It’s not until yourself or a loved one needs the service that you truly understand how incredibly important the Royal Flying Doctors Service (RFDS) is. Australia is a big country, and for those living in rural and remote areas, access to immediate care isn’t a guarantee. For some communities, the nearest hospital is eight hours drive away. We were fortunate to have had the RFDS available when we needed it. My story we now laugh at parts of unfortunate timing but the reality is that things could have had a much more tragic result if we hadn’t been transferred to the Sunshine Coast (SCUH)…. 

This is why I’ve chosen to participate in the Oceans to Outback month long fitness challenge where I’m aiming to walk 96km in October to help more people access the care they need. That’s 1km for every year the RFDS has been operating in Australia. I hope to raise as much as possible for the RFDS. Last year I managed to walk 158km and raised almost $700. This year I’d love to walk as many km as I can but also hopefully push the donations over $1000.

Our Story:

It was one evening when my partner had a severe abdominal pain attack; something that had happened a couple of times before with so far no answers. He was going to be kept in overnight for monitoring and it was almost 11pm so I decided to head home as I had my 14 month old daughter with me. As we got home I came around to open her door and whoosh! It was like a water balloon had popped. Being only 29+5 weeks I was a bit shocked and trying to convince myself ‘no it’s not my waters, it’s just wee from sitting in emergency for so many hours’… But I got back in the car and drove to the hospital to get checked. Once at the hospital it was confirmed it was my amniotic fluids and they were arranging for transfer. My partner was in one cubicle in ED and I was in another; not very ideal circumstances with a 14 month old in tow but family thankfully were able to come and care for our daughter while we were both in hospital. 

Due to my son’s gestation Rockhampton was out of the question as we were under 32 weeks. RFDS were scrambling to organise a plane however due to heavy fog in SE Qld they could not fly. The decision was made to road transport me to Biloela where at the time they had midwives and an Obstetrician on call as our home hospital was not equipped for birthing let alone a premature birth. Once at Biloela they started all the processes to protect my baby and help prevent labour from starting. They desperately did not want labour to start while I couldn’t be flown out. The next morning just after sunrise the fog had cleared enough for the RFDS plane to fly and I was taken to SCUH. We were very fortunate that labour had not started before being flown to a more equipped hospital. This was made even more prominent when I had a placental abruption 3 days later and required an emergency c-section. If I had the placental abruption at home it had the potential to be fatal for myself and my son very quickly. I will forever be grateful things happened as they did and the RFDS service was there to transport me and my unborn son where we needed to be as quickly as we could be. If this service wasn’t available especially now medical services have been getting restricted or removed from some rural areas along with lack of availability of doctors and specialists to fill positions I honestly believe there would be a catastrophic number of deaths. Together, we can keep the Flying Doctor flying and continue their life-saving work. Please donate to my challenge! Every dollar can make a difference.