REFLECTIONS OF AN OLD GIRL

Flying Doctor has even wider horizons in view

If you’re a certain vintage, you’ll recall the 1980s television series The Flying Doctors. It was a show about gorgeous doctors flying around remote Australia to patch people back together. Dr Jessica Martyn, 2007 Leaver, could have stepped straight off the set … she’s capable, kind and uber-smart. But Jess didn’t take the stock standard path, she chose the wild ride!

You’re a doctor with the Royal Flying Doctor Service. That must be a spectacular job. What do you like the most about it?

I really enjoy the unpredictability and the excitement. Sometimes you’ll fly off to an outback cattle station for a child who’s fallen off a motorbike or perhaps to a remote Aboriginal community for an adult having a heart attack. Other days the on-call phone rings non-stop while we provide advice to remote South Australians and nurses or paramedics working in isolated small communities and mine sites spread out all over the State. No two shifts are the same.

I imagine some of the scenes you’re presented with are quite confronting. Can you share some of the tougher moments?

The most stressful part is managing the patient and their loved ones over the phone until we are on the ground. Trying to explain life-saving medical advice to those experiencing the worst day of their lives can be difficult. I remember one mother was able to look after her unconscious son who had a brain bleed for several hours until we arrived after he had a high-speed car accident. She saved his life with basic first aid. The remote area nurses and mine site paramedics do a spectacular job often with limited medical equipment.

It must be incredibly rewarding, to fly in and hopefully ‘save the day’ … or is that picture way too ‘Hollywood’?

Haha! People are always so incredibly grateful when we land – this makes you really proud to be wearing the RFDS uniform. Yes,

it’s definitely a boost to the ego to feel appreciated!

However this moment always marks when the real work begins for the flight nurse and doctor – we’ve often spent the flight planning how to manage the patient, drawing up medication, preparing and doublechecking equipment and, of course, making a game plan for the worstcase scenario should the patient deteriorate.

When you’re not flying through the outback, what are you doing?

I live in Port Augusta, a small town four hours north of Adelaide, where the northern end of the Spencer Gulf meets the Flinders Ranges and the outback. It’s a beautiful place but terribly short-staffed with doctors. I work at the local hospital in emergency and am currently doing anaesthetics training. I also run a small GP clinic. Whenever I can escape from work, I spend the days hiking or camping in the Flinders Ranges with my girlfriend Annabel or we just relax at home with our two dogs and a very naughty pet magpie.

Your father was a rescue helicopter pilot. Did his exciting

career influence you? Definitely – I have fond memories of Dad coming home from work, not telling my brother or me how his day was and then watching the nightly news only to find he’d spent the day winching someone from a capsized boat off Rottnest or off a cliff near Yallingup or there'd been a bad car accident and he had landed the helicopter on the highway! This was pretty damn cool from a kid’s perspective. Dad always spoke very highly of the paramedics and doctors he worked with so I think the spark for doing aeromedical retrieval and emergency medicine was definitely lit then.

So let’s rewind the clock … where did you grow up … and you were on a scholarship at PC, how did that come about?

I grew up in Gidgegannup and went to a small primary school. Mum worked at the school and my Year 5 teacher happened to be a PC Old Girl and convinced Mum to let me sit the scholarship exam. I was doing extension science and maths subjects at the local high school and remember seeing a boy with blue hair fall out of a classroom window then the next day I had the PC scholarship exam … at this nice-looking school with a fancy theatre, a pool and no one falling out of windows!

How did you find your experience at school … not everyone has an easy run.

High school was fine but not the most enjoyable five years of my life. Year 8 was hard as all my primary school friends had gone to different schools and being in a big city high school was very different to a tiny country primary school. Rowing was great fun and I’ve continued to row. I went to South Africa on exchange in Year 10, which was eye-opening and definitely contributed towards my interest in global health.

Even as a young teenager I remember being really grateful to be at PC and for all the academic and sporting opportunities …

however my favourite day of school was the last day of Year 12. I couldn’t wait to leave!

You went to Townsville then the Northern Territory to study medicine … such a big move for a young person. Were you liberated or homesick?

Liberated, for sure. I was excited to leave Perth and explore a different corner of Australia. For the last two years of the degree, I was based in the NT, mainly in Darwin and rural placements in Katherine and tiny Aboriginal communities. This was where my interest in Indigenous health began.

After completing your six-year degree and then junior doctor years you chose to work for the Australian Defence Force. Why the Army … and where did that take you?

The Army sounded like a good place to get some experience in emergency medicine in remote locations and it seemed like it would be fun! Some highlights were tactical evasive manoeuvres in an MRH-90 helicopter half hanging out the doors at low altitudes in the Whitsunday Islands, getting lost with no food and no comms on a random island in East Timor where no one spoke English and observing Anzac Day in Baghdad, Iraq.

What’s next in your career?

After finishing anaesthetics training next year, I plan to juggle RFDS, emergency and anaesthetics work for the next few years while finishing a Masters in critical care. Then, fingers crossed, I’ll be off to Antarctica for a year. The doctor there also functions as the nurse/ paramedic/pharmacist/psychologist and assistant wildlife statistician so this would be an incredible experience.

Any advice for a girl who might be reading this thinking ‘I want to do that, but I can’t.’

You can do anything you want. There’s so much pressure on adolescents to make their long-term plans by 15 or 16 years old. How is anyone supposed to know what they want to do for the next 40 or 50 years? It's just stupid.

On the personal front, are you happy?

I am – I have an incredible girlfriend, a close group of friends and a very satisfying career that’s already taken me all over the world.

We’re thrilled for you Jess and wish you all the best.