News and events from CareFlight.
Issue 73 | Autumn 2016
Horror awakening after micro sleep
T
he call came in at 4.08pm:
‘motor vehicle accident’,
‘driver trapped’ and ‘ongoing
bleeding.’
Four minutes later, the trauma care
team was airborne. Our pilot radioed
police for assistance in landing at the
scene, and the specialist medical team
formed a plan.
Within minutes they were alongside
other emergency services and, for
well over an hour, in sweltering heat,
worked to free the trapped driver and
begin emergency medical treatment.
Dr Bernie Hanrahan, an emergency
rescue doctor with CareFlight for more
than 25 years and over 1,000 trauma
missions, described the scene:
“Approaching the twisted wreckage,
I saw Leanne trapped inside. It was
clear she was in a bad way and that we
had to act quickly. She was bleeding
heavily from a gash on her forehead,
both femurs were broken and her ankle
was fractured. She was in excruciating
pain, so I gave her pain relief and IV
fluids immediately, applying pressure to
stop the bleeding.
“Leanne was frightened and barely
conscious. I needed to give her enough
anaesthetic so she could handle the pain
but not so much that she fell asleep.
This very precise balance was vital for
her survival.”
For the next hour Dr Hanrahan
treated Leanne while emergency
workers carefully cut away sections of
the car in a highly coordinated rescue
“One minute you’re driving, the next you
wake up with your car wrapped around
you, in pain, with people everywhere.”
Dr Bernie Hanrahan meets Leanne.
operation until she was free.
Leanne was in shock, her crash the
result of an all too common micro sleep
brought on by fatigue at the end of a
long day at work.
Micro sleeps are the third biggest
killer on our roads, after speed and
alcohol. And they can happen to anyone.
“One minute you’re driving,
the next you wake up with your car
wrapped around you, in pain, with
people everywhere,” Dr Hanrahan said.
Once Leanne was stable and freed
she was rushed to hospital where she
spent several months in recovery before
eventually going home to her family.
CareFlight’s rapid response and
specialist medical care at the scene
meant that Leanne survived a major
accident with few long term effects.
The emergency treatment she received
helped save both her life and her quality
of life.
Dr Hanrahan recently had the great
pleasure of catching up with Leanne
during a base visit. “Giving her a big
hug and seeing her smile, meeting her
family, reinforces just how worthwhile
our work is. It really puts a warm glow
in your week,” he said.
1
CareFlight delivers trauma training: Tassie’s turn
The program has
conducted over
140 workshops
and trained over
2,200 emergency
service volunteers
around Australia.
O
ur world-class MediSim
trauma training program for
emergency service volunteers
hit the road in Tasmania, finishing its
tour at the end of November.
Workshops were held for local
volunteers and emergency service
workers from the SES, Tasmanian Fire
Service and Tasmanian Ambulance in
Ulverstone, Launceston and St Helens.
MediSim provides high quality
trauma training delivered by doctors,
nurses and paramedics. Life-like
mannequins and a unique Car Crash
Rescue Simulator capable of simulating
a realistic motor vehicle accident are
used during the practical component of
the workshop. This gives participants
2
an opportunity to practise in a safe and
controlled environment.
Launceston SES’s Jillian Phillips was
full of praise for the MediSim program.
“I found this workshop to be
informative, well presented and an
extremely valuable tool for my continued
involvement with SES Operations
Support Unit. I have over the past
three years participated and gained
competency in about 30 courses and
workshops, and I found the content,
knowledge and skill levels and delivery of
this course brilliant,” said Ms Philips.
Meanwhile, John Shaw, an attendee
from the local emergency services,
wrote on Facebook:
“I enjoyed the professional and hassle
free training day in Huonville. There was
valuable information, presented very well
and in a manner and language easy to
understand. I would totally recommend
that if you have the opportunity to
attend anything presented by these guys,
you should do it. You never know what
you might learn.”
MediSim has been running
nationally for four years. The workshops
are delivered at no cost to participants,
with the help of Origin Energy,
Johnson & Johnson Medical and Spirit
of Tasmania and the generosity of
CareFlight supporters. The program
has conducted over 140 workshops and
trained over 2,200 emergency service
volunteers around Australia.
New medical leadership
Teen injured in motocross
crash
T
here’s been a changing of the
guard in the medical leadership.
Dr Toby Fogg has taken on the
role of medical director, a position held
for the past 15 years by Dr Alan Garner.
