17 minute read
Briefs
Multi-agency training exercise
In May, the QAS took part in a multi-agency training exercise at the Brisbane Airport’s new runway which simulated a ‘crash’ scenario to test the emergency services response. Undertaken with our QPS and QFES counterparts and airport stakeholders, this was the first time a training exercise had been held since the COVID-19 restrictions.
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These scenarios provide a valuable learning experience, ensuring a consistent level of knowledge, understanding and collaboration exists between all emergency response agencies and airport stakeholders in the rare event a crisis occurs. Consisting of a paramedic crew, the Emergency Support Unit and a supervisor, the team went through their triage procedures and prepared to receive a large volume of‘casualties’.
QAS farewells trailblazer
One of the leading experts in the field of trauma care, highly-respected Associate Professor Cliff Pollard was presented with a Certificate of Appreciation for his unwavering dedication to the QAS over many years following his resignation from the Medical Advisory Committee in May. Commissioner Russell Bowles said the world class standard of prehospital care provided to trauma patients by the QAS, was largely due to Associate Professor Pollard’s collaborative support, education and mentorship over the last 25 years.
Associate Professor Pollard’s patient supervision, instruction and encouragement made him a vital member of the QAS education teams, particularly in recent years with the High Acuity Response Unit Critical Care Paramedics. Numerous paramedics are indebted to his instruction and wisdom and have benefited from his many decades of surgical experience. Associate Professor Pollard’s overriding advice at surgical sessions, ‘Don’t create a second lethal injury’, will remain engrained within the QAS’s trauma teachings. The QAS will miss Associate Professor Pollard’s willingness to share knowledge and his calm disposition and humble personality, all of which ensured paramedics quickly gained confidence under his instruction.
Associate Professor Pollard received an Order of Australia Medal in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List in 2015 for his significant service to medicine in the field of trauma care and through contributions to health policy and reform in Queensland. He is the former Chair of Queensland’s Statewide Trauma Network. He was also the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital Director of Trauma and the Director of the Queensland Trauma Registry at the Centre of National Research in Disability and Rehabilitation Medicine at the University ofQueensland.
Passing of Danny Murphy
Danny Murphy in the centre (top photo) and second from the right (bottom photo).
There was no wiping the smile from the faces of three of our finest QAS officers when they were presented with Ambulance Service Medals (ASMs) at Government House.
Mackay Executive Manager Operations Tracey Eastwick, Gympie Officer-in-Charge Wayne Sachs and Gold Coast Senior Operations Supervisor Cary Strong, who were announced as ASM recipients in the Australia Day 2020 Honours List, received their ASMs from the Governor of Queensland, His Excellency the Honourable Paul de Jersey, at separate ceremonies in June and July due to COVID-19 restrictions.
The officers were elated to receive the prestigious ASM which recognises distinguished service by the women and men of Australia’s ambulance organisations. It was with great sadness and deep regret that the QAS learned of the passing of Officer Daniel (Danny) Murphy on 24 April 2020 following a short illness. Danny was the Executive Manager Operations, Emergency Management Unit within State Local Ambulance Service Network Headquarters and was well known by many within the QAS and emergency services organisations.
Danny, who was well respected by his peers, commenced as an Ambulance Officer at Mount Gravatt Ambulance Station on 30 April 1990. Danny worked in various roles throughout his long-standing career, including paramedic, Intensive Care Paramedic, Regional Education Officer, Clinical Support Officer, Officer-in-Charge, Regional Operations Supervisor, Area Director and recently as the Acting Director, Emergency Management.
Danny will be sorely missed!
ASM ceremonies
Left to right
Tracey Eastwick,
Wayne Sachs and
Cary Strong.
Photos: Supplied by Government House (forTracey Eastwick and Wayne Sachs)
Selfless couple recognised for unwavering service and commitment
Well-respected Honorary Ambulance Officers Lyn and Ian Richter have been going above and beyond to assist people in their time of need for more than 30 years. Insight editor Jo Hales reports on this selfless Rathdowney couple who were both announced as Ambulance Service Medal (ASM) recipients in The Queen’s Birthday 2020 Honours List on 8 June.
