Kathie John was in the middle of Bass Strait on a Tasmania-bound cruise ship to celebrate the new year when she got a Facebook message from her sister that would change her life.
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The message told her that a kidney – an organ Ms John had waited seven years for – had been donated and that she was in line to receive it but she needed to act fast.
About a thousand kilometres from her Sydney home, she recalled feeling "gobsmacked" by the plan that air ambulance and cruise ship staff hatched to get her off the boat and to Westmead Hospital in Sydney where her new kidney was waiting.
Before she knew it, Ms John was in the Emerald Princess' medical centre as the captain and coast guard called Air Ambulance with the plan to winch her off the ship into a hovering helcopter.
"It was essentially getting winched off the ship, flown to land and then flown in a plane to Sydney," Ms John recalled.
"I was pretty excited, it just felt unreal. It didn't feel like it was really happening."
It had been seven years since her name was added to the kidney transplant waiting list, and she's spent the past six years on dialysis.
With only a few hours to have the life-changing surgery, paramedics had to act quickly.
"I got the message in the morning, thank goodness I purchased internet on the ship, and by the time I went in for surgery it was 10pm at night.".
"I was just waiting, you know… I've been waiting for six years. I couldn't believe that the time had actually come.'
Arriving at the ship and hovering over the top deck, the Air Ambulance helicopter dropped MICA flight paramedic Toby St Clair down on to the ship. He met Ms John and prepared her for the winch into the helicopter.
"We hoped that we could reach her in a viable timeframe and we know that the cruise ship even turned around towards us to help us get to Kathie as quickly as possible," Mr St Clair said.
"We didn't have a deadline for her transit but we needed to winch her off the ship, fly her to Bairnsdale where she had another flight leg through to Sydney before making it to hospital by road.
"The crew felt very privileged to be involved."
Ms John arrived at the hospital on time and successfully received a kidney transplant.
"The whole thing was just amazing. Toby was lovely and very calm. I felt like I was on a TV episode of a special operation.
"I don't have to be hooked up to a machine anymore, I have my freedom."
Ms John says being winched was "very exciting".
"I want to go skydiving now."
