By
CPL Cameron Jamieson
 |
|
SQNLDR
Robyn Green
|
MANY
people in the ADF would know the problems of wearing two hats:
you have two jobs and little time to spare for life’s niceties.
In Timor Leste, there is a nursing officer with at least three
hats – for nursing with the Air Force, for the joint ADF operations
and for the UN.
Squadron Leader Robyn Green is in charge of the military health
teams for Operation Spire. She administers the Aero Medical Evacuation
(AME) team and the Resuscitation team. She is also the medical
adviser to the UN military component commander.
Her job also requires her to work on joint-ADF operations, as
she has Army and Air Force personnel under her command, and until
recently had a Navy doctor in one of her teams, too.
Then there is her day job as an AME nurse.
“We do a lot of retrieval work for accidents,” SQNLDR Green said.
“We’re hoping the road accident statistics of the last few years
will dramatically drop, but it’s not necessarily the locals who
have been in accidents – often it is the international workers.”
Pregnant women with obstructive labours remains the main reason
for AME of East Timorese civilians, and it was on just such an
evacuation that a Bell 212 helicopter carrying SQNLDR Green’s
predecessor – nursing officer Flight Lieutenant Sharon Cooper
– crashed.
“We were on force preparation at the time when we were told about
the accident,” SQNLDR Green said. “I immediately made some phone
calls back to HQ Health Services Wing in Amberley.
They said, ‘Pack your bags and come back. You’re going straight
over.’”
SQNLDR Green was soon on her way, but not without first stopping
at the hospital in Brisbane where FLTLT Cooper was being cared
for. “I just needed to make sure she was alright,” SQNLDR Green
said.
