How incredible work of QAS, hospital trauma teams, has saved countless lives

There are a group of people walking Gold Coast streets, hundreds, maybe thousands strong, who you really wouldn’t expect to be there. This is their story, writes Keith Woods.

CALL them the miracle people.

Hundreds, maybe even thousands of people walking Gold Coast streets, who really shouldn’t be there.

People alive today thanks not just to the wonders of modern medicine, but some extraordinary work quietly taking place among health professionals.

Take our ambulance service. The traditional view of the ambos, that they patch you up and cart you off to emergency, no longer applies.

Life-saving work that would traditionally have taken place at hospital now takes place immediately, courtesy of the High Acuity Response Unit (HARU).

These paramedics can provide anaesthesia, diagnose internal bleeding via portable ultrasound and deliver blood transfusions – all at the scene.

A QAS High Acuity Response Unit demonstrating their skills in the 2017 Ambo Games.

When nine-year-old Maya Kirkus was hit by a car on Dixon Drive in Pimpama on August 12, paramedics performed an ultrasound there and then. It meant that doctors at Gold Coast University Hospital knew is she was suffering internal bleeding before she even reached their doors.

When 19-year-old Zach Holden fell from a balcony in Kirra on January 29, paramedics were able to intubate him and provide blood before he reached hospital, allowing him to ultimately make a scarcely believable recovery from the horror incident.

Queensland Ambulance Service Medical Director, Professor Stephen Rashford, has previously spoken about how the techniques employed by the High Acuity team were honed by battlefield medics in Afghanistan.

“The only good thing about wars is that they result in medical innovation,” Dr Rashford told ‘Hospital and Healthcare’ publication.

“And this is where a lot of work has been done with the acutely bleeding patient.

“... If you made it to hospital with vital signs, you had a 98 per cent chance of survival in some of the medical units in Afghanistan. HARU transfers some of these principles to the civilian arena.”

Zach Holden, who was seriously injured after falling from a Gold Coast high rise, at Gold Coast University Hospital. Picture: Glenn Hampson.

The same level of care continues when patients are delivered to Gold Coast University Hospital’s level one trauma centre.

Zach’s case is an astonishing example of what the team can achieve. His injuries were catastrophic and disfiguring. Yet when your columnist met the brave young man last week, just over six months on from his fall, he was walking unaided and, bar a few missing teeth – which the team is also planning to see fixed – you’d never guess he’d suffered any kind of traumatic injury.

Trauma clinical nurse navigator Matt Scott said Zach came very close to losing his life.

“Basically he was bleeding to death with all of his injuries. He had 30 plus blood products over the first four days that he was in,” Matt said.

“If it wasn’t to the team of (HARU) paramedics that went to him at the scene and saved his life initially, and the quick response of bringing him to our level one trauma centre here, he would definitely have passed away.”

Another fascinating aspect of the team’s work is that it does not stop when people like Zach leave hospital.

There is another class of people, walking around today who might not otherwise be, thanks to the dedication of these dedicated trauma professionals.

People who never even know it. Matt and other members of the trauma team also run education sessions for young people to share their experience of dealing with trauma patients.

It’s called the PARTY program – the party in this case standing for Prevent Alcohol and Risk Related Trauma in Youth. The idea originated in Canada in the 1980s and was introduced on the Gold Coast in 2015.

It shows young people what happens in serious trauma cases, and most importantly, makes sure they get solid advice on how to avoid making the mistakes that might lead them to similar fates.

“I’ve been an emergency nurse for many years so I can reflect and remember on many of those incidences from many years ago, where I saw young people injured in horrific ways that were going to affect their lives forever,” Matt told this column.

“We wanted to do something to try and decrease those numbers and prevent as many as we could. And we looked into things. And that’s where the PARTY program came up.

“... Most disasters and things, they equate it to the holes in the Swiss cheese lining up. And it’s very much the same with individual trauma. You can usually look back on what’s happened, either as a witness or a bystander, or the person who’s injured themselves, and see that there was one thing or a few things that they could have done and not ended up in that situation.”

The program is reminiscent of the YOU CHOOSE program founded by Melissa McGuinness, which has surely saved many young lives by teaching young people the importance of road safety.

Between high acuity paramedics, the wonders of trauma teams and programs such as YOU CHOOSE  and the PARTY program, there must be countless people alive today, walking the streets of the Gold Coast, who otherwise wouldn’t be here.

Miracle people, out there, enjoying their lives, courtesy of some very dedicated miracle workers.