Off-duty nurse saves life amidst suburban brawl

In July last year, Parmelia resident Richelle Dunn found herself providing emergency care to a man who had been badly injured in a brawl next door.

Upon arriving home after collecting her two-year-old daughter from daycare, Richelle saw a commotion outside her neighbours’ house with 30-40 people involved in an out-of-control brawl.

“There were bricks getting thrown, there were bats, people with machetes in their hands, and someone else with a tyre iron,” said Richelle.

Other neighbours were looking on, but no one was intervening. When Richelle saw a severely injured man lying on the ground she called her sister, who was inside, to bring out the first aid kit and take her daughter inside.

The man was bleeding uncontrollably from several stab wounds and was going into hemorrhagic shock. Richelle’s instincts as a recently graduated nurse kicked in immediately.

“They were still brawling when I had run up this guy,” said Richelle. “I said to everyone, ‘Leave now, you need to go’, and it surprisingly worked. My nurse voice came into play there. Every nurse has one and you learn to use it when you need people to listen.”

The man’s injuries were substantial, and Richelle worked quickly to stem the bleeding with bandages before emergency services arrived. The man lost consciousness in the ambulance but made a full recovery after spending a few days in hospital.

“I’ve never been faced with anything like that before,” says Richelle. “I’d just graduated as a registered nurse in January. If I didn’t have that, I wouldn’t have been capable of anything like that.

“It was sort of just so automatic; I knew what to do. I’m very glad I was there because it was bad; I’ve never seen anyone bleed that much. I still can’t believe how lucky it was that I was there, and I just knew what to do.”

Richelle displayed extreme bravery, placing herself in a dangerous situation to assist the injured man. She didn’t hesitate to act and showed great composure in a confronting situation. For her actions, Richelle was awarded a Royal Life Saving Gold Medallion Bravery Award.