Tragedy sparks special donation
IN THE hours and days after Kathy and Scott Wockner tragically lost their ninemonth-old boy Lucas, they hit upon a way of giving back to those who had helped them in their time of need.
Not wanting a house full of flowers, they instead asked people to donate to a GoFundMe page.
Yesterday at Highfields, Mrs Wockner met some of the Queensland Ambulance Service paramedics who allowed her family to say goodbye to their precious boy, and thanked them by donating $1000 of the more than $17,000 raised in the wake of Lucas’ death.
The rest of the money will be donated to other organisations who helped the family during Lucas’ journey.
‘‘ THERE WAS NOTHING THAT WE COULD DO DIFFERENTLY TO HELP LUCAS BUT OBVIOUSLY THAT TIME THAT WE HAD ... WAS REALLY IMPORTANT TO US,” KATHY WOCKNER
After Lucas was found unresponsive and not breathing at his childcare centre in May, paramedics Stephen Smith, David Hatchett, Wendy Aitken and Brad Kirby managed to resuscitate and rush him to Toowoomba Hospital in a critical condition.
He was airlifted to Lady Cilento Children’s Hospital where he passed away peacefully, with his family having been able to say their goodbyes.
“There was nothing that we could do differently to help Lucas but obviously that time that we had to process, and the time we had to bring our family together to say goodbye to him was really important to us,” Mrs Wockner said.
She said while she didn’t get a chance to meet the paramedics who resuscitated her son on the day, she realised they were “absolutely instrumental” in getting him to hospital and performing CPR.
Mrs Wockner’s donation was used to purchase a piece of equipment that will provide increased realism for training simulations.