Minutes matter: another bloody call in the Alice
THE paramedics’ pagers shriek in chorus at 10.30pm. We are in the staff kitchen at the St John’s Critical Response Unit’s headquarters, just back from another job, biting into sandwiches bought during a lull a few hours earlier.
Paul Reeves, the desert town’s only qualified Intensive Care Paramedic declares: “We’ve got a job”. His mentee and colleague Caitlin Little – a trainee ICP – tosses her halfeaten sandwich into the bin and runs for the door.
Lights flashing and sirens blaring, Paul puts decades of emergency driving into practice. He’s a veteran paramedic from the UK and has worked in trauma response in war zones and with tactical police all over the world.
“Minutes really do matter and in cardiac arrest events survivability decreases 10 per cent every minute the heart has stopped,” he says.
An ambulance with two junior qualified paramedics has already arrived at Leichhardt Tce, a main drag that runs beside the dry Todd River. The CRU crew mounts a kerb and the paramedics grab their colour-coded medical kits and swung into action.
An Aboriginal woman is curled in a foetal position on the road, her bloodied face against the bitumen. A heavily tattooed European man in jeans and a T-shirt cradles her as she groans in pain, repeating “You’re all right, darlin’, I’ve got ya, stay with me.”
The woman, Ida (not her real name), has matted hair and fresh wounds on her forehead. Most shocking are the deep gashes on the tops of her hands – exposed bone and tendons are crusted with gravel from the roadside.
Police initially suspect she has been victim of a hit and run but there were no witnesses. The paramedics apply a pelvic binder to her hips to prevent possible internal bleeding from the impact of a vehicle.
The paramedics work for about 10 minutes to subdue Ida’s pain and stabilise her enough to move her.
Police help lift her on to a stretcher and into the ambulance. Caitlin, Monique and her crewmate, Amy McCaffrey, continue treating Ida who cries all the way on the short trip to Alice Springs Hospital, where Emergency Department staff are waiting.
Paul says later that Ida’s injuries were inconsistent with a hit and run and he suspects her hand injuries were defensive wounds suffered while protecting her face and head from being hit with a sharp object. A week earlier, she was treated for stab wounds.
NT Police have since said a 44-year-old man, who has a history of family violence, has been charged with two counts of aggravated assault and two counts of being armed with an offensive weapon.