Critical care on the fly
What does it take to a be a first responder?
Pre-hospital doctors, such as
the critical care physicians with
LifeFlight, bring the hospital to
the patient – whether it’s at a
rural farmhouse, on a rugged
mountain top or by the roadside.
Queensland’s largest air-ambulance service, LifeFlight, has 130 critical care doctors who treat more than 5000 patients every year. Of those frontline doctors, about 30 per cent have come through The University of Queensland’s Faculty of Medicine.
LifeFlight Chief Medical Officer and 1976 alumnus Dr Allan MacKillop has been in the role for 14 years. Dr MacKillop knows better than most the grit, determination and compassion it takes to be a critical care doctor. He says it takes a special type of person.
“They need to be particularly suited to the job,” Dr MacKillop explains.
“They need to have a full set of clinical skills and work well in a very small team operating in a confined space. They need to be physically fit and have a sense of adventure.”
It was that sense of adventure and an ability to stay calm under pressure that led UQ alumnus Dr Luke Nottingham to complete a six-month role with LifeFlight.
Although the circumstances of working for LifeFlight are confronting, Dr Nottingham said the experience taught him to cope well under pressure.
“You do a lot of mental preparation and rehearse different scenarios with the paramedic team to help you remain calm and focused. You develop a treatment algorithm you can fall back on if things become too overwhelming.”
Dr Nottingham says debriefing with the team afterwards also helped them cope with traumatic circumstances, such as attending road crashes.
“It’s extremely difficult to be faced with a horrific scene, but talking about the cases is vital. You have to remind yourself that you haven’t done anything to put the person in this position and you’re just there to help.”
Dr Nottingham’s interest in pre-hospital medicine was sparked during a first-year lecture given by Queensland Ambulance Service Medical Director Dr Stephen Rashford.
“I was so inspired by Dr Rashford that I contacted him immediately,” Dr Nottingham recounts. “That Saturday night I was racing to treat patients all over Brisbane with a critical care paramedic. It was then that I discovered my love of pre-hospital and resuscitation medicine.”
Dr Nottingham pursued his newfound passion through a placement in Soweto, South Africa, at the Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital – the world’s third largest hospital, where 70 per cent of all admissions are emergencies.
“Working at Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital was a life-changing experience,” Dr Nottingham recalls. “The opportunities to learn; the procedures; the degree of suffering we saw – it was 10 times the experience I would have otherwise gained in Australia."
Having completed his contract with LifeFlight, Dr Nottingham is currently training to become an anaesthetist. He hopes to complete his final year fellowship with the Greater Sydney Area Helicopter Emergency Medical Service or London’s Air Ambulance – two organisations pioneering gold star standards of excellence for pre-hospital medicine.
This story is featured in the Winter 2018 edition of UQMedicine Magazine. View the latest edition here. Or to listen, watch, or read more stories from UQ’s Faculty of Medicine visit our blog, MayneStream.
