CHAPTER SIX

HAYS’ PERMANANT AMBULANCE STAFF:

THE INFORMATION BELOW IS MY RECOLLECTIONS FROM THAT TIME -

IT IS BY NO MEANS ALL OF MY RECOLLECTIONS OF ANYONE MENTIONED.
YOU MAY OR MAY NOT AGREE WITH WHAT IS WRITTEN, BUT ITS FROM MY MEMORY.

Working on my own or with the honoraries continued until October 1977 when a second Officer, Colin
Honeyman was appointed to Hay and the Station was moved to the old honorary station in Lachlan
Street, near the tennis courts. This was after the October long weekend after I was involved in an
accident in Deniliquin on the way to Melbourne with a patient, no one was injured. This was the weekend
of the “first” One Tree picnic races, with some five thousand people at the races. The dipstick of a
Superintendent (Beresford) made the decision to send the only permanent officer out of town to
Melbourne, thirteen hour round trip and not send another Officer to Hay to stand by. The use of
honoraries continue for some time but to a lesser degree when Colin started. They would provide cover
or assistance when the permanent Officers were out of town or on days off.

Re-modelling of the Old Station.

The Station was renovated to have an office nine by nine by nine and the front station door made to open
out so that when you parked an Ambulance in the station so you could close the doors. Previously they
had opened inward, but the new office made one bay smaller so the doors had to be made to open
outward. There were some later modifications made to the office with the use of petty cash due to it being
a bit small for four officers. Some days there would be three Officers in the office. This was in the days of
Colin Honeyman, Peter McRobert and Bill Williams. You could only spend $50.00 at a time out of petty
cash. Peter McRobert, a very handy man, was very good a modifications, so the small office wall was
extended by a meter and a half. So the needed items were purchased, all for under $50.00. If it was over
$50.00 there was two receipts obtained. Some time later during a station inspection by a super numary
Superintendent Ross Vincent it was noted that the modifications had been done. Ross was a very decent
man and easy to get on with. He noted the extension in the report and stated that it was done well and
was good idea. A week or so later I received a letter of explanation for the extension and the use of the
petty cash. The letter was from Superintendent John Bradford asking who had authorised the work, who
spent the petty cash and who approved the spending of the petty cash - my answer to all the questions
was, I did. My reply was sent back, nothing further was heard on the matter. That was well before the
station Officer at Braidwood, ( I relieved there once) renovating his station on petty cash that was in the
mid 2000s.
A LIST OF OFFICERS THAT WERE IN HAY FOR MORE THAN 4 MONTHS:

The second permanent officer appointed to Hay was Colin Honeyman, a local
lad. Colin was in Hay for 73 months. Colin had been and done his nurse aid
training at the Hay hospital and joined the honorary staff. Colin was of the 'bikie'
type in his younger days, still is. Apparently Colin had been told to move on one
night by one of the local police officers, however for some reason he had not
engaged the kill switch and there was a heated discussion and Colin had
threatened to remove some of the silver buttons the officer was wearing.

It’s not known if the fact that Colin was dating the police Sergeants’ daughter at
the time that the matter did not progress any further. Colin was to later marry
Jenny the Sergeants’ daughter in Hay. Colin had a little trouble getting into the Ambulance Service due to
his previous run in with the law. It took a statement from the then Hay District Hospital Chairman Don
Sullivan (ex honorary at Bowral) to make things happen. 'If it’s good enough for me to have employed
him for the past eighteen months at the hospital, then I see no good reason for you (ambulance,
Superintendent John Bradford) not to employ him’ and so it was.

Colin did his basic training in Sydney in January 1977 and most of his probation in Griffith before being
sent to Hay in the October 1977. Colin spent just over six years in Hay before deciding to further his
career. He moved to a couple of station officer positions around the state. He was later to become the
District Inspector at Wagga and Hay was one of the stations under his control. When Colin was a District
Inspector he would sometimes forget where he came from. It was very easy for me to return him to earth,
remember those silver buttons mentioned before, that did the trick. Colin retired from the Ambulance after
25 years of service to join the RMS in Wagga.

Next came Peter McRobert after he had finished his Nurses training in Griffith. He
was living in Leeton and travelling to and from Griffith on his motorbike. Peter was
the first male nurse to do his training in Griffith Base Hospital. He was not allowed to
do his maternity rotation, because males can’t do that, said the Matron at Griffith
Base Hospital at the time. As stated previously, Peter was the son of my first boss in
Goulburn, Superintendent McRobert. Peter was a very practical person and taught
us many things about looking after patients. If you gave a baby a bottle, initially lay it
on its right side, it assists in stomach emptying. The same goes for anyone give oral
medication, it helps to get the medication absorbed quicker. Where we could we
would ditch the RN's and two officers would do the transport. Most of the old RN's at
Hay did not or would not do observations during transports, no need. Those who did
do observations were able to auscultate a blood pressure and take a pulse at 110 kms per hour. Their
motto was just drive fast. Peter managed to work one day, his last, at the new ambulance station in
Murray Street. When Peter went home he unplugged the ambulance line and put the phone in the bin.
Peter become the first male community nurse in NSW at Hay. He continued his career in community
health for many years and at one stage was stationed in Tumut.

In the early stage there was no air conditioner in the old honorary station in Lachlan Street, until one was
supplied by a sympathetic Acting CEO, Peter Wall, found a reverse cycle air conditioner at the hospital
and had it installed. However it only served the office. The plant room was not air conditioned, opening
the windows on very hot days did little to change the temperature. Well, that was not until Peter
McRobert came up with an idea, a couple of hessian bags hung over the open plant room window on the
windward side. Every half hour or so you needed to wet the bags with a spray from the hose. If the wind
changed close one lot of windows and open the others. It worked.
 The next to come was Bill Williams another local boy, later to be know in the
service as 'two Bills'. (William Williams, after his father) Bill commenced his career
in Wagga before he came to Hay. He started in the ambulance service about the
same time as Colin Honeyman. Bill could be best be described as a likeable
larrikin, who enjoyed playing a practical joke on anyone at any time. One of the
worst was he would walk up behind you and put his wet finger in your ear. In the
early stages of Bills time at Hay, he could not understand how I could triage four or
five patients at a car accident in the time it took him to do one.
Bill spent a couple of years in Hay before he moved on to bigger and better things
and better trained for his career. Training Officer at Leeton, Level five intensive
care paramedic, District Officer and Area Manager. Not bad for a local Hay lad.
But after twenty five years, realising that he had gone up the ladder too far and
was not willing to slide down a snake he resigned. He was also very good at
dispatching flies on a wall, or any other place for that matter with a large rubber band. My son thought he
was the coolest with a rubber band.

From this time on there has been a procession of Officers through Hay Station, some of them
exceptional, others leaving a lot to be desired. There is a list of permanent officers that stayed more than
four months, in order of their posting (yet to be finalised).

Brian Saywell. Brian came to Hay from Griffith in March 1981 and stayed for 32
months. Brian came as a young newly wed from Gilgandra. He was a typical young
ambulance officer, always on the go. Brian was always hot to trot, ever ready to go,
(ever ready bunny) he remained that way throughout his career. Every time the
phone rang after hours you could see the dollar signs roll in his eyes. Sleep
eventually took over from the dollar signs as it so often did. Due to a particular
incident that involved Brian, his wife and another person and an Ambulance out of
hours, Colin and myself, had to put Brian on the side box for a month as
punishment. It was certainly not easy however we managed. That meant no driving
an Ambulance, period. Brians’ patient care became much better. That certainly got
his attention, along with a stern discussion about the use of an Ambulance.
Management of the time never knew anything about what transpired. But I can
assure you it got Brian's attention in a big way. I think Brian become a better person as a result. You
could not do that today, it would have to be reported, IIMS'ed and the Officer stood down. Brian moved
onto Deniliquin after 32 months in Hay. He become a Station Officer doing control in Deniliquin and
Albury. Brian held Station Officer positions at other stations throughout the state. The position of Station
Officer at Gundagai being his last. Brian succumbed to cancer. Brian had attended an Ordram chemical
spill on Pevensey corner at Hay, most people who attended that scene began to die some years later.
Though the spill was a covered up by many agencies, despite many trying to shine some light on it.

L to R. Marmont, Honeyman, Bell, Saywell & Litzkow

In the Plant room at old station next to Hospital.
Now, 2023 owned by Parks & Wildlife
 Next officer was Kevin Bell. Kevin came to Hay in late March 1981 as a young
officer, his father was the railway station master. Kevin was an easy going, easy
to get on with young man, also a bit of a larrikin. Kevin played the guitar
reasonable well and had a reasonable voice. He was also a very good
Ambulance Officer. Kevin was involved in a soul destroying personal incident in
Hay from which he never ever recovered. No counselling back in those days.
This was my first experience in dealing with panic attacks. It is so very hard and
sad when you have to talk a fellow Officer back into town by radio from the TV
Tower on the Mid-Western Highway, when they can’t go any further to Griffith with
a patient.
And people, there was no support from the Service back in those days except for
what was provided by fellow officers, if they knew how and none of us knew then what we know now.
Kevin spent 45 months in Hay before moving on to a number of stations around the state, before
resigning. Such a sad event that destroyed a good Officer.

Next to come to Hay was Detlev Litzkow in May 1981. Detlev was in Hay for seven months before
moving on. Detlev was different and I will leave it at that. However I will relate one interesting story. Many
old officers would remember that the fuel used was closely monitored, each car fill was entered a number
of times, averaged etc. So you got to know how much fuel was used on a round trip to Griffith. The
average if I remember was around forty three to forty five or six litres. On a number of occasions there
was a much lower usage noted, thirty five or less. Now because all fuel has to be balance at the end of
the month, I checked to see if there had not been a calculation error, no, no error. This set me to look
further, who the officer was, what was the case, had it happened before, was there overtime involved.
Yes same officer and it was always where it incurred overtime. If it was morning case this officer used the
same amount of fuel as others, if there was overtime on a case in the afternoon much less petrol was
used. Also the time from clear at Griffith Hospital to knock off time Hay was always much longer. You
make your own judgment. Good for the fuel average, not so good for the overtime budget.

