The day before embers from the Mount Kingiman bush fire were falling into their pool, an Ulladulla family was scattered after their daughter was flown to Sydney Children's Hospital.
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On August 14, 2018, Chloe Joyce began having seizures after she fell off a horse at Milton Showground. The teenager hit her head on the ground so hard it broke her helmet.
Her mother, Michelle, heard a loud crack and thought Chloe had broken her neck or shoulder.
"We didn't know if there was spinal injuries at the time because she'd t-boned the ground," Mrs Joyce said.
Michelle immediately called NSW Ambulance. As she was talking to the emergency responder, she juggled the horse's lead in one hand and tried to unclip Chloe's helmet because she wasn't breathing, despite knowing she could have sustained a neck injury.
Paramedics quickly arrived with their sirens turned off to avoid spooking the horse.
"She was still seizing when they got there, quite unstable, and having some issues with a breathing."
They didn't want to move Chloe and it was too dangerous to take by road for a CT scan, so the Toll Ambulance Helicopter was called in.
Luckily there was a helicopter on a back call from Canberra and Chloe was flown to Randwick Children's Hospital.
Chloe was immediately sent in for a CT scan which revealed she had bruising at the front and back of her brain, a collapsed lung. But she was cleared of any spinal damage and brain bleeds.
"A year on she's back at school full time, but has some issues with her memory and also some little transient seizures where she blinks and then yawns a few times in a row," Mrs Joyce said.
"I think, 'Look, we got out of it OK'.
"I think we were really lucky. We just happened to get that chopper on the way back through."
As the bush fire threatened homes west of the district, Mrs Joyce was stuck at home with their children. Her husband works for Wildlife Rescue and has a Commissioner's Firearms Permit.
Mrs Joyce had fears ammunition would explode if the house caught alight.
"I don't know where the ammunition is or the key to the safe and in a fire that all needs to be taken out of house."
Mrs Joyce relied on her son, who is licensed, to remove the firearms and collect all the ammunition.
"It was quite stressful," she said.
Mrs Joyce commended Chloe's care, but said the lack of a CT scanner at Milton-Ulladulla Hospital placed enormous strain on the family.
Chloe did not require surgery on her lung, just rest for it to re-inflate.
"Had they had the CT scanner in Milton, they probably would have put her in the ambulance, taken her up and done a spine or head CT and ruled out that there was nothing major there," she said.
"Just if we have had the scanner, I guess it would have meant a lot less stress for the family. We're actually foster carers and we foster children with profound disabilities. So there always needs to be somebody on deck."
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