Above
The Peter Chettle Memorial Casualty Centre is where the QAS 4WD is stored and where
Lyn holds CPR awareness sessions and first aid classes.
Background
The Richters enjoy views to the iconic Mount Barney from the back oftheirproperty.
Opposite
Lyn and Ian have been assisting their community and the QAS for more than three decades. Lyn said helping the community ‘is the reason we do what we do’.
Photos: Jo Hales The prestigious ASM recognises distinguished and outstanding service by the men and women of Australia’s ambulance organisations.
It is acknowledgement of their outstanding service to the community and as role models within the QAS. Despite the unwavering volunteer work they have been providing to their community and the QAS over the last three decades, Lyn, 70, and Ian, 71, were humbled and ‘surprised’ to be announced as ASM recipients.
“We were blown away when we found out, we definitely weren’t expecting it,” Lyn said.
“We just love being able to give back to our community and what we get back from our roles is personal satisfaction.”
The couple’s association with the ambulance service stems back to 1988 when they lobbied for bicentennial funding to establish a community centre at Rathdowney to base a doctor and an ambulance.
“A local teacher named Peter Chettle started the fundraiser, but he was sadly killed in a tragic accident, so we wanted to continue in his honour,’’ Lyn said.
“When the community room, now known as the Peter Chettle Memorial Casualty Centre, was established, people needed to be trained as Honorary Ambulance Officers and that’s when Ian and I put up our hands and joined the service.
“We really just fell into it, but we love what we do.” At the time, the busy couple was running their service station mechanical repair business and bringing up two young children.
However, their fundraising efforts were far from over as the ambulance did not fit into the garage at the community centre. They applied for a separate grant to build a shed out the back and the garage was converted into a training room.
A fully equipped QAS 4WD ambulance is now housed in the shed, while the centre has been upgraded recently with QAS assistance and input to comply with new procedures and potential future communityneeds.
Since becoming Honorary Ambulance Officers with the former Queensland Ambulance Transport Brigade in 1988, Lyn and Ian have been volunteer first responders, which has resulted in them providing assistance and care to patients at medical incidents and jobs such as road and farming accidents and mountain falls until paramedics can attend or medical assistance can be provided.
In addition, Ian is a member of the Beaudesert Local Ambulance Committee (LAC), joining the committee on 8 February
1999. Meanwhile, Lyn regularly provides
cardiopulmonary resuscitation awareness (CPRA) sessions and first aid classes to the local community.
Lyn said as they live in a rural area, they can be kept very busy responding to incidents. Just recently she responded to four jobs in one night.
“We are 30 minutes under lights and sirens from the nearest medical assistance. We are also a big rural community with an ageing population, so we do attend many jobs including residents with breathing difficulties and chest pain,’’ Lyn said.
Ian, who has a long history with the Auxiliary fire service, has spent decades undertaking both his QAS and fire roles. He served in the fire service for 37 years. For 32 of those years, he was the captain of the Auxiliary branch. Ian was also a member of the Rural Fire Brigade for six years, four of which he served as firstofficer.
Amazingly, Lyn, who has amassed a wealth of skills and knowledge from assessing and treating patients over the years, said when she was a young mum, she could not stand the sight of blood.
“Our son, Malcolm was really accident prone as a kid. There was one occasion when he had a fall and needed to be stitched up. Well, I was a mess, despite him being fine, but that’s when my mum said, ‘right Lyn you have to learn to deal with this’,” Lyn said.
“I started learning first aid and haven’t looked back.”
Lyn said she has lost count of the number of jobs they have attended over the years, but one thing is for sure, there are many which have left lasting impressions.
“One of the incidents which had an impact on me was a serious crash involving a male motorcyclist in his early 20s,” Lyn said.
“The young man had come off his motorbike and gone under a fence. He needed to be airlifted out.
“He was not in a good way and when the flight doctor examined him, he told the man there was a strong chance he was going to be a paraplegic because of the way he fell off the motorbike.
