THE FLIGHT NURSE
Flight nurse Rachael Dawe, 28, is in Jandakot, WA. The registered nurse and midwife never knows what her shift will bring or where it’ll take her.
“I grew up in a crayfishing town called Wedge Island. Dad is a fisherman and Mum is a remote nurse practitioner. In the middle of the night when Dad was fishing, Mum would get called out and she’d tuck me in the back of the ute with a sleeping bag,” she says.
“She’d go to a motorbike accident, help the injured and stay with them until the RFDS landed. I’d help her by bringing blankets to keep people warm or getting medical supplies. I always remember how grateful people were to hear the RFDS plane coming. When I’m on duty I’ll get a call out from our centre and I’ll never know what it will be. We might pick up a premature baby and take it to hospital, and then immediately fly to a car accident. Every day brings challenges.
“Flying through cyclones in wet season in the Kimberley isn’t fun! I’ve also been at 40,000 feet trying not to deliver twins with a lady in premature labour. Her twins were breech, and I set up a stretcher with towels and warm blankets in case I had to deliver her babies. But I managed to slow her labour with medication, and when we landed an ambulance got her to the birthing suite just in time.
“On another call we landed at an airstrip that hadn’t been used for eight years. The locals greeted us with tea and scones, but we were collecting a sick child who’d accidentally taken some medication, so we didn’t have time for tea.
“I enjoy helping people, and every day I have the best view in the world from my office window.”