Geelong paramedic on Air Ambulance Victoria’s first flight six decades ago

A Geelong resident has shared how his role helped establish Air Ambulance Victoria, as the organisation celebrates a major milestone.

Air Ambulance Victoria (AAV) is celebrating turning 60, with a Geelong man sharing his role in a major milestone in the service’s history.

The AAV wing of Ambulance Victoria was set up 1962 and included one rotary wing aircraft and one fixed-wing plane. On July 19 that year MICA paramedic John Blosfelds was the first ‘ambulance officer’ to work on the first AAV flight that was transferring a patient with spinal injuries from the Snowy Mountain Hydro Scheme.

Latvian-born Mr Blosfelds, who lives in Geelong, had never been on a plane before, having sailed to Australia as a 17-year-old after fleeing war and living in German war camps for five years.

John Blosfelds.

“On my first ever flight, both professionally and personally, I accompanied the director of the spinal unit at the Austin Hospital on the Skyways plane from Essendon Airport to Khancoban, to retrieve the young man who had been admitted to Corryong Hospital with a broken spine, and leg and chest injuries after being crushed under falling rock,” Mr Blosfelds recalled.

“After I did that first flight, I completed a training course that was run by a Royal Australian Air Force surgeon, and I learnt all about air pressure and how patients are affected by altitude – once we passed the course, we had a special badge to wear with the one wing attached to the Ambulance Victoria logo.”

Twelve patients were transported in the first year, the majority being medical and trauma patients from the Snowy Mountain Hydro Scheme.

Sixty years on and AAV’s fleet of four fixed-wing planes and five helicopters (HEMS) provide a vital link between rural communities and metropolitan health services.

Fixed-wing aircrafts – typically staffed by Advanced Life Support flight paramedics – and HEMS – staffed by Mobile Intensive Care Ambulance (MICA) flight paramedics – reach across Victoria and into parts of southern New South Wales, northern Tasmania and South Australia. The service is made up of just over 37 ALS flight paramedics and almost 50 MICA flight paramedics supported by a team of flight co-ordinators, pilots, aircrew officers, doctors, engineers, trade assistants, retrieval services and administrators. In 2020/2021, AAV responded to more than 7000 incidents, with the fixed-wing fleet transporting more than 5000 patients.

Originally published as Geelong paramedic on Air Ambulance Victoria’s first flight six decades ago