Geraldton mum fundraises for skyscraper abseil after 18-month-old daughter receives third degree burns

Geraldton mother Paige McAuliffe has been amazed by the strength of her young daughter Dusty after a fifth of her tiny body was burnt when she fell into a fire pit at the family home. It seems some of young Dusty’s bravery has rubbed off on her mother, who recently abseiled down Perth’s tallest building to fundraise for the Fiona Wood Foundation. It was a regular Wednesday evening for the family of six, who often used the semi-sunken fire pit in their Moresby backyard to roast marshmallows. They put the fire out, and their four daughters went to bed. The next day, the girls and their mum were playing in the garden when Mrs McAuliffe heard 18-month-old Dusty’s blood-curdling scream. “It’s about 50cm in the ground so when she fell in, I couldn’t see her but I could hear her screaming,” she recalled. Dusty had fallen into the fire pit which had coals still smouldering from the night before. “Before that she had just woken up from a nap, and was just wearing a nappy, but for some reason we had put her in leather shoes, pants, a t-shirt, a tutu and a cardigan.” Mrs McAuliffe, who was 37 weeks pregnant at the time, took her toddler daughter from the fire pit and submerged her in the bath before taking her into the shower. “I had done a first aid course the week before, and learnt you didn’t need to be submerged just along as you have continuous cold water flow, so I was cradling her in the shower and I remember just seeing her skin all over my feet and belly,” she said. It took 23 minutes for the ambulance to arrive at the property, and Dusty was immediately taken by Royal Flying Doctor Service to Perth Children’s Hospital. Dusty went straight into surgery to clean and dress the third degree burns which covered 19 per cent of her body. The McAuliffes spent six months at PCH while Dusty had surgeries, which were initially every two to three days. The skin grafting process began, taking skin from her buttocks and groin area and putting it on to her left and right hands. Grafting surgeries were done every couple of weeks while the parents tag-teamed caring for their daughters in Geraldton and monitoring Dusty’s recovery in Perth. Dusty’s right hand became the focus after receiving the worst of the heat, and scar tissue reduced the elasticity — limiting her ability to outstretch her hand. “We’ve just had 12 weeks off which has been our longest break yet, which is great ... we’re really looking forward to the day that we hear ‘see you in six months’ which isn’t on the cards just yet, but one day it will be,” Mrs McAuliffe said. During the ordeal, the family became acquainted with Fiona Wood, a renowned burns surgeon who invented the spray-on-skin grafting method which was used on Dusty. The foundation facilitates ground-breaking research and translates it into practice to help heal burns and minimise scarring. In July, staff from the foundation told Mrs McAuliffe about an event called the Central Park Plunge, in which people abseil down the Central Park Tower, the tallest building in the Perth CBD, to fundraise for charities of their choice. “I knocked it back at first. I just remember looking at her and thinking ... I’ve been though enough,” Mrs McAuliffe said jokingly. She sat on the decision for a month before deciding to quite literally take the plunge and sign up for the event, which gave her eight weeks to fundraise. “My initial goal was $1100 for the two months, and I reached that in two days so then I said right, I want to get to $10,000,” she said. Countless people in the community offered financial support to the young family when the accident happened, which they felt too guilty to accept. “It made it a lot easier to go back and say to them — ‘hey, I’m fundraising’. I’m just so grateful for that support the whole community offered us”. Mrs McAuliffe raised $10,345 for the not-for-profit foundation. Last Friday, 47 people fundraising for the Fiona Wood Foundation, including Mrs McAuliffe, descended down the 132m building, raising a total of $81,888. “We got up on the edge. And we were harnessed up and I remember feeling really happy and proud of myself,” Mrs McAuliffe said The 33-floor plunge took her 15 minutes, after stopping halfway to flip around and take in the panoramic view. “I might have had fear in there somewhere. But my proudness was probably shining a bit brighter, “ she said. Mrs McAuliffe said one of the main reasons she participated was to be a role model to her kids, showing them you can make your own silver lining. “My girls saw everything, and they went through their own hard things, so I just wanted them to see me turn it around a bit,” she said.