An eight-year-old boy critically injured in a quad bike crash in Bali has landed in Perth on a mercy dash flight from Indonesia.
Joshua Schuetz touched down on Friday afternoon and is now on his way to Perth Children’s Hospital where medical staff will take over the fight to save his life.
“Joshy”, as he is known to friends and family, was crushed during a tour in Ubud on Wednesday when an all-terrain vehicle he was a passenger on flipped and landed on him.
It is understood the off-road bike was being driven by his teenage brother, who used “superhuman strength” to lift it off the schoolboy.
Joshua was rushed to hospital with a fractured skull and bleeding on the brain.
He had a four-hour brain surgery on Wednesday and was placed in an induced coma before being flown 2600km home on Friday.
Joshua had been on the island for a futsal tournament, where he was going to line up with teammate from the Cockburn Wolves at the weekend.
Family friend BJ Ariasa said the quad bike “slipped” off a path and into a rice field filled with water.
She said Joshua was pinned underneath the bike with a harness keeping him attached.
“(His older brother) pulled him out of the water with some kind of superhuman strength,” Ariasa said.
The family’s insurance covered the mercy flight but not hospital bills, which are mounting.
A GoFundMe has raised $90,000 since being set up to assist them with costs.
“Hundreds of prayers are over our sweet, funny, full of life Joshy. We just want him safe and healed,” Ariasa said.