Team Profile: Laurel Reyneke

Hotline profile

Laurel Reyneke

Laurel Reyneke has always been involved in emergency medical services (EMS) in one form or another during her working career, and for the past three years, she has been working as DAN-SA’s hotline manager. She is also registered with the Health Professions Council of South Africa as an ambulance emergency attendant.

Laurel’s career started in 1985 with the Fire and Rescue Services in Boksburg. From there she progressed to working for a private ambulance service and, in 2000, she started working for a private hospital/EMS group. Just before joining DAN-SA, she had advanced to the position of dispatcher for the aeromedical team. Over the years, she has been responsible for coordinating many patient evacuations, both via fixed wing and by helicopter. One of her other responsibilities at the time was managing the external DAN-SA hotline service. So, when DAN-SA decided to bring the hotline service in-house, they invited her to do the same. She has always been fascinated by the way in which diving affects people and the way people affect diving, and as such she looked forward to the challenge.

Together with a great team of doctors and other emergency medical personnel, Laurel enjoyed setting up the semi-independent hotline service for DAN-SA. Managing the hotline has taught her a great deal and each day still brings along new challenges. She thrives on the interaction with divers, asserting that one of the DAN-SA hotline’s unique features is the personal relationship with the callers, namely the DAN-SA members. In contrast to larger call centres where callers are essentially like customers, the DANSA hotline callers are like family. For Laurel, this has shifted the emphasis from coordinating to caring, which she finds most satisfying.

What makes her work even more special is being a part of a group of phenomenal people: a team of diving medical doctors and after-hours medics who all strive to deliver 110% service, as well as a great in-house team with Morné Christou, Sel-Marié Pereira and Jens Dehnke who are always ready to jump in to assist when needed. She also finds having Francois Burman at the helm, and Dr Jack Meintjes as medical director, tremendously reassuring, especially when difficult cases require that extra bit of attention.

Recently, she has been privileged enough to travel both locally and abroad to further her knowledge and to see the diving world and its various aspects. Working alongside Francois, Jens, Morné and Dr Blanche Andrews, she is also currently participating in tandem with DAN Europe in the Green Bubbles initiative (visit www.greenbubbles.eu).

She has now been living in Midrand for more than a decade with her life partner Jens and their five “children” – two cocker spaniels and three cats, which keep them well-entertained when the hotline is quiet.