HOSPITAL ward chief and The Daily Telegraph columnist Dr Gordian Fulde was in the house when singer Buffett fell off a Sydney stage. This is his story: “How I helped save folk rock legend Jimmy Buffett”
Jimmy was really happy and communicating with the audience. He had done several encores and was the only one on stage and all the lights were on him.
The audience was standing up and Jimmy walked over to shake one of the audience member’s hands.
Because Jimmy couldn’t see the end of the stage he went straight over. It was a terrible noise. A dull thud.
You just knew it was bad. Watching it, it was like in slow motion because the show was all over, everybody was signing out mentally and physically.
Jimmy fell so horribly and I saw the angle and what he hit. I thought he might have had spinal injuries.
The reflexes kicked in and I went over to the fence and told security who I was, even though I didn’t look like a doctor dressed in shorts, a tank top and sandals.
This all happened in seconds. I jumped the fence and got to him the moment after he landed.
No matter how many patients you have seen it is still a shock when you have this crumpled human being, blood pouring out, they are white as a sheet, they are totally limp and you just don’t know what is wrong with them, what injuries they have.
The difficulty I had was it was a very small space and I didn’t want to straighten him out in case he had neck or spinal injuries.
Jimmy was crumpled up so he couldn’t breath properly, but he had a strong heart beat.
Behind me, I couldn’t really hear the crowd.
I heard a gasp of despair because anyone who saw it knew it had to be bad.
He was bleeding profusely from a very bad cut to his scalp. After a while, he started to wake up but was dazed.