IT WAS a moment both women had trained for but neither hoped to ever encounter.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
While holidaying in the Whitsundays earlier this month, former Cootamundra residents Tracey Lord and CathleenCampbell stopped by what they thought was an empty pool to take some photos.
Unbeknown to them, a young Chinese tourist was lying motionless at the bottom.
They spent five minutes taking photos and looking through them before Ms Campbell remarked to her 12-year-old grandson Eden, “some random dude just turned up in my photo.”
Looking through her own photos, Ms Lord noticed an eerie dark shadow under the water and walked over to the poolside to investigate.
It was at that moment Paul, a fellow Australian tourist, dove deep underwater and emerged with a lady’s body in his arms.
Still needing to swim to the edge and lift her up the half-metre high pool edge, Ms Campbell jumped in to assist while Ms Lord waited to lift her to safety.
Gasping and in shock from the sheer effort, he thrust the woman toward Ms Campbell and she dragged her back toward the pool step.
“Tracey immediately started yelling at me, ‘Cat get her head out of the water’,” Ms Campbell said.
“I turned her over to see her face and it was black and purple.”
The women lifted her from the water and, with no breathing or pulse, were both certain she was dead as Ms Lord began CPR.
Ms Campbell called for help as Ms Lord continued performing compressions.
As soon as the ambulance crew arrived, further quick thinking from Ms Lord saw her call the lady’s work to find an interpreter so her husband could relay the woman’s medical history to the paramedics.
“This saved more vital minutes and I was so proud of her,” Ms Campbell said.
“I was standing to the side, watching over Tracey and praying the entire time for the woman and Tracey, and making sure Tracey held steadfast.
“We have been best friends since we were 12 and Tracey amazed me that day with her quick thinking.”
Incredibly, the woman made a full recovery and was released from Mackay Hospital last week. That night, Ms Campbell and Ms Lord had the pleasure of meeting her teenage son, who thanked them for saving his mother’s life.
Both women maintain that her survival was a miracle from god, given that she lay at the bottom of the pool for at least five minutes after they arrived and an unknown time before that.
Undoubtedly the bronze medallions they received under Ian Vesperman’s instruction at Cootamundra Town Pool as teenagers, and Ms Lord’s further training with Air-Sea Rescue, played a vital role as well.