26/05/2024
Our client of 30 years, featuring one of their members. Congratulations Ben.
The 27th May is Emergency Medicine Day โ a day that aims to unite the world population and decision-makers to think and talk about Emergency Medicine and emergency medical care. Iโm delighted to have been invited to contribute a brief story to share with AMMA readers about my experiences as an Emergency Physician in the ADF. Iโve had a long career with the Army, initially as a junior arms corps officer, then graduating from Flinders University as a doctor in 2000. I subsequently served as an Army doctor during a busy and extremely rewarding period of increased operational tempo. Initially I trained as a rural generalist whilst in the full-time Army, but always with a focus on acute care skills. I knew from very early in my career that the ADF required a range of skills from its medical officers, including occupational medicine, medical contingency planning, general practice skills and also a good handle on emergency medicine skills. During my long military medical career, I have found myself being tested in all of these areas around the world on operational duty in Timor Leste, Solomon Islands, Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere.
As my career in the full time Army developed, I found myself increasingly drawn to Emergency Medicine and then Pre-Hospital and Retrieval Medicine, which ultimately led me to attainment of specialty qualifications and credentialing in these fields. I currently work in a diverse number of roles in the civilian sector, as the Director of Northern Operations for LifeFlight Retrieval Medicine, an Emergency Physician at the Townsville Hospital and also as a Senior Medical Officer in Anaesthetics as the Mount Isa Base Hospital. In my military role, I am a Colonel in the Health Reserve Advisory Group.
But for this piece I will cast my mind back to 27th May (Emergency Medicine Day), 2017. At that time I was the first and only Emergency Physician to have joined back into the permanent ADF as part of the โMedical Specialist Programโ (MSP). The MSP continues now, and aims to have a number of military specialists who serve in the full-time ADF, but work on a day-to-day basis in the civilian health sector. I remember being called at my office in LifeFlight one morning in May of 2017, with a senior officer from Joint Operations Command asking me โCan you go to Iraq today, Ben?โ We negotiated a little, but suffice to say I was on a plane the following day bound for Iraq! With that began a whirlwind of activity over the next couple of weeks that lead up to the events of 27th May.
I had specifically joined the MSP in search of an adventure whereby I might further use my Emergency Medicine skills in austere and challenging environments. During my journey into Iraq, I had a fortuitous meeting with the National Commander of the Australian Contingent in Iraq and Afghanistan, in Al Minhad (United Arab Emirates). He suggested to me that my skills as an Emergency Physician might be useful at a remote Coalition base stationed outside of the city of Mosul, Iraq.
In May 2017 the battle for the liberation of Mosul from ISIS forces was well underway and the medical outpost located in the base in question was receiving severely injured war casualties on a daily basis. Although this was not the primary reason I was sent into Iraq, I was absolutely thrilled at the prospect of going to Mosul to learn whatever I could and to contribute in any way I was able. I had served in the busiest war trauma centre in the world over a decade before in 2005, as an Australian embed stationed in the Intensive Care Unit of the US Army Role 3 hospital in Balad. In May 2017 I warmly embraced the prospect of again serving at the forefront of military emergency medicine!
Preparations for the journey into Mosul were exhilarating. I was stationed briefly with a small group of special operations personnel to assist me with additional equipment issues and preparations that would be necessary for the trip. On the night of 27th May, 2017, at around midnight, I boarded a US Blackhawk with an eclectic group of US special forces personnel, Australian special forces personnel, a CIA operative and various others. It seemed to me that one person on that aircraft didnโt quite fit in! But I was along for the ride and having the time of my life as we flew low and fast up the Tigris River from Baghdad into Mosul in the pitch black of the night. I remember the trip in a night-time blur of massive refinery stack fires and at one stage the deployment of flares from our helicopter! We landed at about 2 am in Mosul and thus began an extraordinary experience for me in witnessing the important contribution of our brave service men and women in the liberation of the Old City of Mosul which was completed in July 2017. Very rarely before, or since, has my career made me feel so โaliveโ!
I share this story for a couple of reasons. Firstly, because the timing of my arrival into Mosul was precisely on the same day as the Emergency Medicine Day. Secondly, it is emblematic of a โlife less ordinaryโ that service in the military can offer to our skilled clinical staff. The ability to ply our craft in remote, austere and sometimes dangerous environments is the very reason our clinicians are drawn to serve. On 27th May 2024, I pause to reflect on the service of Emergency Medicine and Nursing staff in our own and other military forces. They continue to make an important contribution towards the alleviation of suffering and the maintenance of military capability during conflicts around the world.
