The Good (Easter) Egg Story Dr Peter Barker OAM

What a strange year we’ve just had. Lock downs, bans on international travel and the deep introspective focus of all Australians on viral infections, particularly COVID-19. Out here in the bush it’s been life as usual, with a few twists of course. We don’t have public transport to avoid and like everyone else we’ve had the year of masks and social distance. The local shops have less product and the pharmacy definitely has less medication. We’re all appreciating the idea that ‘Made in Australia’ is something to support.

And our city cousins have taken on ‘Made in Australia’ with a vengeance when it comes to holidays as we saw at Easter in Cohuna, Victoria. We’re situated on the Gunbower Creek, a branch of the Murray River, and at Easter the forest had a camp at every bend on the river. Over the 190km of river we had a few thousand happy campers as well as a few thousand extra in the town. As expected, the visitors brought smiles and money but also a range of knocks, scrapes and illnesses.

Among the campfire burns and walking wounded were a few embedded fishhooks and one little boy named Sullivan. His mum and dad, both ambulance officers, were up for the holidays from Bannockburn visiting family with baby Sullivan.

Born by caesarean section five weeks earlier in Geelong, Sullivan woke one morning on holiday coughing and wheezing.

He was immediately red flagged by our experienced nurses in the Urgent Care Centre due to an oxygen saturation of 88% (rather than the hoped for 96%), a fast heart rate and a fast respiratory rate. There was no doubt assistance was needed.

What a relief to pull out the donated Humpty’s Breath of Life* neonatal resuscitation kit!

Rapidly we returned the vital signs to the correct range, transforming this 4kg little baby boy back into a happy camper and arranging a transfer to a paediatric facility.

Phone calls to Bendigo and to the Victorian paediatric retrieval service led to an accepted referral to the base hospital and the ambulance arrived soon after. We had planned to place baby Sullivan in the parent’s car capsule with the Breath of Life attached to the power point and oxygen in the ambulance. Unfortunately these safety conscious parents had a car capsule which attached to a mat and had no seat belt attachment, so this couldn’t be used in a standard ambulance.

Our rural ambulance wasn’t equipped with a webbing harness to secure a 4kg child (note to Humpty!) so the retrieval service requested we get the regional transport humidicrib from Echuca and transport Sullivan in that. The 90-minute wait whilst the ambulance went to retrieve the humidicrib and install Sullivan wasn’t stressful as we were stable with our modified Airvo. It would have been a highly stressful couple of hours without Humpty's help!

I’m pleased to say Sullivan spent 24 hours in the base hospital before returning to Cohuna where his parents decided it was safer than at their home, halfway between Ballarat and Geelong. This good egg story ended with our young family eating their Easter treats with family in Cohuna.

Thank you Humpty!

*Humpty’s Breath of Life is a specially designed package and includes a Neopuff Infant Resuscitator, Low Flow Bird Blender and MR950 Humidifier on a mobile stand. This life saving equipment provides humidified air during respiratory support to a sick baby or child and maintains them on a safe type of ventilation during transfer. Please see this equipment on Humpty's Wish List on page 24 if you are in a position to help.

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