Desperate father's dinghy bid to save daughter's life

CAIRNS - With his daughter close to death after months of failed treatment in Papua New Guinea hospitals, John Ausi made the desperate decision to hire a dinghy and head for Australia.

Violet, 10, had been shuffled from hospital to hospital but PNG doctors did not have the right medication to treat the drug-resistant strain of tuberculosis she had.

After she fell into a coma on a flight home to Daru from Port Moresby, Ausi decided to take her to Saibai Island, in the northern Torres Strait, where he knew better health care awaited.

After successfully making the four-hour journey in a dinghy he rushed Violet to the local hospital, where she began receiving life-saving treatment.

The pair was taken by helicopter to Thursday Island before being flown to Cairns Base Hospital, where they are under quarantine as Violet undergoes months of treatment.

Ausi has been thrilled with his daughter's recovery since her arrival in Australia.

"I have moved around so many times but they couldn't help her, but when I brought her here she started eating and took her medicine" he said.

- AAP