A 53-year-old nurse who was seriously injured in a fall on a remote Queensland island swam through shark-infested waters for help.

Remote area nurse Bernadette Marley was scrambling down to a beach on Murray Island in the Torres Strait on Sunday when she lost her footing and fell several metres.

She fractured her pelvis, back and ankle.

Stranded on a tiny beach with no phone signal, in "excruciating" pain, and facing a long wait for help, she decided to swim to the other side of the island for help.

"I suppose in the space of about two minutes I figured out, well I can stay here but I'm going to be here overnight getting wet, getting possibly moved around by the water, so I just figured, oh well, best thing is to just get out and swim for it," she told ABC Far North.

It took several flights to transport Ms Marley to a hospital on the mainland for treatment. ( Supplied: Queensland Ambulance Service )

"I saw it as my only option, I saw it as a sensible option."

She acknowledged waters around the island were notorious for sharks.

"At one stage there I was concerned and I did haul myself up onto a rock just out of the water's edge, but it was just too painful so I thought, oh, I have to keep going.

"There were a couple of periods where I got pretty low, pretty despondent, and thought, oh man, I'm never going to get out of this ... and I thought, nup nup, I've got to keep going."

She swam for two hours, yelling for help, before she finally reached the village.

Flight paramedic David Cameron retrieved Ms Marley and flew her to Thursday Island Hospital.

The woman is recovering at Innisfail hospital after being airlifted off the island. ( Supplied: Queensland Ambulance Service )

"I think she knows how lucky she was," he said.

"There are sharks in the area, you can see them from the sky as you fly in."

Paramedic Dave Cameron was flown to Murray Island to retrieve the injured woman. ( Supplied: Queensland Ambulance Service )

Ms Marley said she had made the right call.

"I'd be on the beach, in the water overnight, so I'd potentially be suffering from dehydration and exposure, plus increased pain," she said.

"And I guess if you factor in the time constraints of everybody getting together and mounting a search, mid to late morning, that sort of fills me with horror.

"Because the pain was absolutely excruciating."

Ms Marley was transferred to Horn Island, then onto mainland Queensland.

She is in a stable condition at Innisfail Hospital.