By
Andrew Stackpool
Volume
48, No. 6, April 20, 2006
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CPL
Sharon Smyth and the tiny baby girl, delivered just 10 minutes
after her mother was rushed to 322HSF during the Katherine
floods.
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A
NURSING officer with RAAF Base Tindal’s 322HSF has living
proof that life will go on, even in extreme circumstances.
FLGOFF Sarah Clark, senior medical assistant CPL Sharon Smyth
and medical assistant LAC Jamie Godwin, were on duty in the HSF
at about 7am on April 9, during the Katherine flooding crisis,
when a woman was rushed to them in an advanced stage of labour.
“She had been admitted to the emergency ward of Katherine
hospital, which had been established at the high school after
the hospital building was evacuated,” FLGOFF Clark said.
“They found she was in advanced labour. The staff decided
that she would be better at a proper medical facility, so she
was sent to us with the local obstetrician.
“She was here for about 10 minutes when the baby, a little
girl, was born.
“It was a very easy birth, which was fortunate as we don’t
have any operating facilities had something gone wrong.”
The baby girl weighed in at 2.446kg and, under Northern Territory
health regulations, was just under the minimum accepted ‘normal’
weight of 2.5kg.
At 8.30am, mother and daughter were transferred to Darwin by civilian
aeromedical evacuation with another woman who was in labour.
Despite the weight, “she was fine, the littlest thing I’ve
ever seen,” FLGOFF Clark said.
“As far as I know she doesn’t have a name yet.”
FLGOFF Clark said that the labour was managed from the nursing
side by the Katherine hospital staff on duty and a midwife.
“CPL Smyth has experience in delivering babies, but we were
just on hand to coordinate everything from the Air Force side,
while the Katherine staff handled it.
“This was the second baby delivered at HSF. The first was
in the last Katherine flood. So we have a perfect score, two floods,
two babies.”
While patients and staff from the Katherine hospital had used
the HSF during the evacuation crisis, FLGOFF Clark said that by
April 10, the Katherine patients and staff had returned to their
hospital and the HSF was back to normal.
“I even have my office back,” she said. “During
the evacuation my office was used as another ward.”
“We have had a couple of letters of thanks and people were
very glad to be here. When the flood warning was received we recalled
people and were set up and ready six hours before the first patients
arrived.
“One of our staff had been in the last floods and knew what
was required for the immediate period.
“We are all very tired but couldn’t have asked for a
better experience professionally.”