“All the young man could say to me was ‘how is mum going to take this?’ “I just wanted to cry because despite having life-threatening injuries and the distinct possibility of not being able to walk again, all he was worried about was how his injuries would affect his mother.”
In addition, living in a rural town means when they are attending serious jobs, especially where death is involved, they often know the patient.
Ian said one night there were three jobs they attended involving people who died from natural causes – the couple knew all three patients.
“This is the hard part of community work. We know the people, we live and interact in the community with them,’’ Ian said.
“While we have attended some very confronting jobs over the years, we deal with them through community support and Priority One.”
Thankfully, Lyn said there are plenty of rewarding jobs that make up for the tough ones such as a ‘dear little boy’ who had a compound arm fracture.
“He was so brave, and he just said, ‘can you please give me a Mickey Mouse band aid?’,” she said.
“I was amazed...it was just the mere fact that he trusted me to give him a band aid.”
And while Ian and Lyn have spent most of their lives dedicated to helping people, especially in their darkest hours, the couple has not been immune to their own grief, with daughter Kirstyn sadly losing her brave battle with breast cancer at the end of 2017.
Kirstyn hung in for five years, despite doctors initially giving the then 35-year-old less than 12 months to live when she was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2012.
“Kirstyn’s dream was to see her son Cooper graduate from the Royal Australian Naval College in Jervis Bay. She managed to do that and passed away shortly afterwards. She was only 40 when she died,’’ Lyn said. The couple said Kirstyn’s memory is kept alive by 21-year-old Cooper, who is now a mechanical engineer in the navy.
“Cooper is a great, sensible young man who has many of Kirstyn’s qualities,’’ Lyn said.
“He wanted to give up the navy to care for his mum, but she wouldn’t let him. She would be so proud of his accomplishments.”
Lyn said the outpouring of community support following Kirstyn’s death, helped them when they were experiencing their own devastating loss.
“The community support we received was overwhelming. People could not do enough for us,’’ Lyn said.
“The amount of food, flowers and cards we received was amazing. People just wanted to give us a hug and let us know they were thinking about us. It was very heart‑warming.”
Likewise, the community was also quick to respond when Lyn and Ian were announced as ASM recipients in June, with many congratulating the couple on social media and adding how deserving they were of the honours.
Meanwhile, one Rathdowney local summed up the sentiment of those who have been assisted by the couple over the years posting ‘whether it be for an accident, sickness or dressing a wound, one or both are there. All of Rathdowney hold their breath when Lyn and Ian go tripping’.
With comments such as this, it is easy to see why this remarkable husband and wife, who will celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary in 2021, have been announced as ASM recipients.
Steve’s out of this world mission to Mars
Pause for a brief glance at this page and you might assume you are looking at stills from the set of The Martian. Rather than a desolate Matt Damon planting leftover potato, however, Matthew Stirling turns the telescope on Burleigh Heads paramedic Steve Whitfield during his own mission to Mars late last year.
No stranger to working in extraordinary environments, a chance meeting during an expedition high in the Himalayas with an American physician rocketed Steve to an opportunity out of this world.
The physician was involved in space medicine and this encounter led to Steve being recommended as a medical officer on a simulated Mars exploration, funded by the Mars Society and the Musk Foundation.
A lengthy application process later and Steve was over the moon to receive confirmation he was joining a team of six scientific researchers on Expedition 215 to the Mars Desert Research Station in Utah, United States of America.
This once-in-a-lifetime journey began with specialist training in Colorado in November 2019, before the team was deployed for 16 Sols (see info box on opposite page) into the extreme conditions of‘Mars’. “The training concentrated on remote and adaptive/improvised medicine,” Steve said. “How to do cool things with no tools mostly.”
Isolated from the outside world for the duration of the simulation, the six crew members were housed in a habitat, or ‘Hab’ – a two-storey tin can less than eight metres in diameter. Any venture outside of the Hab, known as an Extra Habitat Activity (EHA), required a full space suit and strict protocols to simulate the low atmosphere of Mars.
