Community & Business
31 January, 2025
Jondaryan girl enjoys holidays after helping save grandfather’s life
Nine-years-old Aubree Tidyman from Jondaryan was recently awarded a certificate of bravery by the Queensland Ambulance Service (QAS) for helping to save her grandfather’s life after he suffered a heart attack on the road.
It started on the way home from a trip by farmer Roland Teakle to SupaIGA in Oakey on December 1st.
His granddaughter Aubree came along to help her grandfather and look at a pair of red shorts as a Christmas present.
Roland began feeling a growing pain in his chest and pulled over to the side of the Warrego Highway near Cockburn Road.
Aubree called her grandmother for help, and remained by her grandfather’s side during the incident, flagging down the ambulance when they arrived.
Her actions and coolness under pressure would save Roland’s life as he went into full cardiac arrest upon arrival at St. Andrew’s Hospital in Toowoomba.
Mr Teakle doesn’t remember too much of the trip to the Hospital, but the signs were not encouraging.
“I didn’t think I was going to make it,” he said.
When he awoke, the nurses removed the congealed blood from his heart and inserted two stints.
Faces he does remember in the ambulance are wife Ann, and paramedic Richard Taylor.
Astonishingly, Roland emerged from his five days in hospital with no long-term health effects.
“I had a mate that lasted 18 months after he had one, but his heart was damaged,” he said.
Aubree says the experience was a frightening one, but that she was continuously reassured by her mother and father on the phone.
“It’s good to see he’s good now, but it was scary when it happened,” she said.
In total, she kept her grandfather company for around 25 minutes on her own.
Although she didn’t get her red shorts on the day, a visit from Santa on Christmas Eve fixed that.
Later that month, Audree got another surprise when her mum brought her into town, allegedly “for her work”.
Instead, at the regional QAS headquarters in Toowoomba, the Jondaryan girl was presented with a certificate of bravery and greeted by a crowd of her family and members of the local media.
When asked why she wasn’t told by mum about the trip, Aubree admitted she might have felt scared if she had known.
“Now the truth comes out,” dad AJ laughed.
Since the incident, Audree has been enjoying the summer holidays with her cousins, and has given her motorbike a fair workout on the tracks around her family’s property.
This week she returns to Jondaryan State School, where she will be starting Grade 5.
Having missed district athletics with a cold last year, Audree is aiming to make it up there this time around and she will also be playing footy with the Junior Bears in Oakey.
