Brendon Doherty, 55, is missing after jumping off a bridge into croc infested water near Darwin
Brendon Doherty, 55, jumped off the Channel Island Bridge into Darwin Harbour on Friday night but got caught in strong tidal currents and was unable to make it back to shore.
His friends last saw him laughing in the water before he was swept away about 9.42pm.
The Joint Emergency Services Communication Centre received reports Mr Doherty was unable to swim back to shore despite encouragement from his friends.
Police said he was last seen in the middle of the channel drifting towards Darwin City in strong currents.
'Witnesses observed him for approximately two minutes before losing sight of him,' a police spokesman said.
The Search and Rescue Section was deployed and searched for Mr Doherty around the Middle Arm peninsula in Darwin Harbour overnight.
Police urge anyone who may have see a man in the area or along the Darwin Harbour shoreline to provide aid and call Triple 0 immediately.
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ABC News
30 minutes ago
- ABC News
Burns victim reunites with rescuers after life-changing attack
Readers are advised this story contains images of a person with severe burns, which some people may find distressing. Paul Taylor had always been curious to learn the fate of the man he found with severe burns on the side of a windy, rural road. It was June 2022 when the motorcyclist, bound for his home at Shoalhaven Heads on the NSW south coast, happened to have made a scenic detour through Saddleback Mountain and made the grim discovery. Unbeknownst to Mr Taylor, the man he was tending to, Central West local Andrew Gibson, had been doused in petrol by a former friend and set alight in an unprovoked attack. Paramedics at first struggled to locate the pair among the difficult terrain but upon arrival, assessed Mr Gibson for third-degree burns to his face, chest and hands, and placed him into an induced coma before he was flown to a Sydney hospital. "I was actually waiting for somebody to call and say he didn't make it because he was in such a bad way," Mr Taylor said. It would be three years before Mr Taylor would know what became of that fateful day. Mr Gibson spent five days in intensive care, underwent multiple surgeries and had months of hospital rehabilitation. "They say you should drop and roll [when on fire] but I did a pretty fast Peter Garrett impersonation of getting all my clothes off as quick as I could." The now 54-year-old said as the incident took place in a secluded area with little traffic, it was some time before he was found by Mr Taylor. "That was a moment of relief. I thought my pain and suffering was finally about to end," Mr Gibson said. The man responsible for the attack on Mr Gibson, Quinton Nydegger, who lives with diagnosed schizophrenia, was sentenced to almost seven years' jail in September 2023 and will be eligible for parole next year. Mr Gibson said he had been unable to work since, now suffered from PTSD and had lost some sensation in his scarred hands. But he said he was ready to take back his life by travelling Australia and first wanted to thank the passer-by and paramedic who saved his life. On a warm July morning, outside Kiama Ambulance Station, Mr Gibson shared a welcome embrace from his rescuer Mr Taylor and first-on-scene paramedic Matt Edwards. The meet-up was organised by NSW Ambulance after Mr Gibson reached out ahead of his planned travels. He said it was a form of closure and "way to say thank you". Mr Taylor described the moment as "special" and said he was surprised to see Mr Gibson in good health. "He's looking well … I thought he would have had stumps for fingers they were so bad," he said. Mr Edwards, who has been a paramedic for 20 years, said he still had "vivid memories" of Mr Gibson's case. Marty Nichols, associate director of paramedicine and clinical practice at NSW Ambulance, said reuniting patients with emergency personnel was both "rare and unique". "We are very mindful we get to come into people's homes and see them on their worst days to relieve their pain or provide critical treatment, but the reality is we very rarely find out what happened to them," he said. NSW Ambulance only records patient-specific information, so locating Mr Taylor and organising a suitable time for all three men to meet took months. "It's not always possible or easy," Mr Nichols said. "If meeting up with paramedics can help someone in their recovery journey then we went to be part of that."
ABC News
an hour ago
- ABC News
The unexpected realities of receiving a cancer diagnosis when young
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Determined to finish her degree, Ashlynn was soon juggling the physical demands of intense daily chemotherapy and trying to finish university assignments in hospital. "Just even standing was really hard," she said. "If I sometimes couldn't pack my bag, my mum or my sister had to pack it for me and then I'd get in the car and drive myself to chemo." She's one of an emerging group of young people receiving a cancer diagnosis. For this generation, there are limited supports. Dr Peter Diamond, Chair of Cancer Council's Supportive Care Committee, said younger patients typically accessed information online and the Cancer Council were seeing an increase in the number of clicks on information relating to cancers for younger people. "The big thing that we hear about, if you are diagnosed and have young children, is how do you talk to young children and teenagers about cancer," he said. 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The couple were still paying off their house and as Andrew's treatments ramped up, he had to give up his job as an electrician, placing the family in financial difficulty. He said if it were not for employer-supplied income protection insurance, they would not have stayed afloat. "The biggest thought I had was, 'What's going to happen to my family if I'm not here?', because I was the main income earner." In the darkest days, Andrew wanted to give up treatment many times, but he said it was after he had his stoma removed that the real problems began. A stoma is a surgically created opening in the abdomen with a bag attached to collect stool. As his bowel recovered, Andrew found himself needing to go to the toilet between 20 and 50 times a day and he didn't leave the house for three months. Returning to work seemed impossible, but eventually he got on top of things, with the help of nutritionists from Bowel Cancer Australia. Even barbecues with friends took on a different flavour with Andrew needing to bring his own food and cook it in the oven instead of on charcoal to help keep his bowels in check. "It definitely sucks now I can't really drink much because it makes my stomach play up — I can't have a barbecue cooked on charcoal. "Going to a restaurant is hard because I can't eat garlic. I can't eat onions." These days, Andrew is trying to make the most of life and has scaled back at work to coach his daughters' rugby league teams. "I kind of used to be work first, now I'm a bit more family first." Andrew said a practical support for anyone going through bowel cancer would include a referral to a nutritionist who could offer advice to help manage bowel movements. "The nutritionist helped me probably the most out of anyone. I had to eat smaller meals. I went straight to eating boiled rice and a few veggies and really watching what fibre I ate." His message is to get checked early to avoid the worst side effects of serious treatment. "If you really think something is wrong, go get a second opinion."