Next to join the Hay team was the always intrepid and unflappable Phil Shields.
Phil's stint commenced in Hay in April 1982 and lasted sixty eight months. Phil
current holds seventh place in the length of time spent at Hay. Phil was acting
Station Officer for me when I was on leave or on days off. Phil was very easy-
going.

There are many stories that can be told about Phil, some not printable here. One
of those cases that Phil attended was a shooting, we attended many back in those
days. People from Melbourne came to Hay to shoot pigs and one another. Phil
and another Officer were called to a shooting at Maude, some fifty kilometres west
of Hay. On arrival Phil found a young man had been shot in the chest with a 30/30 calibre bullet, it should
have blown a hole the size of your fist on the exit side, it had not. The entry and exit hole sizes were the
same, about the size of an index finger, in and out between ribs. Now Phil being his usual resourceful
self set about putting on the standard three sided flutter valve on the front of the chest, then applied the
same on the back. To his dismay by the time he put the back one on, the front had come off, when he
looked at the back it had done the same. So he reapplied them again, all to no avail. There is no
Elastoplast known that will stick to a profusely sweating body, may be ‘duct’ tape. Not to be perturbed,
Phil inserted one finger in each side of the patients chest, this solved the problem and that was before
“gloves”. This then unfortunately compromised Phil's further treatment of the patient some what, but
that's how he arrived at the Hay hospital in record time.
 There was an unusual request from Phil en route, he
requested that Station Officer Marmont was to be at the
hospital on his arrival. This was unusual as Officer Marmont
was on days off and this would not have been done without
good reason. It just so happened that this was theatre day at
the hospital (that was done back in those days) so there
Phil Shields was the treating officer and ar-
rived at the Hay Hospital with a finger in each
side of this guys chest in order to stop air en-
tering. Many of the local blood donor panel
were call to give blood on this day—about 12 were at least three Doctors at the hospital.
units.

One of the Doctors wanted for us to take the

On the patients arrival Doctor Jane Mathews, (the “it will be
patient straight in to Wagga without treatment.
Officer Marmont who had been requested to
attend by officer Shields advised that that was
right doctor”) took one look at the patient before he was
not appropriate and Doctor Thompson agreed
– the patient was treated at Hay and eventu- unloaded and said take it straight to Wagga, she was the
panicky type. I don't know how much longer Phil could have
ally made a full recovery.

held his fingers in the mans chest, yet alone the patient
surviving the 275 km trip to Wagga.
Newspaper
Fortunately Doctor Graeme Thompson, with a comment
report
from Officer Marmont, said let's just treat the patient here.
Theatre was available if needed. Phil removed his fingers
one by one and each of the holes was sown up, then a large
bore needle was inserted in the patients’ lower chest to
drain blood. The patient was sedated and tubed by Doctor
Thompson, it was realised that whilst both lungs were being
ventilated bleeding from the left continued. So Doctor
Thompson repositioned the tube into the right lung only,
taking the left lung off line reduced the bleeding to a
manageable level. Blood from local blood donors was sort,
quickly taken and the blood given to the patient. There was a group of local blood donors in Hay and they
were called on many times to be drained for the good of a patient. I think there were fifteen units of blood
taken from the donors that morning. A medical team from Wagga was flown to Hay by Air Ambulance to
assist. Further blood was rushed from Griffith to Hay by Griffith Police. With the treatment given at Hay
hospital, when the medical team arrived they deemed the patient well enough to be flown to Wagga
without further treatment. If my memory serves me correctly the patient was given at least fifteen units of
blood before leaving Hay.
After the ordeal the patient from Melbourne survived to shoot or be shot another day. Did I claim a callout
that day, no that's just what you did back then!!!

Phil was an avid 'trechy' (Star Trek for the uninitiated and younger ones) was on his way to Booligal one
day on an urgent job, on his own of course. In the old F100 car 54, travelling at warp speed, a rear tyre
blew, Phil first words were "beam me up scotty”. (Extract from Star Trek) Though with some deft retro
rocket and thruster manoeuvres’ Phil managed to bring the starship to a halt without further incident. Phil
was beyond any Ambulance radio comms at this time, it was useless in trying getting help that way and
well before the time of mobile phones. Service is still hit and miss even today (2023). He surveyed the
problem, used the Ambulances UHF radio list to call a farmer. Man did we have trouble having them
installed in the Hay ambulances. What do you need them for ??
A list of all UHF radios on farms was carried in each Ambulance for this sort of incident. A short time later
help arrived. The nearest farmer came and picked Phil up and took him with what equipment Phil thought
was needed to the scene, I can not say at what speed. The call resulted in other farmers who came,
changed the tyre and brought the Ambulance to the accident scene. Unconventional, certainly, but it all
worked well. Mission accomplished with the aid of "scotty".
Phil was also an avid sleeper and call outs tended to confuse him. Two little stories that come to
mind here. Phil's phone rang in the middle of the night for a job. Now as any on call officer knows the
phone also wakes the wife / partner. Phil answered the call, took down the information hung the phone up
and got back into bed.
Fortunately the phone having woken his wife she nudged Phil, that was a job wasn't it and Phil
responded on the case. One other episode of Phil's confused state in the middle of the night was when
he came to pick me up for a case at Booligal.
Phil picked me up from my residence near the hospital; he made the U turn and headed back down
Murray Street, so far in the right direction. But instead of turning right toward Booligal, Phil turned left,
Phil was going home, must have been on auto.
As stated earlier Phil was unflappable.
One afternoon Wagga co-ord made one their often strange decisions to only leave one officer in town.
(still done today 2019, sometimes leaving NONE in town as is still happening in 2023). The well meaning
co-ord officer had decided to send two officers to Wagga to bring a convalescent patient back to Hay that
could have waited til the next day.

Some time after the car had left Hay, the station phone
rang. It was still during era that Hay station took its own
Ambulance calls, including 000 calls. You would,
depending on the urgency phone Wagga or call the case
and car on the air. Phil answered the call, crop dusting
aircraft crashed on Bertangles property seven kilometers
east of Hay. Phil alerted the hospital on the direct line and
told them to get the Doctor to the hospital, rang the Fire
Brigade to attend, then
proceeded to his ambulance.

“Hay car 54 to Wagga co-ord", go ahead car 54, “thanks

Hay car 54 proceeding to an aircraft crash seven
kilometers east of Hay………" Phil says that it was one of
the longest pregnant pauses that he had ever encountered on the radio. Hay 54
The scene when confirming you are going to an aircraft crash, we will alert the other services. Phil's
Phil arrived reply, “that's already done”. Wagga, “let us know if you need assistance”. Yeh, right
from where, Deniliquin??? 120 kilometres away. The pilot survived this crash, but
was killed in another crash some years later. Risky business this crop dusting.

Phil was a self-taught electronics man and a ham radio enthusiast and was instrumental in getting 2HAY-
FM on the air whilst he was in the ambulance. The aerial and transmitter was tuned in on the plant room
floor of the old ambulance station in Murray Street.

Phil left the ambulance service in November 1987 to go into private business in Hay. This was after a
very traumatic incident, again on his own, when he attended a young child knocked down and killed as
he got off the school bus on the Murrumbidgee River Road. Phil did not get over this incident as the kid
was about the same age as his son. No support from ambulance back then either. Phil started his own
electronics business in Hay after leaving the Ambulance and employed a local Vince Perrotta (SES
Vince). Phil moved onto Albury in electronics and eventually did his RN training in Albury. Some of the
Doctors and Tutors could not work out how Phil could stand at the end of the bed, ask a couple of well
place questions and have the diagnosis. Good old Ambo training.
The next was a guy with at least five personalities, Shaun Burke, he came mid December 1983, Shaun
(brown out, as we called him, mostly only worked at half power) was at Hay for nine long excruciating
months. It took Phil and myself a while to work Shaun out and which personality he was going to be for
the day. We worked out that it was how Shaun was dressed when he drove in the driveway to work
indicated what personality he would or could be for the day, that was providing he did not change at
lunchtime. If he drove in in full uniform, hat included he would be an ambulance officer for the day, if he
drove in in a Stetson, he would be a guitar playing musician for the day. The Stetson hat was actually two
personalities, one the musician, the other a rodeo bull rider, this was after he attended the local rodeo.
He was actually going to Bungendore to do the rodeo bull riding school which never happened. Then
there was just Shaun, whatever that was when he was none of the above.
Shaun also thought he was exempt from the road rules, must be a Sydney thing. There was a stop sign
at the highway corner, on Murray Street, even going home for lunch or just down the street he would not
stop at the stop sign. It did not even matter if either of us were beside him.
This was in-spite of being told by Phil and myself many many times. Eventually I put him on paper for it a
number of times, the third time when I stated, any further occurrences would result in the Area
Superintendent being advised - Shaun snapped and walk off the station. The indibidal Superintendent
Tony Funnell came to investigate.

Phil and I should have woken up to the problems with Shaun earlier. Shaun was transferred from
Deniliquin. The Superintendents regularly asked us how Shaun was going? Things going well with
Shaun? When the shit hit the fan on that morning, Superintendent Tony Funnell from Deniliquin arrived,
the comment was, well it took longer to happen at Hay than any where else. Hay Officers had tried to
manage the problem on station before passing it up the line. Shaun had been moved many times before
coming to Hay. I understand that he had threatened a Superintendent with a gun at either Deniliquin or
Barham. Rumour has it, that Shaun discharged a shotgun outside the window of the toilet at the
Deniliquin, the person had an immediate lower bowel evacuation.The problems with Shaun had been
mentioned to the then Regional Superintendent with the view of having him psychologically assessed.
Shaun went on holidays and was transferred to a Sydney station - never returning to Hay. That was the
way 'management' dealt with problem officers back then - the same to some extent still happens today.

Obviously dealing with Shaun must have caused Phil and myself some frustration. Phils’ wife Jenny and
my wife Cheryl had been talking about how their husband had come home grumpy more than usual.
Cheryl made a comment, Robert comes home and kicks the ‘cat”, that’s funny Phil does the same, even
‘funnier’, Cheryl remarked, we don’t have a cat, neither do we Jenny replied.

