LAUDING OUR HERO LIFESAVERS
GEELONG was home to regional Victoria’s first Mobile Intensive Care Ambulance and helped pave the way for the state’s world-class prehospital care available today.
Paramedics Chris James and Dave Garner worked on the state’s first rural MICA, which ran out of Geelong in 1993.
The ambulance was introduced to the region 20 years after it was launched in Melbourne.
This week, Ambulance Victoria celebrated the 50th anniversary of the MICA service, which started out of a converted Dodge vehicle on September 9, 1971.
The father of MICA was Dr Graeme Sloman, and ambulance officers Wally Byrne and Wally Ross became the first of many MICA paramedics.
During a three-month pilot with doctors and ambulance officers, the crew responded to 93 cases, mainly coronary care and road trauma patients.
Today, there are 600 MICA paramedics in metropolitan and rural regions providing advanced lifesaving and life-changing care.
Ambulance Victoria chief executive Tony Walker, said MICA was established in collaboration with the medical fraternity – a key factor behind the evolution of the paramedic profession in Victoria and our statewide system of care.
“The advent of MICA brought coronary care and intensive care into the streets, homes and workplaces of Victorians who needed urgent medical help,” Professor Walker said.
“Rather than rushing patients to hospital, MICA brought hospitallevel care to them with ambulance officers able to provide groundbreaking treatment such as defibrillation for patients in cardiac arrest. Today’s MICA paramedics are highly skilled clinicians who perform treatments such as advanced airway management, managing complex head injuries and cardiac conditions and treating life-threatening chest injuries.”