The Darcy Effect lends a helping hand

That was the reality for mum of three, Kate Mitchell who had to perform CPR on her then 16-month-old son Darcy.

"I didn't know what had happened when I found him," Ms Mitchell said.

"To be honest, I thought I was too late."

Living on a farm at Narrikup, about 50 kilometres from their closest hospital, Ms Mitchell had been drenching ewes earlier in the morning with her father-in-law Ross, before they came back up to the house and Darcy began playing with his three-year-old brother Harry in another room.

"Harry called out to me and said 'mum come have a look at Darcy'," Ms Mitchell said.

With Harry too young to tell his mum what had happened, Ms Mitchell's initial reaction was that Darcy must have choked on something and so she administered two rescue breaths before giving him multiple back blows and commencing CPR.

While doing CPR Ms Mitchell asked Ross to call the ambulance.

After what felt like an eternity for the worried mum, Darcy began breathing again before they put him in the ute to travel to their nearest hospital at Mt Barker.

Enroute, the family remained on the phone to 000, but lost reception for a time due to the many black spots in the area.

"We were driving to meet the ambulance, but got stuck behind a caravan and were worried the ambulance might not see us," Ms Mitchell said.

"Fortunately there was a patrol car on the highway, so we pulled over and the lady from 000 told the ambulance we were with the police.

"That made me feel better because if something else happened I knew that a) the police could drive fast and b) they probably had more medical items than I did, so it took the pressure off a little bit."

When Ms Mitchell first sighted the ambulance volunteer who had come to their aid, she quickly realised the woman walking towards them was her husband's old next-door neighbour growing up.

"It sounds weird, but it felt like she was a bit of a guardian angel and I was OK to hand Darcy over to her because of that familiarity," Ms Mitchell said.

After a police escort to Albany Health Campus, the doctors ran several tests on Darcy and the family was informed it was not uncommon for a child to have a seizure at some point.

"They booked us in for an EEG (a brainwave scan) because they knew we were quite nervous about not being close to town to get help for Darcy," Ms Mitchell said.

"We didn't really know what had happened until the next day when Harry told us that Darcy did a 'flippy floppy fish dance'... after that we realised it must have been a seizure."

Two weeks later, Darcy had another tonic-clonic seizure, which involves a loss of consciousness and violent muscle contractions.

The family beat the ambulance to Plantagenet District Hospital, at Mt Barker, that time, where, after being observed by the medical staff for about four hours, Ms Mitchell was told it was safe for Darcy to return home.

However, as a mum, Ms Mitchell wanted to know why her otherwise healthy son was having seizures and was fearful of returning home before she had some answers.

"It didn't sit well with me to go home at that point, so instead we drove to Albany and sat outside my in-laws place and deliberated about what to do," she said.

Like many other health care providers in rural settings, Plantagenet District Hospital was limited in its capacity to deal with medical emergencies compared to Albany Health Campus, so Ms Mitchell decided to go to the emergency ward in Albany where Darcy was admitted straight away.

It wasn't long after that he had another seizure.

"I was about to give him a shower when it happened, so I picked him up and ran into the corridor and called for one of the nurses," Ms Mitchell said.

"I know they were quite concerned about which way it was going to go at that point - they pressed the emergency hospital button and everyone came running."

Fortunately at the time of their visit, the hospital had a visiting pediatrician who had worked on the neurology ward at Perth Children's Hospital (PCH).

The medical staff were able to get Darcy breathing again, however despite their best efforts, he remained in a 'seizure state' with his eyes deviated to one side.

After being administered three lots of emergency drugs, Ms Mitchell was informed that the regional hospital was not equipped to deal with the emergency unfolding and that Darcy needed to receive treatment in Perth.

About midday the family took a Royal Flying Doctor Service (RFDS) flight to Perth and upon their arrival at Jandakot Airport were met by an ambulance which transported Darcy to PCH.