Next to come to Hay was John Chapman, in December 1984 for eleven months. I don't remember much
about John except that he was a chain smoker. He lived down the far eastern end of Murray Street.

The next posted ambo was David Mott in May 1985 and stayed for 17 months. Most Officers in these
days were "posted" the lucky draw out of the vomit bowl. Other times officers were asked as to whether
they wanted to go city or country. In usual ambulance style those who put in for city got country and visa
versa. And the ambulance service wondered why officer did not stay in the country very long. David was
a Griffith lad, his mother was well up in St. John Ambulance in Griffith. David got tied up with a local girl,
that did not end well.

The next country posted city guy that wanted city was Adrian Terry in January 1986. Adrian hailed from
the Hornsby area and was in Hay for 13 months. We nick named "nufey" due the fact that he owned and
brought to Hay two big Newfoundland dogs to Hay during summer. The dogs nearly die in the heat, so
too did Adrian. Adrian went home to Sydney on his five days off. One of those who wanted city but got
country. His car would be packed and running in the driveway of the station at 1558 hours ready for a
1601 get away. He would always be back before dark on his last day off. Kangaroos being a menace at
dusk. Adrian eventually got a compassionate transfer due to his sick mother. The paper work to achieve
this was mountainous.
 The next posted was in the October 1986 for five months was the indubitable
Arthur Hurst, locally known as half a man. Talk about short man syndrome. Arthur
pranced around like a testosterone charged bull. My wife often manned the
phones whilst I / we were out on cases. Shortly after Arthur's arrival he was the
only officer in town, so he popped into my residence just to make sure my wife
could man the phones properly. Remembering that Arthur had only been taking
very few calls himself whilst on duty and they had been under supervision. At that
stage my wife had been doing it very well for the past ten years or more. Arthur
seemed to have a lower opinion regarding women.

I remember one blue light disco, most of the Ambulance Officers assisted the
Police with the running of the Blue Light discos. This night Arthur was questioning one of the lady
volunteers Sue Meldrum about something, this lady went and got two coke cans, brought them back and
placed them on the ground in front of Arthur, 'now stand on these and you might come up to my height’
she stated, God love her. Well talk about cough and splutter. No more Arthur at discos.
It is my opinion that Arthur was a Management protected species, there were a few around at the time.
I had an un-announced (not unusual) visit from two Superintendents, Hilton Proctor and Phil Wilson one
day. I was questioned as to why I was making Officer Hurst undertake Station Officer tasks on the station.
I explained that I had always encouraged all officers to become familiar with these duties as often officers
would have to undertake relief duties at other stations and be required to do the end of month statistics
whilst on relief. It also helped when Officers could help the Station Officer with the end of the month
returns and looked good on the CV if they wanted a Station Officer position. At that stage the end of
month report consisted of some 14 pages, either hand written or typed on a ‘typewriter’, mostly repetitive
data, I still do the same today, 2020 though mostly on computer. That was one of the reasons, matters
that had to be dealt with when the Station Officer was on days off got done.

I was told that this was not appropriate and told that it was to stop. The Gods must have been smiling on
me that day, as in the middle of the discussion the phone rang, an Officer was required to go to Hillston
for five days relief. You win some, you lose some, this was a great ”win”. You guessed it, the only Officer
that could go on relief was relief Officer Hurst, as he was an extra on the relief line, bummer!!. I returned
to the discussion, and advised the assembled Management heavies that Officer Hurst was going to
Hillston for relief, and guess what, he will be there on his own at the end of the month and he would be
competent to do most of the end of month returns. The discussion was quickly terminated and the two
heavies made a hasty exit, leaving a vacuum in the room, no goodbye, the subject never to be mentioned
again, funny that. Officer Hurst was transferred from Hay a short time later, 27/03/1987. There was some
strong pull from a higher level of Management somewhere ?. I have heard that he got to Level 3, as it
was known then. He apparently gave a Parkinson’s patient Valium because he was fitting. Action taken,
yah right, protected.

Next to come posted to Hay in February 1987 was Bradley Murphy who stayed for
sixteen months. That was a sixteen months of whirlwind, Bradley
was like a cat on a hot tin roof, and all four limbs went in
different directions at the same time. Now don't get me wrong,
Bradley always had the best intentions and got done whatever
he set out to do, even if it put some off side. Bradley was ‘anal”
about keeping his diary. He had the gift of the gab and could get
people to do just what he wanted. This also extended to some
local and State politicians as well. Bradley was in St. John in
Sydney and started up a unit in Hay which was most successful
for many years. To his credit he joined most of what he considered the relevant
committees in town. Bradley was meticulous in his treatment and record keeping and
he was very knowledgeable in most matters. Some times this was a pain in the arse
to fellow officers. His standard in writing case sheets was very high. This I can assure
you case sheet writing was not a high priority for many others who traversed Hay.
Bradley was to later become a Doctor in Queensland. Not bad for a young officer who was sent to the
country. I met Bradley in Bundaberg during my 2016 holidays. Bradley has his own medical practice and
doing very well. I think he has slowed just a bit.

Chris Henning was the next posted to Hay in August 1987 and stayed for
twenty-six months. Like most it took about three months for each new officer to
settle into Hay and the ways things were done on station. Chris was an easy
going type, with one exception that I know of. Chris and another Officer were
attending to someone injured at the Services Club. As often is the case there is
always someone there more knowledgeable on scene than the Officers.
The guy was harassing Chris and Chris had told him more than once to desist.
Now Chris carried one of those long magna-light torches for night cases. This
guy kept coming in behind Chris, so Chris just stood up, levelled the torch at
ninety degrees to his belt, then hit the torch firmly, thrusting the end of the torch
into this guys epigastric region, Chris calmly bent over and carried on treating
the patient - no more harassment. Chris moved on to Bowral, where he retired
years later.

The next to come to Hay in February 1988 is

Dean Smith who hails from Junee. He was only
going to be here for a short time, but as of
September 2021 he is still in Hay, 33 years on.
Dean married a local girl, hence the long time he
spent in Hay. Dean has been my back stop and
main stay for many years.

Dean and I often did not talk to one another on jobs treating patients, we
did not need to. Each of us knew what the other was thinking and going
to do. Whilst treating a patient we knew what need to be done without
having to be told. If Dean was taking a blood pressure, and the patient
needed oxygen then I would put it on. Sometimes the only question may
be, “what size cannula ?”, only if I could not see the vein Dean was
looking at, or I would just hand him a 20G cannula.
Dean moved to Wagga on the 30th October 2021, he was finding the
extended on call, monotonous trips to Griffith in the middle of the night
and the call outs were taking a toll on his health. Plus his children both
live in Wagga. Dean spent 404 months or 33.66 years in Hay, he will be
sadly missed. Dean now holds the record of the second longest serving
Officer at Hay. Dean retired in July 2023 after 36.5 years.

The next was Noel Matson who came in November 1988 and he lasted all of six
months. Noel was ex army and wanted to run things the army way. Noel had the belief
that if something was half full it needed to be filled. I had been off for a few days, I took a
first aid kit out of a car and almost wrenched my arm from its socket. It had been filled to
capacity, much more that what was ever going to be needed. His reply when questioned
was you might need it at the “big one”, twelve 2.5 centimeter bandages, twelve savlon
ampoules, twelve 5 centimeter bandages, really. His comment, ‘you might need them at
the big one’.
The next was the first female Ambulance Officer to be come to Hay from Sydney, she was Deborah
Moran who stayed for eight months before resigning. Initially Deb was very pleasant and easy to get on
with… She become mixed up with one of the blow in counsellors and turned “green”. Deb managed to
upset me after becoming green. There was a small vege garden at the back of the ambulance station in
Murray street tended by my wife and self.
We had an old horse ‘Music” that the kids rode from time to time. It was dry and the horse was being fed
hay, grass clippings and a small amount of grain. The horse was in reasonable condition considering the
season. Deb decided that we were not feeding the horse well enough, she proceeded to pick all the
carrots that were just about to be harvested and feed them to the horse. I was not impressed to say the
least. That’s not how to endure yourself to the boss.

The next who transferred to Hay in July 1989 was Trevor Hurle who stayed for
fourteen months before resigning, an ex local guy who thought he was going
to impress the locals with his knowledge. Trevor was a Level 4 officer and had
done other training in this and that. Trevor was one officer who could not come
in half way of treating a patient and carry on. He was an officer who had to
start his patient examination at the beginning of the check list. I had a way of
seeing what and how officers handled being dropped into a case half way
through. That could easily happen out on the highway.
I would do the initial assessment, any treatment and as the patient was put in
the ambulance, put the other officer in the back after a quick handover, (its
called training). Trevor could not continue the observations or treatment of the
patient, he has not been the only officer who had the same problem. He took me on and lost. The last
straw was when he critiqued a series of my case sheets and sent a report through to one of the
Superintendents whilst I was on leave. Not a wise thing to do. The Superintendent took great delight in
asking me to explain the report. My reply left nothing to the imagination and the report and my reply was
never heard about again. Funny that, egg on a Superintendents face is embarrassing. I later respectfully
accepted Trevors’ resignation, his last day was 25th September 1990.

Transferring to Hay in June 1991 and staying for 22 months was Helen Webb.
Helen was a great officer though challenged in stature ( short ). This often
caused Helen some concern lifting a stretcher and when a well meaning
bystander offered there assistance, they would get a growl from Helen. Helen
was one of those officers that believed to be able to do the job you needed to
be strong, Helen lifted weights each day. Let me tell you, I would not have liked
to have met Helen in a dark alley and been on the wrong side. I remember one
instance out round Oxley attending a car accident. Now being the gentleman
that I am I always took the head (heavy) end of the stretcher. The lifts with
Helen were always well co-ordinated. The patient had been placed on the
stretcher, we took up our positions ready to lift. At that stage a bystander
stepped in and offered to lift the stretcher at Helens’ end. That was a mistake,
Helen just growled at him, I stated it will be right mate, she lifts weights. The
bystander was suitably amazed. Helen went on to do her masters and was in
education for some time.
 Sue Hynard came in the August 1991 and stayed for 15 months. Sue was a
Registered Nurse. It took her a little time to swap over from being told what to do as
a Nurse as to just doing it as an Ambulance Officer. Sue was a diabetic, though it
was hard to pick. When she sat down for a meal, she would disappear for thirty
seconds. Sue did not do her blood sugars, she just knew what the food contained
and adjusted her insulin to suit. Sue and Helen lived together in the ‘old pink shop’
as it was known on the south west corner of Cadell and Edward Streets.
When we would go out for a meal, Sue would order her meal. When it arrived she
would excuse herself and head for the toilet and be back before she had time to
tinkle. Sue knew just how much insulin to inject to cover the meal.

