By
CPL Cameron Jamieson
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FLTLT
David Mitchell and a young friend smile for the camera during
the teaching rounds at Dili hospital. The child was scalded
by boiling water, but has since fully recovered.
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Photo
by FLTLT Raaj Chandra
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THE
THING about medical emergencies is that they are more likely to
occur at 1am than 1pm.
That makes things more difficult, especially if it means flying
in a helicopter to a remote stretch of road in mountainous countryside
to bring medical aid to the victim of a car crash, for example.
Life lived on standby is a situation the Aero Medical Evacuation
(AME) team for Operation Spire know a lot about, and when they’re
not scrambling for a helicopter, the team have been eagerly seeking
out new horizons of experience.
AME officer Flight Lieutenant David Mitchell is a doctor who
has been a key player in the quest to help the people of East
Timor.
“I’ve been very involved with the Dili hospital, and we’ve set
up a surgical round that we attend on a Friday, and a paediatric
round on a Wednesday,” FLTLT Mitchell said.
“We’re also in the midst of trying to re-establish the mobile
clinic that was run some years ago, with a paediatric focus for
the orphanages of Timor Leste.”
Op Spire’s AME personnel also take their training seriously and
as a result they are able to work with a range of UN aircraft
that are not in the ADF fleet, such as Bell 212 and Mi-8 helicopters,
as well as the Dash 7 multiengine commuter aircraft that can be
configured to carry a stretcher-borne patient for evacuation
from East Timor to Darwin.
The sole medical assistant on the team, Corporal Symon Yeates,
has been involved in many AME missions during her time in the
Air Force, but this is her first time deployed on an overseas
operation.
She recalled how the Op Spire team had to re-establish the AME
capability at Dili airport, a job that had many hurdles, such
as the literal job of moving house.
“We had to get our building back together – the two halves weren’t
even facing the correct direction when they arrived onsite,” CPL
Yeates said.
The hurdles have now been jumped and for her the highlight has
been the opportunity to conduct rotary wing AMEs. “I’ve done a
lot of fixed wing AMEs,” she said.
“I used to come to Dili from Darwin to pick people up. Its good
to be on the other side of the picture and use my rotary wing
skills.” FLTLT Mitchell agreed that Op Spire has been beneficial
in a variety of ways.
“It has been an eye-opening experience and an opportunity to deal
with a developing nation,” he said.
“From a personal-development point of view it’s been very fulfilling. There have also been some interesting points in terms of
the medicine, the variety of diseases and the types of cases you
see here compared to Australia.
“So overall, it’s been a very positive experience, both personally
and professionally.”
