By Jessica Johnston
A LITTLE girl will be forever grateful to a Townsville Digger, who saved her life during a routine military exercise in Papua New Guinea.
A distraught villager ran to the Goldie River Army Barracks for help after the 3-year-old girl fell unconscious last month.
Modest hero 3rd Combat Engineer Regiment medic Corporal Warwick Young said the incident had occurred on his birthday, which would be unlikely to be a day he would ever forget.
''One of the local people here grabbed hold of us and wanted us to see a little girl, who was having difficulty breathing,'' Cpl Young said.
''The other medic went and saw it was pretty serious and called me up.
''When I got there I found she had severe respiratory difficulty and was not getting oxygen into her blood.
''She was unconscious, unresponsive and her heart-rate was going up.
''From what I could see, she was about to die.
''If we had have left it even a couple more minutes, she wouldn't be here today.''
Cpl Young said he and fellow medic Private John Hickey had stabilised the child before taking her to hospital.
''We went down and saw the family a few days later, they were very happy,'' he said.
''She was still not 100 per cent, but obviously a lot better than she was when we first saw her.
''They are saying it was cerebral malaria, which is a form of malaria that basically attacks the brain.
''It can't be cured but you can treat the symptoms.
''Generally most people here suffer from malaria of some form.''
Cpl Young said he had thoroughly enjoyed treating the PNG population during his deployment.
''It's been nice to be able to help out everybody that we've seen here, not just that one case, it's been a good experience for me and the other medic.
''We've seen everything from severe cuts, abrasions, malaria, dengue fever.''
A distraught villager ran to the Goldie River Army Barracks for help after the 3-year-old girl fell unconscious last month.
Modest hero 3rd Combat Engineer Regiment medic Corporal Warwick Young said the incident had occurred on his birthday, which would be unlikely to be a day he would ever forget.
''One of the local people here grabbed hold of us and wanted us to see a little girl, who was having difficulty breathing,'' Cpl Young said.
''The other medic went and saw it was pretty serious and called me up.
''When I got there I found she had severe respiratory difficulty and was not getting oxygen into her blood.
''She was unconscious, unresponsive and her heart-rate was going up.
''From what I could see, she was about to die.
''If we had have left it even a couple more minutes, she wouldn't be here today.''
Cpl Young said he and fellow medic Private John Hickey had stabilised the child before taking her to hospital.
''We went down and saw the family a few days later, they were very happy,'' he said.
''She was still not 100 per cent, but obviously a lot better than she was when we first saw her.
''They are saying it was cerebral malaria, which is a form of malaria that basically attacks the brain.
''It can't be cured but you can treat the symptoms.
''Generally most people here suffer from malaria of some form.''
Cpl Young said he had thoroughly enjoyed treating the PNG population during his deployment.
''It's been nice to be able to help out everybody that we've seen here, not just that one case, it's been a good experience for me and the other medic.
''We've seen everything from severe cuts, abrasions, malaria, dengue fever.''
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