Michael Robinson arrived in January 1993 and was with us for 57 months. Michael
(Mick) had an almost photographic memory. He was young and good looking and
had the girls falling at his feet. Mick hailed from the Victorian high country. He
undertook his level IV training in Hay. He gained his Level V status after moving to
Toukley on the central coast.

The next to be posted to Hay was David Hutchinson who arrived in May 1993 and
moved after 21 months. David came to the Ambulance from the Navy, he had been in
charge of a Hospital on board a ship in the Gulf War. This was a typical ‘Ambulance’
stuff up posting. David trained with NSW Ambulance and had gained his ALS Level
IV from the NSW ambulance whilst he was in the Navy, prior to going to the Gulf War
on the Hospital ship. David used his skills and more whilst on deployment. Taking x-
rays, prescribing drugs and treating all array of things. When he returned David was
accepted into the Ambulance and did his probation in Sydney, he was then posted to
Hay. The stupidity came when he came to Hay, I had to do monthly Probation
Reports on him. I did the first report and
then told Management where to stick the
reports. I considered it an insult to David
to have to do reports on a very competent
officer, with more experience than myself. David returned to
Sydney and then joined the ACT ambulance as an ICP
because NSW Ambulance made every excuse under the sun
not to allow him to do his ICP course in NSW.

Lisa Mackay was the next to arrive 6th

March 1995 and transferred 3rd
September 2001 having stayed for 78
months. Lisa and her husband Peter ran
the Nicholas Royal Motel. Lisa undertook
level IV training whilst in Hay. Lisa moved
on the South West Rocks on the 3rd
September 2001. Lisa returned to Hay
again in September 2019 as an ICP and
remains in Hay as of mid 2023, though
looking at retirement.
Mathew Pickering arrived 24th December 1997 and transferred 13th October 1998 and was here for 10
months. Mathew was ex Army, his adage was if there is a hole, fill it. I got a first aid kit out of a car back
then, the kit nearly pulled my arm from its socket. When I opened the latches the kit sprung open. He had
restocked the kit, six savlon, normally two. Every item had been doubled, some more. There were twelve
five centimetre bandages. When Mathew was asked why he had over stocked the kit, his reply, you might
need it at big accident. What use would 5 cm bandages be at a big accident.

Glen Turnball arrived 17th March 1999 and transferred 28th June 2001 he was here for 27 months. Glen
was a quiet type, but in the time he was in Hay become a very good ambulance officer. Glen did the
usual relief duties around the region, enjoying his time at Narrandera. Glens’ wife was a city girl and not
suited to a country town. Glen called in late 2018 whilst in leave. Glen said that he had really enjoyed his
time in Hay.

Kim Williams arrived 14th July 2000 and transferred 27th April 2002 and was here for 22 months. Kim
has gone on tho become a Doctor. Kim had a number of degrees and was a quiet officer and was willing
to learn.

Daniel Kenner (Shrek……) graced us with his presence on the 30th August 2001 and thankfully
transferring on 21 April 2002 having been here for eight tortious months. Daniel had been in the SES in
Sydney, still is, his car number plate was: SRT 001, that’s ‘single rope technique’ – number one. Daniel
did not eat food as others do – he just inhaled it using both hands in a rotating fashion. He had also come
to show the country guys how it was done. That was the attitude of young officers coming out of the city.
Needless to say he fell flat on his face a number of times, not that I set him up, of course.

John Treloar transferred to Hay from Junee on 4th December 2001, and was
at Hay for 76 months. John medically retired at Hay 28th April 2008. At the
time John retired three officers on Hay station, John Treloar, Dean Smith and
Robert Marmont had 90 years of service between them, this will never be
seen at Hay, or might I suggest at any other station in the state.
John went into a number of business locally before his death.

Amber Barber came to Hay on the 5th May 2002 and transferred on the 23rd July
2003 after 14 months. Amber had some issues after a particular job at Hillston,
this she overcome and moved on to become the deployment officer, but has
since retired. Amber assisted in the re-planning of the new Ambulance station at
the Hospital. When we were told that we (dumb ambos’) could change the
internal walls in the station, it was Amber that redesigned it virtually in her head.
Ambers planning is what you see today. (Refer to HSM Mark Walker else where
in book)

Gary Wilson transferred to Hay on the 8th November 2002 and moved on to Gundagai 3rd May 2006
after 43 months. Gary was “special”, he was an engineer who had worked on constructing power stations
and knew everything about everything. He also had everything. If you had a can of WD40 he had twenty
litres of it. In knowing everything he would put metal in the microwave or eat over the computer keyboard,
despite being told many times both verbally and by way of memo that was not what you did. Gary had his
compressor piped to the kitchen bench so that he could use compress air to operate certain kitchen tools.
Gary moved on to Gundagai, where he become Secretary of APA the union. This position suited Gary
very well and I congratulated him on what he had achieved. I had the opportunity to work with Gary at
Gundagai in 2016, he has mellowed a little, however he is tenacious when it comes to the union. He still
gives workshops a hard time.
 Noel Smith was advised to come to Hay by Micheal Robinson. Noel arrived 28th
November 2003 from Bateau Bay, being here until 18th November 2005 close
enough to 24 months. Noel was in his late forties when he joined the ambulance
service. Noel came to Hay with the understanding that he would be here for two
years. He bought a house and fitted in well. Noel wanted one Station in particular
and was willing to wait until it came up, it did, just before his two years were up.
Unfortunately some other Officer were not as willing to wait for the Station they
wanted. They would often put in for multiple station at once. Steve Highway was
one of those and missed the one he wanted.

Steve Highway came to Hay on the 19th November 2005 and departed for the
north coast on the 19th March 2007, sixteen months. Steve was a kiwi, we wont
hold that against him. Steve was one of those officers that had to follow the set
line of questioning. He would at times not allow the patient to answer the question
before he would ask the next. I remember him questioning a lady who was
complaining of being dizzy one morning. Steve was into his third or forth check list
question, when I asked him to go back a question and let the patient fully answer
the question to which I already had the answer to having questioned her husband.
The husband had stated that about an hour after putting on a fentanyl pain patch,
she would get out of bed, feel dizzy and fall back onto the bed.
Cause of dizziness, low blood pressure due to vast vasodilation due to medication.
I always encouraged Officers to listen with both ears when questioning a patient.
The husband / relative will often elicit useful information.

We all know that patients can be less than truthful.

Steve and I had a serious discussion at one time at Narrandera on the way home from Wagga when he
thought that I was out to get him. He would have known it if I was. He was told that at some stage it
would all fall into place. Some time after he moved on from Hay, I received a phone call from Steve, “I
think I’ve got it”. Steve later moved back to Kiwi land, NSWA become too
political where he was.

Julie Whitton / Darlow arrived in Hay on the 17th May

2006 from Bomaderry, one of those “posted” ones. Julie
remained on Hay until the 22nd October 2013 when she
moved to Coffs Harbour, so far the third longest Officer
to serve at Hay Station. Julie was a delight to work with,
however she, as most new young Officers needed some
moulding. Julie was a very bright and well educated
Officer having a degree in Psychology. At one period of
time, for about a month, Julie and I had more meals
together on jobs that we had with our partners. I’m still in contact with Julie
from time to time in Coffs Harbour.(2023) (Right: Now that’s coffee time)

Corey Condon came from the central coast on the 22nd November 2006 and
after 29 months moved to Tumbarumba. Corey was a reasonable Officer,
apparently he would go home from work from time to time for a smoke. He thought
I did not know!
 Mark Nelson was posted from Summer Hill and
started in Hay on the 4th September 2008. Marks’
stay was short and he moved to Hamilton 13
months later. Mark was a well rounded Officer and
was great to work with. Mark seamed to enjoy
relief at other stations, particularly Narrandera.

Donna Sullivan was a constant mover, Donna arrived from Balranald to Hay on the 12th May 2009 and
after 4 months moved to Griffith, then after a short time moved to Narrandera. It appeared that she was
chasing her then boyfriend. In a conversation with one of the administration staff in Goulburn, she was
known to always be on the move. Donna was a lone treater, she would give further doses of Morphine
without consulting or cross checking with the other officer. Donna did this with me once, but it was not
until she left that the same had happened with other Officers.

Christian Holmes arrived in Hay from Sydney on the 26th October 2009 and after 12 months 14/1/2010,
moved to Jerilderie. Christian was a little different and went his own way.

Tara Picker was posted to Hay from Wollongong arriving in Hay on the 16th
November 2009.Tara was a Crookwell girl with a rural back ground. I was aware of
her family. Tara settled in quickly. Tara had a great attitude, yes she had a degree,
but her first words when she arrived were, I have a degree but I don't have any
experience, I'm here to learn and learn she did. Tara was a pleasure to work with.
Tara learnt a valuable lesson regarding Morphine and Narcan, during an on station
scenario. Tara was given the scenario of a patient with a badly fractured lower leg.
The last dose of Morphine had resulted in a decreased respiratory rate and
decrease in level of consciousness. ‘What are you going to do Tara?” “Tara replied
give some Narcan.” Dean Smith and I did a double back flip with half pike. You
would what, give some Narcan. We asked Tara to give us what the run down on
Narcan, which she did, the penny eventually dropped. That was after she said that she would give more
Morphine when the pain returned. Tara eventually ask as to what we would do. Gently re-adjust the
splinting which would cause some pain and use up the Morphine.

Matthew Vernon was posted to Hay from Sydney and arrive on 16th October 2010.
Matthews’ grandparents lived in Hay. Matthew stayed 26 months in Hay and headed
to Bulli on 22nd December 2012. Matt was a pleasure to work with and I think he
learnt lots whilst in Hay. I think Matt missed the social scene of the bigger towns.
Matt has gone on to better and bigger things on the coast.

