Coast dad, doctor's life in a 'disaster supermarket'
When you're prepared to go where others won't training takes on a life and death level of importance.
Sunshine Coast
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WHEN you're prepared to go where others won't training takes on a life and death level of importance.
Sunshine Coast Hospital and Health Service anaesthetists Dr Dan Holmes and Dr Morne Terblanche brushed up on their disaster zone deployment skills recently, joining 30 other clinicians from Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific in Darwin.
They were there for Australian Medical Assistance Team training with the National Critical Care and Trauma Response Centre.
In effect, these men and women are the Commonwealth's crack team of medical and logistical experts called upon when disaster strikes.
Dr Holmes, a Scottish native, was deployed to the Philippines in 2013 after Typhoon Haiyan hit.
He worked as an anaesthetist in a field hospital in the aftermath of that disaster which killed more 6000 people and displaced more than 4.1 million locals.
In 2015 Dr Holmes was tasked as a team leader to Vanuatu after Cyclone Pam left 75,000 people homeless and killed 15.
His role in 2015 involved organising evacuations by air and water from the many island communities and running a paediatric clinic.
"You're working in a very resource-depleted environment,” Dr Holmes said.
He said some of the toughest decisions in the field were ethical dilemmas not often experienced in Australia.
For example, weighing up whether a patient had enough of a chance at survival to justify a blood transfusion, or saving the scarce supplies for other patients who may have better chances of survival.
Dr Holmes said an important part of the training they undertook was preparing themselves for the reality of the situations they were going into, to make sure they understood they simply could not save everyone.
He'd worked in Australia for the past seven years and previously spent time working in Indonesia and Kenya.
"You have to do what you can, understand your limitations and what the limitations of the country that you're in are,” Dr Holmes said.
The father-of-three said there was a push on within the World Health Organisation at present to ensure disaster medics and logistical staff are properly trained and accredited and the standards of field hospitals are as high as they can be.
"Australia is at the forefront of that,” he said.
He said sterilisation was one of the biggest challenges in the field, along with blood transfusions, and it was a fairly common challenge faced, given this part of the world was known as the "disaster supermarket”.
"You need to think of all the ramifications of what you're doing,” he said.
"The world is becoming better at understanding that those standards need to be met, even in disaster zones.”
Dr Holmes, 42, said there were about 700 people trained in Ausmat nationally who were registered, but those serious about the disaster work kept their vaccinations updated.
"It is pretty confronting (at times),” he said.
Dr Holmes said among the Ausmat-trained personnel there were doctors, nurses, physios, radiographers, laboratory technicians, paramedics and logistical experts, usually firefighters with another trade qualification.
Dr Terblanche said the Ausmat work put their "technical, diagnostic and clinical skills to the test”.
"All of us, no matter what your role, can greatly benefit from seeking ways to use our skills in a different context and exposing ourselves to new experiences,” he said.
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