The key responsibilities of the medical officer involved monitoring the crew’s vital signs 24/7 through wearable technology and observing Rapid Eye Movement cycles and fatigue. Every few days alarms would ring through the Hab signalling a medical emergency scenario, putting Steve’s training and problem-solving ability to the test as he stabilised an array of injuries with backup mere ‘millions’ of kilometres away.
Roles were shared across the crew members and Steve often found himself assisting with scientific research. The team’s major project during the simulation was extracting water-bound minerals from rocks and distilling them into water to turn into hospital-grade sodium chloride.
“It was super weird for me, pulling H2O molecules out of rocks to create water and then medical-grade solution,” Steve said.
Steve’s research project may have failed to launch without a KJ McPherson Education and Research Foundation grant in 2018 and the Gold Coast officer is astronomically grateful for the various support he’s received to accomplish his mission.
“Without the KJM grant I would have had to sell a load of chocolate and I’m not a good salesman,” he said.
With an invitation to participate in another simulation in 2021, will Steve eventually be the first paramedic to step foot on Mars? Watch this space.
Background
The simulated exploration was funded by the Mars Society and the Musk Foundation.
Opposite background
View from inside the HAB: The simulated mission, Expedition 215, was undertaken at the Mars Desert Research Station in Utah.
Opposite, clockwise from top
Wherever mankind goes, medicine must follow.
The crew heads out into the ‘Martian’ landscape during an Extra Habitat Activity.
Steve Whitfield.
A ‘Sol’ is a solar day on Mars and is approximately 24 hours, 39 minutes and 35 seconds long. A Martian year is almost twice as long as Earth’s, consisting of approximately 668 Sols.
Sol 4.
I make my way to breakfast where everything is dehydrated or bombed with preservatives and calories. Breakfast today is reconstituted egg and cheese. Yum. I am not on the EHA schedule for the day, so I am assigned to assist the crew members prepare. The space suits are bulky to work in and even harder to do simple tasks, so it is essential that crew assist each other don them. After donning the space suits and checking the life support systems, the crew members move through the airlock until it depressurises before exiting the second door to ‘Mars’. They will be gone on a two-hour cycle of oxygen which gives me plenty of time to get my tasks done.
After lunch an all-stations alert is sounded. An engineer outside of the airlock has received a large electrical shock from a battery bank near the solar array and is currently unresponsive. An emergency EHA team is already donning space suits to retrieve him. Inside I prepare the makeshift clinic on the ground floor with my clinical assistant Jen, the crew architect. Once inside he is hypoxic and has sustained a significant burn to his left arm. I send an incident report back to Earth, however, due to the elliptical orbit of Mars, the distance can be anywhere from 56 million to 400 million kilometres. This means my signal can take between four to 24 minutes to be received. For them to respond will take just as long. This means we both need to pre-empt the patient trends before we send anything. Following a 48-hour exchange of messages, the patient deteriorated to the point where I received instructions to perform an emergency escharotomy… Pass the scalpel please! Sol 12.
I am next to Commander Andrew loading surface gypsum into the rover during an EHA to an area of operation known as White Moon when Larissa calls on the radio for assistance. Although Mars has 1/3 of Earth’s gravity, she has stumbled in the space suit and fallen. Tools in her belt have inadvertently pierced her suit and impaled her left leg. Andrew quickly retrieves a large roll of duct tape and we work to seal her suit; this will prevent hypoxia, however, we are approximately two kilometres from the Hab. We also have no way of knowing how bad the bleed is until we are back inside the airlock, so our first objective is getting Larissa back to safety. We seal her suit as best we can and then use an improvised drag to get her to the rover. During the return trip we attempt to contact the Hab via radio, however, this is unsuccessful due to the terrain. To complicate things, the warning light on the rover has also illuminated indicating a mechanical issue. Thankfully, the trusty rover, named Curiosity, makes it back. We spend five minutes in the airlock re - pressurising and once we are through the crew inside have already prepared the clinic downstairs. I still must extricate myself from my space suit so other crew members take over patient care. Bleeding is controlled, the wound is dressed, and she is prescribed antibiotics to stave off any potential infection whilst recovering. Talk about paramedicine at extremes!