Adam Rayner was posted from Wollongong and arrived in Hay on 20th August 2011. Adam moved on
after six months to Harden and then on to Braidwood. Adam was an interesting Officer.
 Francsois Fouche arrived in Hay on the 22nd December 2012 as an ICP from
Parramatta. Francsois left NSWA in ? 2019 when he resigned, he hated on call
and call outs. He has since gone into administration (research) for NSWA at
Rozelle. He is a South African, won’t hold that against him. Francsois had been a
medic in the South Africa Military and had worked on helicopters before coming to
Australia. He obtained his Intensive Care Paramedic (ICP) certificate in Sydney.
Francsois was attending many stabbings and shootings in Sydney and decided
that it was time for a change and a change it was. Francsois was used to running
multiple Officer scenes in Sydney which he had a tendency to do in Hay with just
two or sometimes four at a cardiac arrest. Francsois would tell the other Officer
what to do - put the oxygen on - take the temperature - get the stretcher. This
happened to me often until one day he was telling me what to do. I turned to the
patient and said “ you know I have been doing this for over forty years” loud
enough for Francsois to hear. He later apologised.

Francsois learnt a very valuable lesson about alternative treatment of patients with so called ‘chest pain’.
We were called to an elderly lady about 22:00 hours complaining of upper epigastric and or chest pain.
Francsois was of course was heading down the cardiac line and was lining the lady up to undertake an
ECG and to administer anginine. Robert had “listened” to the relevant history from the patient and family.
The patient stated that she had been out for dinner for her birthday and had come home and taken her
Codeine based night medication and had gone to bed. (Not a good idea on an empty stomach, it is well
known that Codeine irritates the stomach.) Sometime after going to bed she had quite a severe pain in
her epigastric lower chest region. Robert enquired as to there being some milk in the fridge, went to the
fridge and got half a glass of milk and ask the patient to drink the milk.(Yes, I know you don’t give cardiac
patients anything to drink) Within about a minute the patient stated that the pain in her stomach / chest
had completely gone. Francsois was at a complete loss as to how I had so effectively treated the patient,
but what about the “chest pain’, what chest pain, it was pain in the “gut”, caused by the Codeine. (Listen
to the history) There was no need for all the new fangled Ambulance equipment, ECG and drugs, just a
little bit of good old-fashioned common sense (sadly lacking in todays ambos) and listening to the patient.
We left the patient at home in care of her daughter. Codeine taken on empty stomach will usually cause a
patient distress in some form, particularly if the patient lies down.

Tania McPhellany arrived in 2013 from Wollongong, another looking for a sea
change. Tania stayed for 63 months 2019, before moving on to Tweed Heads.Tania
had some varied jobs before becoming an Ambulance Officer.

Glen Everett came to Hay in 2014 from the Hunter region. Glen moved back
to the coast in February 2023. Glen was burnt out after working on the coast.
It took a while to get him motivated and to treat patients again.
 CHAPTER SEVEN

THE SUPERINTENDENTS???

The first superintendent I worked under when I started at Hay was Superintendent John Bradford. I have
mentioned him elsewhere in the book. In my opinion he was the best bosses I have had since I started at
Hay. Let me say, some of the others came nowhere close and left a lot to be desired in their management
of Staff. With John Bradford, do your job to the best of your ability, make a decision that was right and he
would back you all the way, others would endeavour to “sink you”. You could have a disagreement with
John Bradford and it was done and dusted. No grudges held. The same could not be said of some of the
other inept that cycled through the system. Though most have now faded into insignificance.

Trevor Cowell………
Trevor was probably the most progressive Superintendent for his time. He was the Area Superintendent
at Griffith at first, having come up through the ranks. He then become the District Superintendent in
Albury. Trevor was not a micro manager. He called his Station Officers together and asked them to assist
him in running the District, others could have learnt a lot from him if they had not been “empire building”.
Station Officers were given a list of areas that would assist him in doing his job.
Some of the areas were, annual leave, vaccinations, stores, rosters and more. Officers had authority to
undertake whatever area they chose. Station Officer at Deniliquin, Bob Crampton and myself took on the
annual leave for the district. We would meet and collate the leave for some fifty officers. We had the
authority to approve or decline officers leave. We always tried to be fair, if an Officer was disadvantaged
this year they were given preference in the next years leave. There were some officers who always
wanted Christmas off, there were some who were not happy with their leave being moved. The criteria
was did the Officer have school aged children, how many Christmases had the Officer had off in a row in
the years prior. If you did not like your leave block when the roster was posted, you could appeal to
Trevor. His first phone call was to me, can you explain your decision, to my knowledge Trevor did not
approve any changes in the Christmas period. Trevor was one of the best managers I have had the
pleasure to work under. Met Trevor at Temora reunion in 2023, same old Trevor, had a good
reminiscence over a meal.

Hilton Proctor……
Ah! the shearer become Ambulance Officer, then promoted above his station. When I came to Hay in
1975 he was the Deputy Superintendent in Deniliquin. Hilton, unbeknown to me, was at one of the local
football matches when I attended to a patient with a broken leg. He rose quickly through the ranks and
become the District Superintendent for the South West Region, another one of “those” name changes.
He may have risen to a high office but had very little authority under the Regional Director. It was at the
time we were under the then Health Commission of the time. The power broker was a Mr. Mooney who
was the Regional Director of Health for the South West Region. He was in charge of all the Hospitals and
Ambulance personnel in the southern half of the state, which with the increase in Ambulance staff
numbers being incremental to his increase in pay. Poor old Hilton did not even have the authority to sign
an "order" to purchase petrol, or anything else for that matter. It was Hilton who sent me the "redback"
letter regarding having one too many gauze swabs and one swab short in my Level IV stores.

There was some very interesting conversations at a retired Ambulance Officers reunion in Temora in
early 2023. There were a number of stories by TB relating to Hilton Proctor being sent by NSW
Ambulance to the Wollongong area to fix the problem with the somewhat militant unions down there.
Apparently there was some problem and the wharfs has been on strike supporting Ambulance officers. I
was told that the Superintendent left with more stomach ulcers of that he had arrived with.
Superintendent Beresford
Some time after one of those rename, reshuffles, realignments, manipulation, re-organisation, changes
for the “better” in the late seventies, early eighties, we were blessed by an Area Superintendent by the
name of Keith Beresford. Otherwise known as billy barefoot for reason that may become obvious as we
go on. He was one of those supernumerary superintendents left over from the latest “reshuffle” that had
to be given a job!!.

I don't remember where he came from however he was stationed at Griffith and had Griffith, Hillston, Hay,
Balranald and Coleambally under his "control", I use that word advisedly. He made fortnightly visits to
these stations, micro management, he had to do something with his time to justify his existence .
One fortnight it was for a full monthly station inspection that entailed about ten pages of tick and flick,
count the petty cash, balance the fuel, check the stores, the other was just for a visit or a snoop around.
He would pop in unannounced, just to see if he could catch you out!!. He arrived at the airport one
morning just as an Air Ambulance arrived to see if you were wearing your hat, most important that hat.
Like most things that were used back then it had to be accounted for: petrol and Entonox being just two.

Now Hay station had a fuel tank to rival some service stations, 16370 litres full. At the end of each month
you had to balance the fuel used with the tank dip. You also had to do a balance every fortnight when he
did an inspection. What this moron did not realise, even though he was told a number of times, was that
the tank was round, had rounded ends and, that the dip stick (not unlike the superintendent) had the
same graduations all the way up, or down as the case may be. So, that meant that it was only accurate
when it was full, half-full or empty, graduations were in fifty litre increments.
That, and other things like temperature being a factor, it was impossible to accurately balance the fuel dip
with the meter reading and the amount used.
This Superintendent expected that the dip, the meter reading, and the usage to balance. My way was to
take three dips and average them out, you got close enough. There was one other factor, if a semi trailer
had passed over the trench in the main road it caused the fuel to slosh in the tank, as well as rattle the
station windows.

One other gem he tried to implement was how much Entonox was used by each patient. Entonox
cylinders held 400 litres of gas fifty percent nitrous oxide and fifty percent oxygen. This all knowing
Superintendent wanted a register kept on how much gas each patient was administered. We already kept
a register of cylinders and that each patient was given Entonox on the case sheet. But no, he wanted
each patients actual usage in the register, as well.

Now remember that some people can be easily baffled by science and bullshit, this Superintendent was
no exception. It did not take much of either to confuse this one. He was asked a series of question to
which I knew he did not know the answer to, neither did I, but with a little effort I could work it out - near
enough. What was the average breath, in millilitres inhaled by each patient with each breath, on average
how many breaths did the patient take whilst on Entonox (how long is a piece of string?) Now, my best
calculation, a patient could breath as little as 500 mls, to as much as two litres, per breath, depending on
the amount of pain the patient had. I have seen patients take that many large breaths that quick that the
head of the cylinder frosted. Now to be able to work this out accurately, you either had to count the
breaths the patient was taking whilst doing other things, or get the patient to count the breaths, only
whilst he had the mask on his face, as well as the depth of the breaths - in short this was an impossibility
to do accurately, oh!, and then deduct the amount of gas used from that what was in the cylinder, if it was
full in the first place.
This Superintendent was also around when we had the Busselton bus accident five kilometres out the
Narrandera road on Mothers Day in May 1982. He was rung by the Wagga co-ordination centre and
asked to attend. Needless to say he did not bother to attend, which was probably just as well he did not,
chaos would have rained supremely. But came the time for debrief he was there with bells on to try and
kick bumbs, fortunately Superintendent John Bradford was there also and in one exchange asked
Beresford " and did you attend the accident”, ah no, well that's alright then. No further comment was
made by Beresford.

