Broken, Bleeding But Alive

Sydney Morning Herald

Thursday April 18, 2002

Peter Munro

The boy should not have been alive. He had fallen 30 storeys down a sheer cliff face and was in the dark, wet night, barefoot and alone for more than four hours before a rescue crew heard him cry.

The high-pitched sound broke the silence of the night near the base of Mount Keira, north of Wollongong.

A rescue team first thought the shrill noise was from a possum, but it led them to five-year-old Tom, sitting in thick scrub in a blue T-shirt and orange shorts.

He was sitting where he had landed on the steep incline at the base of the cliff. His mother lay dead 15 metres higher up the cliff. She had died instantly from the 100-metre fall.

Police are treating it as an attempted murder-suicide. Chief Inspector Michael Robinson, of Wollongong police, said yesterday that the 31-year-old mother, from Unanderra, may have jumped from Robertsons Lookout on Mount Keira with her child in her arms. Her body took the brunt of the impact, saving Tom's life.

Her body was recovered from the base of the cliff at lunchtime yesterday and will be subject to a full coronial inquest.

From the top of the cliff you can see all of the Wollongong coastline. It is a 100-metre drop to the foot of the cliff and the start of a 60-degree incline of thick trees and scrub which causes the feet to slip with every step.

The Lifesaver helicopter rescue team was winched down through a two-metre hole in the eucalyptus canopy in rain and it found the boy at 10pm, hours after he had fallen.

Among the first on the scene was Michael Novy, a helicopter rescue specialist with more than three years' experience. He said there should have been no chance of surviving the fall.

``This is the most incredible thing that could possibly happen. The idea that anyone would be able to survive the fall and be conscious is just amazing," he said.

His first words to the boy were: ``Hello matey. We're here to help you. Everything's going to be OK." The boy cried out for his mother and a minute later was asleep in Dr Novy's arms.

For the next four hours, before the boy could be winched out of the scrub by helicopter at 2am, Dr Novy cradled Tom in his left arm, checking him for injuries with his free hand.

He sat braced between a rock and a tree to keep from sliding down the mountain.

The boy suffered head injuries, a dislocated hip, a fractured wrist and scratches.

To calm him, Dr Novy told Tom stories about his dog and cat and Star Trek storylines. He told the story of Shrek, the animated-monster, and sang songs from the Sydney Olympics opening ceremony, mimicking the voice of Nikki Webster.

A combined rescue team of police, ambulance and rangers brought a stretcher in on foot.

Among them was paramedic Paul Featherstone, who rescued Stuart Diver in the Thredbo disaster. He brought in medical equipment and chainsaws to cut a larger gap in the forest for the stretcher to be winched up.

The boy was airlifted to the Children's Hospital at Randwick where he was in a stable condition last night.