Dr Fogg is an emergency consultant
based at Sydney’s Royal North Shore
Hospital. He has worked for CareFlight
on the NSW Ambulance roster at their
Bankstown base for the past five years.
We’ve also welcomed Dr Garth
Herrington as our new NT Medical
Director. Dr Herrington will split his
time between CareFlight’s base and
Royal Darwin Hospital’s emergency
department. He brings extensive
experience in rural and remote
medicine, gained in Western Australia,
and has previously worked on our
medical retrieval consultant roster in
the NT.
Dr Toby Fogg
Dr Garth
Herrington
Muster pilot in marathon airlift after bush crash
A critically injured muster pilot was
airlifted to Darwin in a marathon rescue
after his helicopter crashed in a remote
corner of the NT near the Queensland
border.
CareFlight’s complex rescue mission
involved two helicopters and a long
range air ambulance as well as a local
paramedic and two Darwin-based
medical teams.
The CareFlight rapid response
rescue helicopter was called to a
motocross track after a 16-year-old
boy crashed his bike.
The team landed adjacent to the
track and the specialist CareFlight
emergency doctor and intensive
care paramedic were rushed to the
patient by ambulance.
The doctor found the boy
with serious internal chest and
abdominal injuries and immediately
initiated a surgical procedure to
stabilise his critical condition.
He was taken to hospital
by road ambulance, with the
CareFlight medical team continuing
to provide intensive treatment en
route. On arrival, he was rushed
straight to an operating theatre for
emergency surgery.
To add to the drama, the
helicopter crew had a race against
time with an approaching storm
when they flew to the hospital to
collect the medical team and return
to base.
The full resources of the Top End
Medical Retrieval Service, operated by
CareFlight for the NT Government,
were mobilised when the crash was
reported on a cattle property about
100 kilometres south of Borroloola.
CareFlight’s logistics team organised
for another muster helicopter to fly a
paramedic from the McArthur River
mine site to the scene to help stabilise
the pilot, supported by a senior
emergency specialist on satellite phone.
Meanwhile the CareFlight TIO
rescue helicopter with a medical team
aboard began the three hour flight to
the crash scene. A CareFlight King Air
B200 air ambulance was also dispatched
to the McArthur River mine airstrip to
be ready to fly the patient directly to
Darwin.
After arriving at the crash scene
at dusk, the helicopter medical team
assessed the patient and decided to
fly him immediately to the McArthur
River airstrip. There he was intubated
and sedated for the 90 minute air
ambulance flight back to Darwin in a
critical but stable condition.
3
New jet era for CareFlight
C
areFlight has entered a new
era with our long-range
and international jets being
brought in-house. We are now the
only aeromedical charity in Australia
with fully integrated jet, turbo-prop and
helicopter operations. Our aviation and
medical crews work seamlessly across all
aircraft types, doing what they do best –
saving lives.
The milestone was achieved through
a lot of hard work by our aviation
team to gain regulatory certification to
operate two BeechJet 400 jets. While
CareFlight has been conducting longrange jet rescues for more than 20 years,
until now we have relied on external
contractors to provide the jets and
crews. The move to direct ownership
is aimed at increasing mission flexibility
and improving responsiveness as well as
potentially saving costs. We expect to
see the jets flying in CareFlight colours
in early 2016.
Recent missions have taken our jet
teams to Kuala Lumpur, Manila, Tonga,
Norfolk Island, Port Moresby and Dili.
They have also undertaken regular
critical care transfers from Darwin to
specialist hospitals in Adelaide and other
southern capitals. Cases have included
acute cardiac problems, newborn babies
with life-threatening conditions, kidney
failure and major trauma.
CareFlight brings Andrew home
For Andrew Ruffell and his partner
Deanna, a recent CareFlight flight
from Darwin to Christchurch
achieved a goal the couple had
been working towards for more
than three years. Deanna was
determined to bring Andrew
home to New Zealand after he was
diagnosed with a brain tumour in
September 2012. The couple have
struggled with Andrews’s illness as
he endured countless procedures
and surgeries, setbacks and
complications. In late November,
Deanna finally took Andrew home
with the help of CareFlight’s
international team. She later took
to Facebook to thank them for the
smooth and seamless transfer.
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Mail: CareFlight, GPO Box 9829, In Your Capital City
Phone: 1800 655 876 Fax: 1300 788 786
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