There one other incident that involved Superintendent Beresford was a short time after I had completed
my then "intermediate life support" training, later to be call Advanced Life Support (ALS) or Level IV. Each
monthly or sometimes fortnightly he did a 100 percent audit of all the ALS stores. This particular time
there was a minor discrepancy, there was one too many packets of gauge squares and one not enough
packets of combine dressing. Of course this was made mention of in his inspection report. Even though
the error was easily explained, I had marked off the wrong one in the stores book. About a week later an
“official confidential” envelope from the Regional Office arrived in the mail address to me. These in those
days were known as "red backs" after the spider as they usually contained information that had a sting.
Sure enough, the letter from the then Superintendent Hilton Proctor (ex shearer) was a formal reprimand
for not keeping my ALS stores 100 percent correct and that any further incident occurred I would be
disciplined. Yes, there was a formal reply. I did not hear anything further on the matter, I think I still have
that letter.

At the 2023 Ambulance officers reunion in TEMORA, there were some interesting stories told regarding
this Superintendent, some not printable here.

Phil Wilson. From what I can remember he was straight down the line, just did his job and was not out to
get anyone, just did his job.

Graeme Willis…….

Graeme was District Superintendent at one stage. He made life difficult for many over the years. Yes he
was a sticker for doing things the right way. I had many a run in with him over the years. He was out to
catch you out on something. Graeme did not like it when you stood up to him and he was wrong.

Graeme eventually become part of the States investigation squad. ( I cant remember the name).
He investigated staff for various wrong doings.
 CHAPTER EIGHT

THE DOCTORS:

Doctor James Bonwick. Doctor Bonwick came to Hay as a young doctor in 1954 and
retired after fifty years as a Doctor. He was as expected, an old school Doctor, he always
wore a bow tie and in most cases was respectably dressed. He even wore his bow tie
with his pyjamas at night. Doctor Bonwick, probably through necessity, was a very
resourceful man. If he did not have a particular instrument he would make it. In his
surgery in Moppett Street he had two consulting rooms which he literally ran between
and an Xray room. A Bunsen burner on each of his desks was what he used to sterilise
some of his instruments. God forbid using that today!!. Through a turn of events I actually
acquired one of his desks, bunsen burner burn included.

Doctor Bonwick was a brilliant and resourceful Doctor. Apparently he told the story of nearly going broke
during the three month complete isolation of Hay during the 1956 floods. As there was very little to no
movement of people in or out of Hay during this time, no one got sick. He was often paid in kind - a
chook, some vegetables or whatever the patient had, sometimes not paid at all. No bulk billing from
Medicare back then.

There are a few cases that tend to stand out that involved Doctor Bonwick. Not long after I came to Hay
the Ambulance Service moved from using "trilene" to using Entonox. Trilene was more useful at removing
stains from the carpet than it was at relieving pain. It could not be used in a smoke environment because
it created phosgene gas, great for patient safety. Entonox is a mixture of fifty percent Nitrous Oxide and
Oxygen. One of the best pain relieving gas around great stuff. Of course it was supposed to be patient
administered, that is the patient held the mask over the mouth and nose and breathed in and out via the
mask. In the ideal world when the patient lost control of motor skills the arm and the mask would drop
away, hence no more gas. Now Ambulance Officers being Ambulance Officers often saw merit in the
patient having just a little more pain relief - good patient management. Have the Ambulance Officer hold
the mask on, have the patient take deep breaths until the patient started to take normal breaths then
remove the mask, worked very well. Very good pain relief was obtained with this method, however not by
the book of the time. If they had a bit much, you just removed the mask and asked them to take a couple
of deep breaths, all fixed.

There was one dentist in Hay at one time that it is believed to have had Entonox parties - "happy" affairs
apparently!!! As were some Ambulance Officers from time to time.

Back in the early days, before my time, Hay Ambulance attended the football of a weekend that's the way
it had been done for years by the Honorary Officers. I also attended the football for awhile, until the
Ambulance decided to charge the football club for the Ambulance to attend, typical.

This one particular weekend, just after Entonox had been introduced, there were three players who
dislocated their shoulders. Doctor Bonwicks’ surgery was just opposite the football ground, so you took
the patient to the Doctors surgery rather than the hospital as it saved the Doctor having to go to the
Hospital, he had most of the needed things in his surgery like, an X-ray machine. The first patient was
taken to the surgery, an X-ray was taken and manually developed, yes dislocated no fracture. Doctor
Bonwick said, I suppose we will have to take the patient to the Hospital for a whiff of gas. I explained that
we had this new stuff, Entonox. After explaining what it was, 50 percent nitrous oxide and 50 percent
oxygen, it was decided to use it to reduce the shoulder. The patient was given ten milligrams of Valium IV
for muscle relaxation and the Entonox given, Officer administered - that was the mask was held on by the
Officer, the patient asked to take deep breaths until the patient returned to taking normal breaths.
When this happened Doctor Bonwick took the arm, flung it this way and that way and it popped back in,
worked a treat. The patient had a sling applied and was returned to the football ground, just a little groggy
from the Valium. The next patient was treated in the same way, as was the third. Marvellous stuff that
Entonox.

Another invention of the good Doctors was the use of a number fourteen Jacques urinary catheter, much
to the consternation of my wife and other nursing staff at the hospital. When she arrived to escort the
patient to Wagga, to find the said catheters hanging out of both nostrils. Now to the beginning of the
story. The Hay Ambulance had been called to the Carrathool Hotel to a brawl, man kicked in the face. On
arrival officers found the man semi conscious and bleeding from
his well flattened nose. It was not possible to apply any pressure
to the injured part so quick transport to the Hay Hospital. Doctor
Bonwick met us at the hospital, took one look at the man and
said he'll be going to Wagga. So off to refuel and back to the
hospital. As said before the good Doctor was very resourceful,
he had already tried his tonsil bobs, he used these to stop
bleeding after his tonsillectomies. It was a rolled up gauge
square with a white tape sown to it, so it did not go down the
back of the patients’ throat. The Doctor had put one of these into
the nose of this patient and when I arrived a nurse had been
instructed to keep pressure on the tape attempting to apply
pressure to stem the bleeding. None of his efforts had worked.
The next thing the Doctor asked the Sister to get a number
fourteen Jacques catheter. The Sister looked blankly at the
Doctor and asked why the patient needed to be catheterised?
Just get me two catheters and some ice cold water. The Sister
did as she was asked. Doctor Bonwick inserted a catheter in
each nostril followed by a syringe full of ice cold water into the
catheter bulb… Whalla no more bleeding from the nose, front or
back. Now where is the nurse escort and off to Wagga. The
nurse escort arrived (my wife) to be given a handover of this
patient with a badly fractured nose with two urinary catheters
dangling from his nose. The staff at Wagga Base Hospital were
suitably amused by the scene, but no more bleeding. To treat the
same problem today they have a specifically made catheter to
do the same job. A Doctor well before his time!!! I learnt a lot
from the good Doctor.

The Shire decided that Hay needed another Doctor so they built a house and surgery on the corner of
Church and Coke streets. The first Doctor was an Indian, flash, Jack Pathak, the fastest draw in the west
who drove a Merc. This related to how quick he could have the 'Medibank' book out and have it signed.
One when he saw the patient either at the home, surgery or in the back of the ambulance at the surgery
and then again when he saw the patient in the hospital. Then each time he saw the patient in the
hospital. Flash Jack was renowned for over servicing and eventually left for greener pickings, I
understand that he was investigated by Medicare.
Doctor Bob Carter was the next to come. He was good doctor and easy to work with. Doctor Carter was
from the north shore in Sydney and was a bit inexperienced in emergency medicine. In general he
listened and took on board what you said. His dissecting of a chook for dinner has to be seen to be
believed. He would often travel in the Ambulance to Griffith if he considered the patient to be sick enough
to require his attendance.

Doctor Graeme Thompson

Doctor “tango” as he was known in UHF radio circles. Back in those days the Hay
Hospital, Doctor Tango, Ambulance Officers, Ambulances and all farmers had UHF
radios. Well before mobile phones. Doctor T embraced the portable radio, like most of
us who carried one in those days - like mobile phones today, it gave you a certain
amount of freedom to go places. Doctor T rode most places, including his house calls
on his trusty pushbike. If I called him to attend a case in a house, that what he did.

I remember a number of cases in particular. Ambulance Officers had brought a patient

to the hospital who had overdosed on amitriptyline, not a nice one. This is one of
those nice antipsychotic drugs that if you took at overdose levels, and that was not all
that many pills, could result in the patient arresting at any time up to 72 hours after ingestion.
Doctor T had prescribed syrup of epicacuhna, it makes you vomit about twenty to thirty minutes after
administration. Doctor T left the hospital to do a house call and asked if we would hang around - thats
what you did in those days. Some twenty minutes later there were some rumblings and the patient
wanted to vomit. Not only did she projectile vomit, but also there was a major eruption from the other end
at the same time. For what ever reason the patient become deeply unconscious. A quick radio call to
Doctor Tango, return to the hospital urgently, overdose now unconscious. Within minutes the Doctor had
arrived, but man was he puffing. Patient survived to do it again, and again.

I was called to the public school one afternoon to a child with a sore leg having fallen in the monkey bars.
The patient stated that he had lost his grip on the bars and had fallen with his leg between the bars. The
patient was complaining of pain in the distal area of his femur. On examining the leg it was found that
when I sprung the leg outwards it hurt, when sprung inwards it did not. Considering how the child fell, I
diagnosed a greenstick fracture to distal end of femur, remembering that Ambulance Officers were not
allowed to diagnose back then. (If you don’t diagnose, how on earth do you treat). The child was
transported to the medical centre in Lachlan street to see Doctor T. The good Doctor examined the leg
and announced that there was no fracture. I said, I believed there was and gave my reasons. Some
further discussion ensued. The Doctor said take the child up to the hospital X-ray and I will be up shortly
to X-ray him. Doctors could X-ray back in those days. The Doctor arrived and took the X-ray, he walked
out of X-ray and said how did you know. I looked at the mechanics of the fall and examined the patient
thoroughly, tis called “mechanism of injury” these days.
It is also called ‘getting a good history’ from the patient and bystander, somewhat lacking today.
I was not questioned about any more of my diagnosis’s decisions after that. We become good friends.
One other incident was a car accident at the Booroorban, we are young man in the passenger seat had a
fractured mid-shaft femur, it was duly splinted cleaned and transported Hay hospital. Dr Thompson asked
the question was the femur actually fractured, my comment was, yes it was and had been in a U shape.
No need for an x-ray then, take the patient to Griffith. Doctor T went on to be the Police Surgeon in
Canberra.
Doctor Jane Mathews. “The it’ll be alright, you're a sensible person type Doctor”. There are two cases
that I remember well regarding this Doctor. I remember going out to a property early one morning some
eighty kilometres from Hay to a man with intermittent chest pain. After some very close and detailed
questioning it was decided to treat the man as either exertional angina or that he had had a heart attack,
angina being the bet. (Remember, not allowed to “diagnose”). The man had stated that he had been
fencing the day before and that each time he attempted to drive a steel post into the ground he got chest
pain, when he rested the pain went away, classic angina. The man put it down to, that he had being doing
the same the day before and thought he was just a sore muscle or two.
The pain then came on when he attempted to do any heavy work. Ambulance Officers treated the man as
best we could back then, no drugs just oxygen and he was transported to Hay hospital for treatment.
Doctor Matthews was on call, (she was friends with the patient) saw the patient in Casualty and said he
could not possibly be having an angina or a heart attack. She took some blood and sent the patient
home. Fortunately, the patient decided to stay with family in Hay. At around five pm that evening, when
the blood results came back, all hell broke loose. Quick, find the patient and get him back to hospital,
“urgent” transfer to Griffith - heart attack. The patients comment on the way to Griffith, you blokes were
right. The patient underwent by pass surgery in Sydney three days later..... oops!!! Listen to the not so
dumb arsed Ambo.

