LifeFlight Toowoomba and Roma welcomes new doctors
LifeFlight doctors face unique challenges, which is why their preparation involves white-knuckling training, like being submerged underwater in a helicopter.
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LifeFlight has welcomed its latest intake of doctors with three new personnel stationed at the Toowoomba and Roma bases.
They include Dr Bilge (Kaan) Dikici, a retrieval registrar who had intended to stay in the Garden City for just six months.
“I initially only travelled here to work and I fell in love with Toowoomba. It will be my indefinite home,” he said.
Dr Dikici said he had a passion for rural and regional medicine.
“Living in a regional area is very different from the city because patients have to travel vast distances to seek medical treatment,” he said.
“This is why LifeFlight is so important because we can get to patients much faster and transport them to major hospitals, often for lifesaving treatment.”
The new doctors have been put through a rigorous training program to prepare them for a career in a rescue chopper.
The program includes being submerged underwater while strapped into their seats, to simulate a crash at sea.
Dr Dikici said Helicopter Underwater Escape Training was “bucket loads of fun”.
“The instructors have been great and very patient with us and the decades of experience really does shine through,” he said.
“I feel very excited about the potential winching missions. I know from the training that is provided by LifeFlight and from the aircrew on that day, that I will be safe and I will complete my mission with success.”
Dr Dikici joins fellow doctors Dr Angus Douglas and Dr James Harris at aeromedical teams based at Toowoomba and Roma.
The trio make up 28 doctors about to support communities across Queensland. Before heading out to help people in remote and rural areas, they underwent a week of intensive aeromedical training at the LifeFlight Training Academy.
The training includes sea survival, rescue winching and clinical scenario training, such as responding to traffic crashes and remote area rescues, to enable the new doctors to tackle the challenges they will face in the field.
LifeFlight came to the aid of 8477 Queenslanders in 2024, 13 per cent higher than the previous year.
Toowoomba is LifeFlight’s busiest base with the LifeFlight rescue and LifeFlight Surat Gas Aeromedical Service (SGAS) helicopter crews coming to the aid of a record 905 people in 2024.
The Roma SGAS crew, based at the Clive Berghofer LifeFlight Centre, helped 59 people.
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Originally published as LifeFlight Toowoomba and Roma welcomes new doctors
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