News.com.au
2 hours ago
- News.com.au
‘I had treated my body as a rental': Media personality Shelly Horton reveals life-changing health message to Australian women
When Shelly Horton found herself in the ICU after an ablation in 2020 (a simple procedure to stop persistent bleeding), it didn't cross her mind that it might be a symptom of perimenopause. Nor did she join the dots between a raft of sudden physical and mental changes – heart palpitations, increased body temperature, 'brain fog', and debilitating depression – and perimenopause. The now 51-year-old says she'd never heard the word before, and instead was told by doctors that it might be cancer and was sent for an ultrasound. 'They said, 'Great news, you haven't got cancer. You must be stressed and maybe you should take up a hobby',' Horton tells Stellar. 'I drove home in tears, blaming myself, and didn't go and see another doctor for nine months.' It wasn't until the TV presenter consulted with her friend, Dr. Ginny Mansberg, whom she met as a fellow panellist on Seven's Sunrise in 2008, that she was able to make sense of her suffering. Before that defining moment, she hadn't considered herself in the target market. 'I thought menopause was for women in their late 50s, their period stopped and they got hot flushes,' she explains. 'I had that stereotype in my brain of grey-haired old ladies clutching their pearls and fanning themselves. 'I was like, 'I'm a fox. I'm way too young and fabulous.' 'I didn't understand that perimenopause can last 10 years so, in fact, I was right in the average age group.' Once she started to feel better, Horton got mad. Specifically about the menopause cone of silence which perpetuates the dearth of knowledge and poor treatment options for women. 'We've been taught by our mothers and past generations that it's just women's problems so you keep it to yourself,' she says. 'A heads-up would have been nice. I felt like the sisterhood let me down. 'Secret women's business holds women back. This whole 'soldier on' of the boomer generation, I'm like, 'No, I'm Gen X. We're going to get loud about this.'' In 2023, Horton shared her experience at the first parliamentary roundtable on menopause alongside respected experts – the first time 'menopause' had been mentioned in the Australian Parliament. It sparked a Senate inquiry, with Horton inadvertently becoming a spokesperson on perimenopause. It's not the first time Horton has led the charge on de-stigmatising taboo topics for women. When she 'bravely' wrote about her decision to stay 'child free' in 2013, she copped a pile-on from dissenters and was trolled on social media. But she takes heart in knowing it started a national conversation. 'I had comments like, 'A woman who doesn't want kids is not a real woman. She's a waste of a uterus.' It was awful. I didn't understand why anyone cared about my uterus and what I did with it.' As the TV presenter sees it, one of the many upsides of being child-free is having the freedom and funds to travel. She and her husband, Darren Robinson, whom she met 'the old-fashioned way' in a bar in 2013, renew their wedding vows in every country they visit. In 10 years of marriage, that's 25 vow renewals. 'Sometimes it's been incredibly romantic in the Maldives with the sunset. Then we nearly forgot in Iceland and we did it on the plane as we were taking off,' she laughs. They also run their production company together, Robinson behind the camera ('the workhorse') Horton in front ('the show pony'). She says their two rescue dogs were a salve during her three years of depression. 'My wonderful husband would put me to bed and hand me a puppy.' Adhering to her motto of 'adapt or die', Horton's career trajectory has been 'eclectic'. She was a producer for the first American Survivor in Borneo, a crime then health reporter for the ABC, Sydney gossip columnist, panellist on Today Extra, and host of Married at First Sight's spin-off TV show. It's a long way from home for the girl from Kingaroy in regional Queensland. 'From the red soil to the red carpet,' she says. Now she can add author to the list, documenting her harrowing menopause experience – along with evidence-based advice from experts – on paper to support other women going through it. Despite the turmoil of menopause, Horton reveals it has also helped her too. 'I wish I could just say, 'Slap on some HRT [hormone replacement therapy], you'll be fine', but it's not as simple as that,' she tells Stellar. 'I had to do the work. I had treated my body as a rental. 'I had to have the appointments with the psychiatrist. I had to change my lifestyle, improve my sleep, increase my exercise. 'I'm living proof that you can go through dark times and come out. Perimenopause broke me, but then I rebuilt me.'