Listening was NOT the good Doctors Forte, because it happened again.
It was one afternoon, called to man collapsed, chest pain. So hot footed it lights and siren to Water
Street. On the way the good Doctor was backing out of her driveway on the way to the hospital to see
another patient.
On arrival in Water Street, we found the male patient Len, in his mid forties looking like crap, pale,
profuse sweating, cold and ‘crook’, the good old medical term. One did not need to be Einstein or
Florence Nightingale to know what was wrong. Unfortunately the patient was insisting on going to the
toilet - not a good sign, patients die on the loo.
I asked the other Officer to take the patient to the toilet, with the oxy-viva and “don’t" shut the bloody door
and I'll get the stretcher and load him straight onto the stretcher from the toilet. Not dying on my shift.
This was duly done and a quick trip to the hospital, before the days of much treatment, though he was
given Oxygen which improved he condition somewhat. Arrived in casualty to find Doctor Mathews waiting
and asking what the hurry was. The call was to a man collapsed. I advised the Doctor regarding the
patients’ serious condition at home.

She took one of her casual looks at the patient in the casualty room, left saying well there's nothing
wrong with him now and left the room. By the way, this was before the days of Ambulance Officers having
monitors. The Doctor did not see the need to put a monitor on the patient either. I decided to stay in the
room to do my paper work when the Doctor and Nurse left to see another patient next door, you don't
leave patients like that alone. I'm asking the patient all the usual stuff in order to do my case sheet. I had
asked a number of questions and got the correct replies, asked the next question - no answer, I turned
around asked the question again, patient not responding, no respirations, no pulse. I yelled arrest, and
started CPR. The Doctor returned - what happened - “what's it look like”. Panic stations ensued for some
time. By the time the monitor from the other end of the hospital was put on the patient he had returned to
normal rhythm, well sort of, ECG noted marked changes. The patient was retrieved by a medical team
from Griffith. Back then a Doctor and ICU Nurse was brought to Hay by Griffith Ambulance to take the
patient back to Griffith hospital. The patient arrested three times in the back of the ambulance on the way
over to Griffith, reverted each time. The patient was then transferred to Melbourne and arrested twice in
the Air Ambulance. His final arrest was a short time after he arrived in a Melbourne hospital. I got the
impression from the Doctor that she should have maybe listen to those dumb arse Ambulance Officers.
We gained some respect that day. It was Doctor Matthews who, many years later came out to Booligal at
my request to put a cannula in the arm of a man who had been shot in the stomach. That does not
happen if you don't have the Doctors respect.
Doctor Stuart Gardiner
Stuart was a rather quiet unassuming person. Always thought deeply about his decisions on what to do.
This was some times frustrating when something needed to be decide quickly. In general he was a good
Doctor.

Doctor John Mitchell. Doctor Mitchell was also one of those old school Doctors, no random number
generator blood pressure machines for him, just the good old mercury column machines. Doctor Mitchell
had a very nervous disposition and stammer, many of the nurses did not like him. Doctor Mitchell was
very pro Ambulance and given the correct information would allow, particularly me to do things outside
protocols if needed, no matter what the hour. More about that later.

There are many cancer patients in Hay that owe their life to Doctor Mitchell due to his uncanny ability to
pick patients with cancer early and sent them to Melbourne.

There are a couple of stories regarding the good “old” Doctor. The first impressed most of the nurses who
had doubted him. There was an elderly patient in the long stay area that staff had trouble feeding. The
other Doctors had been consulted but had not come up with any suggestions. I don't know if the
particular nurse was having a go at Doctor Mitchell, but put the problem to the Doctor. The patients’
tongue swells up when the nurses try to feed the patient. The Doctor requested that the nurse get an
ampoule of adrenaline one in one thousand and a gauze square. The Doctor asked the patient to poke
her tongue out. The Doctor put the adrenaline on the gauze square and painted it onto the patients
tongue. Problem resolved, PRN before meals.

There were a number of occasions that we had reason to call Doctor Mitchell out to intubate patients on
the side of the road. One unconscious patient from a car accident north of Booligal was being brought
towards Hay hospital and having requested the Doctor to meet us on the road to tube the patient.
Remember that this was in the days before ‘highly trained paramedics’ could insert LMA’s.

Doctor Mitchell arrived in another ambulance with his trusty black bag, opened it up took out the
appropriate “non” cuffed endotracheal tube and inserted it. Most Doctors use “cuffed” tubes in those
days, it had been a long time since I had seen one of those tubes. He quickly tubed the patient and
continued to treat the patient on the way to the hospital with the assistance of the Paramedic on board.

One morning just after sun up the duty crew (Smith and Mackay) were called to a motor vehicle accident
on the Balranald road. When they arrived they found two seriously injured patients. There was an
immediate call to bring a Doctor to meet the Ambulance. Officer Marmont who was off duty was rung to
take Doctor Mitchell to the scene. The critical patient was loaded into the one and only Ambulance on
scene and headed back towards Hay. This left the other Officer Lisa Mackay with a serious patient, a
level four kit and an oxy-viva on scene to treat the patient. Before the Ambulances met I already had
Doctor Mitchells' authorisation to request an urgent Air Ambulance to Hay. Only ‘Doctors’ could do that
back then. The two Ambulances met, the Doctor transferred into the other Ambulance and I continued to
the scene to pick up the other, a very much relieved Officer and patient. It is actually one of the most
disconcerting experiences is to be left on scene and have the Ambulance disappear down the road. This
has not been the only time an officer has been left at the scene without an Ambulance - that’s just what
you do. I have managed to avoid that situation so far. Both patients were flow out by Air Ambulance.

There was another one of these incidents which probably caused Doctor Mitchell to ‘stammer’ greatly. A
request for a Doctor to attend an unconscious patient, no ambulance to take the Doctor to the scene. So
Doctor Mitchell was picked up in a Police car to be taken to the scene. On the way the Police Officer told
Doctor Mitchell that he was going for an ‘amputation’ when in fact it was for an ‘intubation’. This caused a
number of stutters and stammers from the good Doctors however he just soldiered on.
“Give what you think necessary Robert”. Called to car under a truck on the Balranald road at four am.
On arrival it was found that a small car that had gone under half way down a semi-trailer. The car having
then been spat out from under the truck. The driver was still in the car. On getting out of the Ambulance
you could tell the driver was injured by his ear piercing screams, obviously A B C were good. On
examining the patient it was found to be very conscious and that he had a distal fracture of his femur. The
SES quickly opened the drivers door, only for me to find that the distal end of the femur was half way
down the calf of his leg. There was no way that I could get the patient out the drivers door without twisting
his leg. So it was decided to take the patient out the back door on the spine board. A quick cannula
inserted, ten of morphine given, no effect. So another ten given, no effect. Another five, no reduction in
the level of screaming. Seeing that the amount of morphine given had not worked, time to ring Doctor
Mitchell, it’s four am. “Doctor Mitchell, it’s Robert speaking, sorry to wake you. I have given a patient
25mg of morphine with no effect, can I have your permission to give him some Midazolam? We could
only give Midazolam to fitting patients back then. ICP could give it for sedation.
“Is that him screaming in the background”, asked the Doctor? Yes. “Give what you think is necessary
Robert”. I had previously read up on, and given Doctor Mitchell a copy of the drug use and the amounts
that could be given. So made the necessary arrangements to extract the patient then give the Midazolam
and some more Morphine. Give oxygen, monitor patient.
Worked like a treat, the screaming stopped and the patient was ‘comfortable’. Despite the amount of
medication given the patient was rousable at the hospital. The Doctor was always happy to sign and
make comment on the case sheet about how the patient presented at the hospital. A variation to practise
was always done. This was how ALS, Level 4s eventually got to use Midazolam for extrication and to
control mental health patients without the need for a Doctor to authorise it.

Doctor Mitchell had a very unique way of dealing with children who needed stitches, this initially
perplexed some of the nurses. He would order 5mg of Midazolam to be give orally and state he would be
back in 20 to 30 minutes. Most of the nurses question his request, only to be told please give the
medication and I will be back. Twenty minutes later the Doctor was back to do his needle work.
No kicking, no screaming from the patient, no restraining the patient to do the stitching, just a calm
compliant patient. Best of all the patient had no memory of the ordeal of being stitched. The nurses
eventually woke up and embraced to idea.

I had one particular personal encounter with Doctor Mitchell. I had a run of palpations for some time. I
consulted the Doctor Mitchell at the hospital, ECG and bloods taken and see the Doctor at his surgery.
The ECG and bloods were negative. I explained to Doctor Mitchell that the palpitations were different
when in certain positions. Worse on my back and right side, less on my left side and none on my
stomach. After some thought the Doctor said, you have a virus on the vagus nerve and it will resolve in
about three weeks, it did. Doctor Mitchell said that if I required a second opinion that his son, also a
Doctor, would be here next week, pop in to see him. I did, after reviewing Doctor Mitchells notes and
asking me some more questions he also said yep, three weeks. During those three weeks I had gone to
the top of the Water tower at least once, no chest pain. Yes, after three weeks the palpitations ceased.

