An 11-year-old girl was airlifted to hospital after breaking her leg on a 120-metre slip-and-slide at Christmas Creek in the Scenic Rim, south-east Queensland. The incident occurred on Australia Day 2025 when Felicity Kennedy, from Rathdowney, was celebrating with family and friends.
Felicity had been using the slide for hours without issue, but after going down with five others, her leg became trapped at the bottom, snapping her femur in half. “When I was getting out of the water, I tried to walk and I couldn’t,” she said. “A friend carried me out and then we saw my leg. It was bent like a banana.”
Her mother, Katie Kennedy, called triple-0, and an ambulance was dispatched. However, Felicity’s condition worsened, with her mother reporting in a second call that she was losing consciousness and becoming cold. A LifeFlight rescue helicopter was sent to a nearby paddock, where the crew treated Felicity and administered pain relief before airlifting her to Queensland Children’s Hospital in Brisbane.
LifeFlight pilot Tyson Pearce noted that the accident site was easily spotted from the air due to the slide’s size. He said rescues like this highlight how quickly summer fun can change, and that LifeFlight sees a 21% increase in missions during the Christmas break. “Helping our communities during the Christmas holidays is something we all take pride in,” he added.
Felicity is expected to undergo surgery to remove a steel rod from her leg and hopes to return to horse-riding competitions soon. Her mother expressed gratitude for the aeromedical service: “It means everything to have a service like LifeFlight available. It would have been a very uncomfortable, bumpy ride without the trip in the chopper.”
