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Ambulance crew gives terminally ill patient a side trip to the beach

An ambulance crew transporting a terminally ill woman to a local hospital on Australia's east coast week took a small diversion to a nearby beach after the woman said she wanted to see the ocean, perhaps for the last time.
Queensland Ambulance Service paramedic Graeme Cooper stands at a patient's side, overlooking Hervey Bay from a small Australian beachside bluff. (Photo: Danielle Kellam, Queensland Ambulance Service)

An ambulance crew transporting a terminally ill woman to a local hospital on Australia's east coast week took a small diversion to a nearby beach after the woman said she wanted to see the ocean, perhaps for the last time.

"Tears were shed and the patient felt very happy," the Queensland Ambulance Service said.

The caption appeared beneath a photo on Facebook showing the woman on a gurney, with paramedic Graeme Cooper at her side, overlooking Hervey Bay from a small beachside bluff on Wednesday.

Cooper told reporters the patient was on “her last journey back to (palliative care) where she was going basically to pass away," news.com.au reported Thursday. “We popped her up on the hill where she could see the pier and Fraser Island and right through to Point Burrum and she was ecstatic with it all."

Cooper, who got permission for the side trip from his superiors, said if it hadn't been such a rocky coastline he would have taken the patient right down to the water.

"I thought the next best thing was I can get some ocean and bring it to her," Cooper said. “She actually tasted the salt water.”

Danielle Kellan, who took the photo of the poignant scene, said she asked the elderly woman what she was thinking as she looked over the incoming waves at Hervey Bay.

"She said, 'I’m at peace, everything is right.'" Kellan said, according to news.com.au.

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