He was admitted to the hospital's neurology and cardiology ward and the family stayed there for about a week, with Darcy medicated to stop the seizures from occurring.

During their stay, the Mitchells were taught how to administer emergency drugs to their son if he were to have a seizure that lasted more than five minutes, due to them living remotely.

Now Darcy receives anti-seizure medication twice a day.

Following a week at PCH, the family stayed at Ronald McDonald House for a few days to help adjust to their "new normal" before beginning their journey home.

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Ms Mitchell said she could not express the gratitude she had for the RFDS in saving her son's life.

"It's a natural thing for people to not truly realise how significant the service is until you actually need it," Ms Mitchell said.

"As a parent you just want answers and for your child to be treated as soon as possible."

As a result of these traumatic experiences, Ms Mitchell wanted to create more awareness about the importance of learning first aid, as well as easing the burden on families who live regionally or remotely when they experienced their own medical emergencies.

"Every time I went to hospital it was quite lonely and the first time I was in hospital with Darcy we were there for three to four days and I had been in the sheep yards," Ms Mitchell said.

"When we hopped on the RFDS plane we didn't really know how the story was going to end for Darcy, so we didn't pack a bag or anything.

"I remember going down to the gift shop at the hospital and buying all of these things, because I don't think I even had any shoes."

To help families who experience similar situations, Ms Mitchell began The Darcy Effect, where she would send out empty bags to people who wished to fill them with useful items for those staying at hospitals for various lengths of time.

"I post the bags out empty with The Darcy Effect sticker on them and provide some guidelines around what to do," Ms Mitchell said.

"People fill the bags with things such as toothbrushes, toothpaste, shampoo, conditioner, deodorant, a hairbrush and a kid's toy etc, and then donate the bags to their closest rural or regional hospital.

"Part of the guidelines is that they include what age the toy or book is appropriate for."

After posting the idea on social media, by the end of the first week, Ms Mitchell had sent out more than 150 bags, including about 40 to New South Wales.

"I've sent them to places such as Hyden, Margaret River, Badgingarra, Albany, Cranbrook, Busselton and the list goes on," she said.

Ms Mitchell said the community support for The Darcy Effect had been "mind blowing" and that she had also started her own clothing range to help raise funds for the cause.

"All of the money I get from the clothing range will go back into raising awareness in rural and regional communities about epilepsy and first aid training and keeping the bags going," she said.

"I feel like now I have this social responsibility for it not to die."

Having grown up on a property in the Wheatbelt town of Hyden, 372 kilometres from Perth, and also worked as a health and physical education teacher for 13 years, Ms Mitchell said she was acutely aware of the gap in medical care, as well as medical learning opportunities for rural and remote students in relation to their metropolitan counterparts.

With her own family now based at Narrikup, it is about a 100 kilometre round trip to their closest hospital - a quick trip in comparison to many others who live rurally.

"Most of the time if you are administering first aid on a farm, it's going to be a family member or a workman or someone relatively close who is going to have to do that before you get any kind of professional help," Ms Mitchell said.

"Because of that, I think it's vital we help those living in our regional and rural communities to learn things such as CPR, because chances are they will be the ones who will be saving a life when a medical emergency happens."

As well as there being a need for rural and regional students to be provided with more opportunities to learn lifesaving skills, Ms Mitchell said solving the health worker shortages in the regions was another significant piece of the puzzle.

"Eighteen months ago Albany didn't have any full time pediatricians and now I think there are four there," she said.

"So growth is happening, it's just at a really slow rate.

"Obviously we would love for there to be a whole lot of neurologists and cardiologists walking around our rural and regional towns, but that just isn't possible, so we are so fortunate to have these emergency doctors and specialists who are a jack of all trades.

"A lot of our emergency doctors will stay past their shift because there is no-one else more qualified to come and take over from them, so they'll wait until the RFDS plane comes.

"The hospital systems we have regionally and rurally can certainly be improved, but I think the people who are working in those systems are just under the pump."