Dr Siva Sivanujan has notched up more than 850 aeromedical missions in 14 years in Mackay on board RACQ CQ Rescue.
In addition to working in the Base Hospital’s Emergency Department as a Senior Medical Officer he works as a Critical Care Doctor with RACQ LifeFlight Rescue which provides doctors for the RACQ CQ Rescue helicopter.
Dr Siva describes the rescue helicopter as a mobile intensive care unit on rotor blades.
“We can do anything from intubating a pre-term baby to caring for an 80-year-old – it’s all about providing life-saving treatment until we can get the patient to a hospital,” he said.
He carries two medical bags of medication and equipment while the helicopter also stocks blood and has a portable ultrasound machine, vital signs monitor, syringe driver, infusion pumps and a ventilator.
Dr Siva said retrieval medicine was an extra challenge due to often working in an unfavourable environment.
“Sometimes we fly in an unfriendly and challenging environment. There’s just you and a paramedic to do the best you can for a patient. You are the only resource available to make a difference in a patient’s life and whether they will survive,” he said.
RACQ CQ Rescue services an area four times the size of Tasmania, including north to Townsville, south to St Lawrence, west into the Bowen and Galilee Basins as well as more than 200km offshore.
The rescue service has already completed 550 missions this year and is often required to land on highways, in cattle paddocks, on beaches or to winch patients from small and large vessels in the ocean or out of the bush.
He listed working in uncontrolled ambient light as a particular challenge.
“Even though the medicine is the same the environment isn’t always favourable. It can be hot, windy, too bright, too dark, too cold. You can be working on a roadside or in the air.”
He flies at least once a fortnight and is the longest serving doctor crewing the RACQ CQ Rescue helicopter.
Dr Siva said it was a big relief for people when the crew stepped out of the helicopter.
“It’s a great team with the pilot, paramedic and rescue crewman. It’s a small team but we work so well together,” he said.
Other missions are interhospital transfers moving patients around the Mackay HHS or to Townsville University Hospital.
“It’s great teamwork and I still get a buzz out of seeing Queensland from the air. It’s nice seeing our beautiful region from the air, whether it’s Mackay, the Hinterland or Hamilton Island. I’ve seen sunsets and sunrises and even whales,” he said.
