Courage in the country

Leanne Loryman encounters bravery and resilience every day in her work as a Royal Flying Doctor Service flight nurse. But there are some cases that will always stand out in her memory. Rory Gibson reports

leanne loryman

Leanne Loryman encounters bravery and resilience every day in her work as a Royal Flying Doctor Service flight nurse. But there are some cases that will always stand out in her memory. Rory Gibson reports

It has always been Leanne Loryman’s dream to wear the uniform of the Royal Flying Doctor Service, and in 2017 she finally got the chance.

In her short time as an RFDS flight nurse, based in Mount Isa, she has been involved in some extraordinary medical emergencies.

Originally from England, Leanne marvels at the resilience of the people to whom she delivers much-needed assistance. Even when injured and in obvious pain, they’ll wave her away with a “she’ll be right, mate”.

Like the stockman thrown from his horse on a cattle station near Gregory, north of Mount Isa, badly hurting his back. He was like that.

The RFDS aircraft couldn’t land anywhere near where the injured ringer lay, so it flew to the Gregory airstrip where Leanne and the doctor were met by three mustering helicopters. Desperate to reach their mate, the chopper pilots had their rotors turning, ready to go. Not only are the helicopters tiny, they also have no doors.

“I was quite comfortable because, you know, those mustering pilots are just phenomenal, the way they weave in and out of trees and all sorts. I was more bothered about not dropping my $55,000 monitor out the side.”

They found the injured stockman lying under a lonely tree in a vast, sparse paddock in 42C heat.

The medical team got to work, rigging up a tarp to give the stricken cowboy some shade then dosing him with painkillers and stabilising his back with a spinal mattress.

The helicopters were too small to carry the patient lying horizontally, so they loaded him onto a ute for a bumpy 40-minute drive back to Gregory and the comfort of the RFDS plane. Even with the pain relief, it would have been a journey that felt like it would never end.

Leanne and the team got the patient safely back to Mount Isa where scans revealed he had avoided serious damage.

“He was absolutely fine. Bit of bruising. Best outcome we could possibly hope for,” says Leanne.

Leanne was also involved in the high-profile case of Lexie, a  Townsville girl working at an outback station, who suffered a horrific hand injury while working with a post hole digger.

Leanne reflects that her job can be “quite traumatic” and that getting Lexie to Brisbane in time to save her hand is the best job she’s ever done.

Two of Lexie’s fingers were almost severed, remaining attached only by flaps of skin. Another was degloved, leaving muscle and bone exposed. Her injuries were severe and extremely painful.

And because Lexie’s accident occurred in one of the most remote spots in Australia, she might well have gone on to lose her hand were it not for the superb first aid she received from her colleagues, and the prompt response of the Mount Isa aeromedical team that flew her to safety.

Leanne recalls that by the time the team arrived, Lexie was very much in shock. But for her boyfriend, the station people and the property owners, the arrival of that small plane was a huge relief.

Picking Lexie up, getting her started on antibiotics and getting her to the right hospital for treatment still counts as one of Leanne's greatest achievements.

Born in England, Leanne was about six years old and living in Berlin when her journey to Mount Isa began.

With parents  in the military, she moved around a fair bit, which is how she came to be in Germany. There wasn’t much on telly there that she could understand, but there were a couple of shows in English.

One was Sesame Street and the other was the Aussie drama series, The Flying Doctors.

Leanne remembers sitting there in gloomy Germany, the temperature a brutal -12C, and marvelling at the blue sky, the brilliant red dirt and the crisp white shirts of the pilots.

Mesmerised by the exploits of the Royal Flying Doctor Service, little Leanne told her mum that one day she was going to be just like them. Now 43, she is living that dream.

Leanne’s focused determination to make her dream come true should serve as inspiration to anyone chasing a seemingly unattainable goal.

In England she was a vocational teacher, helping youngsters acquire skills needed to join the workforce.

But always in the back of her mind was her desire to join the RFDS, so she and husband Andrew visited Australia in 2005 to “have a bit of a look”, as she puts it.

Three weeks after returning home, they put their house on the market.

“We were in Australia a month later,” Leanne recalls. “It happened very, very quickly. Sold the house, sold the washing machine, brought the dog.”

For the next decade Leanne worked hard to get the necessary qualifications to be a flight nurse.

In 2017 she finally got the chance to don the uniform of a RFDS flight nurse. Looking back, her face lights up as she recalls the first time she flew on her own with a pilot.

“I’d finished all my training and I was grinning like a Cheshire cat. It was the best thing ever, looking out the window and thinking, ‘I’ve finally got here’.

“It’s been absolutely worth it. It’s the best job in the world.”

■ Leanne Loryman, 43, is a flight nurse and midwife with the Royal Flying Doctor Service (Queensland Section). QSuper is proud to support RFDS flight nurses like Leanne through essential training, allowing them to manage a wide range of medical scenarios and emergency situations.

Learn more at flyingdoctor.org.au/qld/QSuper