‘He said sorry for causing a fuss — I said sorry I cut off your leg’: Dr Jo Kippax, the next Australian of the Year?
The Tasmanian emergency doctor is up for Australian of the Year after helping to save the life of a trapped rafter.
Dr Jorian ‘Jo’ Kippax was strapping down kayaks on his car, preparing for a day’s paddling with the family, when he took a call that would change his Saturday — if not his life.
Ambulance Tasmania was asking him to fly into a rugged region to help rescue a man who had been trapped between rocks for 20 hours in fast-flowing waters.
“I was knee-deep in kids and equipment, about to go kayaking,” the Hobart emergency specialist tells AusDoc.
“Then I found myself heading out to the remote southwest, in a helicopter, in a dry suit, with a wilderness paramedic.
