Grateful mum thanks CareFlight

Kirsty with her son Darcy at the fundraising scrap booking event in Gatton for CareFlight.

Claudia Baxter

“I SAW him face down on the bottom of the tank and my first thought was ‘He’s dead, he’s gone’.”

Mother of four Kirsty Brown can vividly recall the moment she found her then two-year-old son Darcy in a water tank on friend Tina Wilton’s Woodlands Road property on March 21.

The little boy had been playing hide and seek with friends until the children decided to climb to the top of the tank.

Inside the Woodlands home preparing lunch, Mrs Brown said she started to panic when she couldn’t find her youngest child.

“Once the children knew we were looking for him, they told us they had been on the tank,” she said.

“Tina got up there first and saw him and just started screaming.”

Climbing into the tank, Mrs Brown handed her unconscious son up to her friend, who started CPR.

Once she was out of the tank Mrs Brown took over.

“He started spluttering and then screaming,” she said.

“He was then in and out of consciousness.”

Mrs Brown said her maternal instincts kicked in when she came face to face with every parents’ nightmare.

“When I first saw him I didn’t know what to do,” she said.

“Than it was like my adrenaline kicked in. I just jumped in and did it.”

Mrs Brown said RACQ CareFlight flew Darcy to Brisbane’s Mater Hospital for monitoring before releasing him on March 22.

In an effort to show her gratitude to CareFlight, Mrs Brown held a charity craft day at the Gatton Senior Citizens Centre at the weekend.

“They were there when we needed them the most,” she said.

“They came to use in our time of need and they do such a wonderful job.”

The day helped raise almost $2000 for the organisation, with Mrs Brown hoping to make it a bi-annual event. Now an active three-year-old, she said Darcy showed no sign of his ordeal.

“I’m extremely happy it turned out okay,” Mrs Brown said.

“He shows no after effects from the ordeal. It is pretty amazing that the human body can go through that and be ok.”