his daughter Violet grow up.
“The next thing I know it’s a day later and I’m waking up in the Princess Alexandra Hospital in nothing but a pair of long socks and a nappy,” he recalled.
“I was on the cusp, if LifeFlight didn’t come I wouldn’t be standing here today telling my story.
“Words can’t describe how good a feeling it is to know you have that second chance and she’s going to grow up with her dad.”
Since sustaining life-threatening injuries thanks to a run-in with a cow on her property, the only thing Jenny Ballon has been grabbing by the horns, is life.
In the aftermath of her ordeal, Ms Ballon has raised thousands of dollars for LifeFlight.
The animal who caused the injuries has not been so lucky. “I was glad to see him go,” she said.