Medical marvels

Flight Lieutenant Kath Stein is ready for any emergency. Photo by CPL Wade Laube, 1JPAU(P)

By CPL Jonathan Garland

YOU will probably never choose to fly this Air Force service – but you’ll be glad it’s available when the choice is made for you.

A group of Air Force personnel in Dili, East Timor, is meeting the medical needs of the peacekeeping force by providing an Aeromedical Evacuation (AME) capability.

They also provide humanitarian assistance to the local community in cases where life is in immediate danger.

AME nursing officer Flight Lieutenant Kath Stein said the team was on call 24 hours a day for its full deployment.

“Demand for our services waxes and wanes. The longest we’ve been without a job is three weeks but we can also fly two or three jobs in a single day,” she said. “We see road trauma, renal and appendix problems, obstetrics and general medical illnesses like malaria that leave the victim in a dangerously weakened state.”

The team has rotary and fixed-wing assets available, enabling it to evacuate a patient from within the country all the way to a receiving facility at an international destination if required.

“We always have a team on rotary wing evacuation and a second team on strategic AME, and have evacuated people to Australia, New Zealand, Thailand, Germany and Portugal.”

FltLt Stein said the most interesting task she had seen was several months ago when a man received severe head injuries during a riot.

“He was measured at four on the Glasgow Coma Scale, where 15 is normal and three is the lowest.”

“The people of East Timor have an incredible fighting spirit – they’re so open and friendly and seem able to deal with adversity amazingly well.”

The ADF is continuing to provide a professional military force of around 1100 full-time and part-time personnel from all three services to the United Nations Mission In Support of East Timor.

ADF personnel are part of a multinational peacekeeping force that is continuing to provide a secure environment in East Timor while the country builds a new future.

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