Patient Story - Meet Ainsley Zieth

Ainsley Zieth can see the LifeFlight helicopter landing and taking off from the hospital helipad as she’s sitting at her bedroom desk studying to become a speech pathologist.

“Sometimes, I see the LifeFlight helicopter a couple of times a day!” Ainsley said. “Those helicopters are very helpful when people need to get to a bigger hospital quickly.”

It’s almost been a year since the 18-year-old fractured her spine after crashing her car driving back from Bundaberg with her 14-year-old sister Dakotah in the passenger seat.

She was due to sit her Year 12 English exam the next day.

“I don’t remember much about the accident,” Ainsley said. “But it still comes across my mind regularly and I drive that road twice every fortnight.”

Ainsley says she was lucky that her sister, and a nurse who stopped at her accident scene, knew how to help her after her crash.

Her car clipped a road sign on Mount Perry Road, Mungy in October 2025, veered off the road and rolled end-to-end down a 20-metre embankment, stopping just before a creek.

While she fractured her spine and badly hurt her hand, her sister Dakotah ended up with only scratches and bruises.

“My sister dragged me out of the window of the vehicle and up the hill, but she was hysterical, so a nurse stopped her car and calmed us both down before the paramedics arrived,” Ainsley said.

“Honestly the nurse really knew how to handle the situation. She had some cold water, and she was brushing that onto my face, and holding my hand and telling me everything was going to be okay.”

Ainsley remembers learning about the LifeFlight helicopter at school in Year 10 and raising money to support the aeromedical service by making cakes for a bake sale, but she never thought she’d end up in one.

“That’s why people should support the LifeFlight helicopters through the Lottery program if they can, because one day someone you love could be in one. You never know what’s going to happen.”

Ainsley needed two LifeFlight helicopters after crashing her car in the North Burnett region.

She was first flown from Monto Hospital to Bundaberg Hospital because of a severe storm, and later onto the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital.

“I’m so grateful to the LifeFlight teams who helped me,” Ainsley said. “They were amazing.”