It wasn’t until after safely completing a popular Northern Territory hiking trail that a Melbourne tourist found herself walking on the edge.
For Lyn Bellinger, being emergency airlifted from an outback cattle station in the middle of the night seemed a fever dream.
Earlier that afternoon, she had completed the Kings Canyon Rim Walk, 330 kilometres west of Alice Springs, as part of a ‘girls’ getaway’ to the Territory.
“I’d always wanted to do Central Australia – it’s been a bucket list item for me, so I asked my longtime friend Deborah to come with me,” Lyn said.
“We flew directly into Uluru and had been there for three days. Kings Canyon was our last stop before we planned to head to Darwin.”
Following the hike, Lyn and Deborah had lunch at Kings Canyon Resort before checking in for the evening.
“We’d finished the hike completely, which was amazing,” Lyn said.
“I was feeling okay and thought I was just tired and hot, but I was really struggling to breathe while I was walking to our room.
“I thought, ‘Something’s not quite right here’. I’d never experienced breathlessness before.”
An accidental room mix-up meant Deborah returned to reception for a new key, while Lyn waited near the rooms, which were some distance from the resort entrance.
During this time, Lyn’s condition deteriorated. As she tried to return to reception, she collapsed under the shade of a tree.
“It was very isolated – there was nobody around,” Lyn said.
“I really thought I was going to die. I just felt terribly unwell. Not being able to get any oxygen into my lungs was terrifying.
“I was panicking constantly about my remoteness. I remember thinking, ‘I don’t know how I’m going to get out of this situation’.”
Meanwhile at reception, Deborah organised the new room and flagged with staff that her friend felt under the weather.
“We just thought it was the Kings Canyon walk – after all, it was a big walk,” Deborah said.
“I told a staff member at the resort, ‘Lyn’s not feeling great’ and she said, ‘No worries - we can go pick her up.’
“We were driving back to the rooms when we saw Lyn and she really didn’t look well.
“Lyn said to me, ‘I think I’m having a heart attack’.”
Lyn was bundled into the car and taken to Kings Canyon Medical Clinic, where initial tests confirmed a suspected heart issue. The nurses told Lyn she had to get to Alice Springs Hospital as soon as possible.
“I can remember thinking, ‘And how’s that going to happen?’
“The nurse just said, ‘Well, the Royal Flying Doctor Service is coming to get you’. I was just blown away. It had not even entered my head that would happen.”
Lyn Bellinger
An RFDS team with specialists from the Medical Retrieval Consultation Centre (MRaCC) was dispatched from the RFDS Alice Springs Base.
Lyn was driven 40 minutes to Kings Canyon Station airstrip. Given it was evening, flares were lit to guide the RFDS aircraft to a safe landing.
“I just remember the driver saying to us that we all had to be quiet so he could listen for the propeller,” Lyn said.
“It was so dark you couldn’t see your hand in front of your face. It was pretty hairy.
“The RFDS were just amazing – they loaded me up quickly. I felt if anything did go wrong, I was in safe hands and they had all the equipment on board that could help me.
“It is 300-odd kilometres from Kings Canyon to Alice, but flying there doesn’t seem that long at all.”
While Lyn was stable, her condition was complicated – so much so, she required a second RFDS flight from Alice Springs to Adelaide for an angiogram and MRI scan.
Lyn was diagnosed with broken-heart syndrome (Takotsubo Cardiomyopathy) – a condition that can cause sudden, intense chest pain, shortness of breath and other symptoms similar to a heart attack.
While often reversible, Takotsubo Cardiomyopathy can be life-threatening.
“With Takotsubo Cardiomyopathy, the heart changes shape – it’s not a permanent change, but while it’s not in its correct form, it doesn’t function properly,” Lyn said.
After spending a week receiving treatment between the hospitals, Lyn was discharged and flew back home to family in Melbourne.
As a self-confessed city girl, she never imagined having to rely on the Flying Doctor.
“You don’t stop and think about what happens in an emergency if you’re going to somewhere like Uluru.
“It just highlights that you don’t have to live in the country to need the Royal Flying Doctor Service.
“Of course, I saw The Flying Doctors on TV back in the day, but never in my wildest dreams did I think I’d need them.”
Learn more about the Flying Doctor.
