EMTs with the Queensland Ambulance Service in Australia were recently rushing an elderly woman to a palliative care facility when she asked them to grant one final wish for her. The woman knew that she was dying and did not have much time left, so she asked the EMTs if they could help her just see the ocean one last time.

EMTs from all over the globe often get requests like this one, so the ambulance crew called their supervisor to ask for permission to grant this request. Once they were given the go-ahead, they rushed the woman to Hervey Beach, where they brought her stretcher as close to the water as they could.

Graeme Cooper, one of the paramedics who made this wish happen, said that they often get requests like this one and that they do whatever they can to grant them.

“In special cases where end of life stuff is going on … the contact we have is our last contact … (we want to) feel good about humans and people and the way they’re treated and managed so they get a good feeling,” he explained. “It’s always someone else’s father, mother, brother. If I lose my compassion I just won’t be in the job.”

Graeme went on to say that the woman was “ecstatic” when his team brought her as close to the water as they could. Had the bluff not been so rocky, Graeme said that he would have literally brought the patient right up to the water.

“I thought, ‘If all these rocks weren’t here I’d get down into my jocks and take you into the ocean, and I would have, however I thought the next best thing was I can get some ocean and bring it to her. … She actually tasted the salt water,” he said.

“We’re very fortunate we’re in the role we do,” Graeme added. “If you’re sensitive to your surroundings … when a window of opportunity opens up, take it.”

Helen Donaldson, the officer-in-charge for the ambulance service, later took to social media to share the photo of Graeme and the patient standing by the water. The image quickly went viral, touching the hearts of people all over the world.

Paramedic Danielle Kellan was another EMT who was there that day, and she asked the patient what was going through her head as she looked out on the ocean.

“She said, ‘I’m at peace, everything is right,’” Danielle recalled.

God bless the EMTs around the world who go above and beyond every day to help people in need.