Woman in creek accident revived

A WOMAN is considered lucky to be alive after hitting her head on a rock at a popular swimming spot and going under water for “about two minutes”.

A group of people at the creek, including Corey Hatton, performed CPR on the woman to revive her and then formed a human chain to get her out of the water.

Mr Hatton travelled to Crystal Creek with friends on Saturday but decided it was too dangerous to swim following heavy rainfall.

“As we were about to leave two boys came up to us with tears in their eyes asking, ‘ Do any of you know CPR?’,” Mr Hatton said.

The woman, believed to be 21, had slipped and fallen into water at the Paradise Waterhole at Crystal Creek about 12.20pm on Saturday.

Witnesses said the woman hit her head when she fell and was submerged for about two minutes before they could pull her out of the water.

A group of people, including Mr Hatton, raced to help her.

“We all dived into the water,” he said.

“Blokes started CPR ... she started breathing then started throwing up water,” Mr Hatton said.

“There were four or five of us on a rock all working on her ... her limbs were blue and her face was pale.”

The woman and her rescuers then waited on the rock surrounded by fastflowing water for emergency services to arrive.

As the rain got heavier the men decided it was safer to take the woman off the rock.

“To get her out of there we formed a chain across the water, passed her along the water to the edge of the creek and carried her up to stairs, swapping out once we each got exhausted,” Mr Hatton said.

Paramedics met the rescuers in the carpark and were amazed the woman was alive.

“The police, firies and ambos all said from the call they received they thought she was dead,” Mr Hatton said.

A rescue helicopter was prevented from reaching the location because of bad weather.

The woman was taken by road to the Townsville Hospital in a serious condition.

She was in a stable condition in Townsville Hospital yesterday.