Emergency responder shares his eyewitness account
Darren Chait: “The level of intervention and care was incredible”
There were many heroes who helped save lives during the Bondi Beach massacre, and Community Health Support (CHS) first responder and board member Darren Chait was one of them, and he shared his eyewitness account with the AJN.
Chait was at home with his family when he received a message about a shooting at Bondi Beach and drove to the scene minutes later. When he arrived, he heard the shooting – and then silence.
“I ran in and I remember two things – firstly, I saw a police officer on his back on the grass and he was bleeding from the head, and he had members of the public all around him… I went over to him and I started helping him. I worked with a lifeguard to stop the bleeding and then put drips in his arms, put monitoring on him and then I turn around and see a Rabbi I recognise running towards me screaming. Then I see someone doing CPR… I understood at that point that multiple people had been shot and our priority was now to try to do the most good for the most people.”
Chait then ran towards the Chanukah event and saw the carnage from the terror attack caused by two gunmen.
“There were bodies everywhere. There were people running in circles, screaming, lots of people from the public doing their best to help everyone… All these people helping, like they’ve been on the beach, but now they’re trying to resuscitate people… and everyone pulling me in different directions. That’s probably one of the most emotionally difficult things, because with triage, you want to do the most good for the most people. I was on my own. I hadn’t seen any other medical responders at that point, there’s people strewn everywhere. I want to help whoever I can help.”
Chait tried to help those he could help save by trying to stop the bleeding. He put tourniquets on, packed wounds, and asked the lifeguards to carry the injured patients to another spot for more advanced treatment.
“I did that for a while, it was probably only a few minutes, and then I saw all the other 19 CHS responders arrive… that was a great relief. I then stepped back to try and manage the scene and started allocating people to the sickest patients. And then the first ambulances started coming, and at that point, it was just trying to prioritise… just trying to make sure we’re not missing anyone… We were there for about three hours… Everything possible was done. There were people giving blood products to the people who had lost blood. There were surgeries being done in the field… The level of intervention and care was incredible,” he said.
Chait reflected that what impacted him the most was seeing the trauma of the children, “Kids looking for parents and parents looking for kids.” Chait and a CHS doctor and nurse tried to help ten-year-old Matilda who later died from the bullet wounds.
Asked what went through his mind as he tried to help people amid such chaos and devastation, Chait shared, “You don’t think, you rely on your training. I was a volunteer at CSG for 12 years. I’ve been with CHS since it started four years ago. I have a degree in paramedicine. All of those things really do matter, because what it does is you just become mechanical. You see someone in a situation, I know what equipment, what skill, and you do it. And thank God, because I think if any one of us, had to process actually, what was happening, we wouldn’t be effective. So, I just felt robotic until it sort of ends and calms down.”
CHS is a 24/7 community emergency medical service in NSW with around 120 volunteers first responders – many of whom are doctors, nurses and paramedics. They typically respond to hundreds of calls a month from the community.
Chait also expressed gratitude to the Community Security Group (CSG) and law enforcement first responders who were on the scene when the Bondi massacre began.
“They were there first. They didn’t have a choice to enter the scene like we all did, and they risked their lives. And you know, multiple CSG volunteers were hit. Two police officers were very seriously injured… We are indebted to them for life, each and every one of them for continuing to be there for our community,” he said.
As to how he is coping after witnessing such trauma, Chait remarked, “I think much the same as most people in the community, we’re sort of switching between anger, frustration, grief and upset, pride, which is a strange word to use in this situation. I mean seeing thousands of people last night [at the Bondi vigil]. I’ve never been more proud to be Jewish. I have young kids. I feel like I have an even greater motivation for my kids to be proud members of our community. That’s the irony of terror attacks against the Jewish community, it does the opposite, which makes me proud.”
To support CHS visit chsnsw.org.au/bondi
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