Having gotten the Doctors permission and signing the case sheet really got up the nose of some
of the Management.
 CHAPTER NINE

SOME OF THE NURSES AND HOSPITAL MANAGERS AT HAY:

Some of the old Nurses were to say the least, against there being a Permanent Officer appointed. This
was because it curtailed their shopping exposes in Melbourne when taking patients to Melbourne. The
Matron at the time was Matron Hunt, some of the RN's were Sisters Marilyn Phillips (her husband was an
honorary), Jan Gibson, Margaret Forgie, Margaret Cook, Sandra Wall, Shirley Blomfield, Elizabeth
McCormick, Isobel Johnston, Erma Callow, Maggie Clarke, Jenny Bedrock and of course the intrepid
night Sister Mary Smith.

Many of the RN’s were not all that willing to tell ambulance officers what was wrong with the patient you
were transporting, they would just hand you a sealed envelope. Man did some go off tap when the
Ambulance Officer opened the envelope in front off them. “You can’t do that”, reply, well if I am to look
after the patient for the next two hours we need to know what’s wrong with the patient.Eventually they
stopped sealing the envelope.

Sister Mary Smith did nearly twenty years as the night sister after her husband died. Mary would have
been one of the best nurses that I have had the pleasure to have worked with. She may have appeared
to be gruff, rough and abrupt, but if you were sick and genuine you got the best and most compassionate
treatment possible. Some of the nurse aids or RN’s for that matter, did not like Sister Smith all that much.
It was more than likely that she kept them on their toes, things just had to be done right, old school
Nurse. She would often sit with dying patients during her shift. Her usual comment when she came on
duty each night was 'and what trash do we have tonight'. This referred to patients, food and in some
cases which nurse. Of course, the first shifts for new nurses was the night shift. They had no idea where
things were, what needed to be done to whom or what. Sister Smith often aired off about these useless
nurses. And what's more, some forty years later the same silly bloody thing happens, new nurse gets
night shift. Talk about change!!

There were some very interesting incidents involving Sister Mary Smith, including the renowned SSS, the
"Sister Smith Special". This was reserved for those particular patients who had the ability to fake or feign
unconsciousness and we had a few back then. The SSS involved putting the so called unconscious
patient in a bath of ‘cold’ water to which a couple of buckets of ice had been added. Most of the patients
needed a bath in any case, as most had an aversion to water at the best of times. When they woke up in
the bath, which did not take too long, some longer than others, they would get an intra muscular injection
of 80mg of Lasix.
As expected they would be up all night going to the toilet, peeing. "That will stop the bastards from
sleeping”, announce Sister Smith. Mary Smith also had her way of dealing with mental health patients.
She had her unique way of detaining one particular patient. One of the Doctors, Doctor Carter arrived at
the hospital after an urgent call from one of the nurse aides to fined Sister Smith restraining a patient in
the hallway. The patient decided to leave the hospital, the patient was tackled by Sister Smith. When the
Doctor walked in he found the patient face down, the sister sitting astride the patient holding his head
back with two handfuls of hair. Needless to say the patient was well restrained until medication took over.
Ambulance Officer Terry Nelson took Sister Smith to Melbourne as an escort on a few cases, during his
time on relief at Hay. He tells the story of coming across a serious car accident in Melbourne. Both Terry
and Sister Smith were treating patients until the Victorian Ambulance turned up. One patient had a
guadel airway in which became blocked. In typical Sister Smith fashion, she took the airway out, blew the
crap out and re-inserted it and carried on treating. What would the infection control Nurse say today, and
no gloves either.
Sister Smith was also very handy when it came to dispatching mice and snakes for that matter.
Sister Smith was very accurate with a ruler, she could measure up a mouse very precisely when it was
time to dispatch some of the hordes of mice that often frequented the sisters officer at night. Her aim was
deadly. She was also not afraid of the snakes that used to roam the corridors of the hospital, dispatching
them in timely fashion as well.

There was one particular RN who every time she did an escort would ask – do you have a blood
pressure machine, or do you have this or that piece of equipment, all of which we normally carried. My
reply become, do you have that in the hospital, Sister ? well yes, then we have it also.

Barb Lilburne.. an interesting RN, would only speak to you if she had too, and would often ignore you in
the corridor. She eventually got the Sam Nelson treatment from me. Did not change her attitude though.
I’m told she self medicated with the Hospital “brandy” from time to time. It was in the past the sleeping
drug of choice for some patients.

Elizabeth McCormick… one of the most caring RNs’ I had come across. Elizabeth worked part time but
a large family and distance from town become too much so she stopped nursing.

THE MATRONS OR HSMs OR NURSE MANAGERS - THEY KEPT CHANGING THE NAMES:

Matron Hunt: Matron Hunt was the Matron at Hay Hospital when I arrived, she was old school, but tried
to please everyone. Ambulance Officers were just drivers and she was not on side with having
permanent Ambulance Officers. I don't think she was able to move out of the Honorary system. This was
even more noticeable when I gained my Level 4. It was only Doctors that could put cannulas in and give
IV drugs, partially morphine, not lowly dumb arsed ambos. There was considerable resistance and
resentment to this and even worse that we could zap patients with HeartStarts, also known as “Packer
Wackers”, without referring to a Doctor. All of my treatment were scrutinised by nursing staff and the
Matron. I had many a animated discussion with her about what I could and could not do.

Fortunately both the Doctors were on side and very supportive. Both Doctors’ Thompson and
Matthews had written references supporting my application for Level 4. It also became a little
difficult when I brought in a patient that I had treated, that was given Lasix, and Doctor Thompson
asked who had treated the patient and when the nurse said, Robert had treated the patient and
that they had improved, for the nurse to be told ring me back if anything changes. That did not go
down too well with some of the Nurses or Matron Hunt.

Matron Hunt flew pigeons and like an ale or two. There was an indiscrete discussion at the Services Club
one night with one of the Relief Officers who was a Union representative, I don't remember what it was
about, but it was the talk of the hospital for some time.

Toni Prentice.. What are gem this one was. She was appointed by Senior District Management as the
head hunter at the Hay Hospital. In a very short time she was able to get rid of most of the local nurses
and replaced them with agency nurses. Her nursing management skills and other people skills were
atrocious. Her main aim was to reduce costs at all costs.
This self apiniated HSM was at Hay to cut Staff and costs at any cost. If I remember correctly she was
the one who locked the linen in a cupboard so that ambulance officers could not “steal” the linen. There
was an agreement at the time with linen and Oxygen Masks, a one for one exchange.We had to get the
duty nurse to open the cupboard in order to get swappable linen out. That often meant that we were
given the drug cupboard keys in order to open the cupboard to get the linen, against regulations. Toni
was the one who flouted her boobs. At this stage there was an agreement that the Hospital could obtain
petrol from the Ambulance bower at cost. So I worked out how much the Hospital was saving and the
cost of the linen the Ambulance was using, down to the cost of a sheet and a pillow case. Toni did not like
it when I presented her with the breakdown of the costs that were in her favour.
 HSM Mark Walker, RIP: Mark was one of the best HSMs’ that I have had the
pleasure to work with. Mark was the HSM when the new hospital was in the
planning stage through to its completion. Mark had been specifically told by
Ambulance hierarchy and Health in Sydney, NOT to discuss the new hospital
plans with the Ambos’, even though we were to be part of the hospital complex.
I received a phone call one afternoon, Mark wanted to see me in his office.
When I arrived he was in the Board Room the new hospital plans were rolled
out on the table, “these fell off the back of a truck and you never saw them. He
proceeded to show me the plans and asked me for my thoughts. Some of those
on the new hospital planning committee had the brain size of a peanut and the
IQ of as cumquat.(taken from Ray Hadley). They had no idea of how a hospital ran. The Ambulance and
Health hierarchy never new how much input I had in the plans. This was typical of the small mindedness
of some of the Ambulance and Health hierarchy in Sydney. I was given full access to the new hospital
site during its build even at weekends. As long as I worn a hard hat.

Not long before the foundations were to be poured a major problem was found with the Ambulance
Station regarding its functionality. By this time the District Inspector, Colin Honeyman was aware of the
plans. I told him of the problem, so on Boxing Day he came to Hay to discuss the problem.

With input from Officer Amber Barber, she had the ability to re-arrange plans in her head. We were
advised by the site supervisor that the outside walls could not be changed, however the internals could.
So the dog box meal room become the store room, the half a house sized storeroom become the meal
room, the drug room was absorbed into the general office, the relief quarters become the lounge room.
The builder was happy, but pressure needed to be brought to bare on the hierarchy, they were not happy,
remember “don't involve those Ambos”. ( What would they know, they only work in ambulance
stations) Colin Honeyman told them that the Ambulance in fact did not need or have to to move to the
new hospital complex.

This all took place three weeks before the foundations were to be poured. The plans were changed and
we moved in. There were some other gems ticked up during construction, during one of my weekend
walk-a-rounds, it was noted that community health had power from the backup generator, Community
Health did not work at night or weekends. On inspecting the Ambulance Station and plant room it was
noted that the roller doors, general lighting and power were not connected to the backup generator.
Bloody good idea that, blackout and you can't get an ambulance out of the plant room.
The only way would have been to get the four meter extension ladder, extend it to full height and climb up
to disengage the motor and chain the roller door up. Speaking about the height of the roller doors, the
architect bureaucrats were ask about the height of the doors, they replied, all the ambulances still have
the big long aerials on them, don't they.
We had done away with the long aerials, about five
years before, when it all changed to UHF radio
towers around the area. The plant room was
designed on RFS fire trucks. (But don't ask the
bloody ambos on the ground, what would I know?)
Another monumental waste of money.
 CHAPTER TEN

NOTABLE CASES:

We get our man, well our woman.

Its called Psychology - a little lacking in todays Paramedics.

Mrs. Mac who was in her late 80s and drove a lime green Datson
120Y, once parking it on the bowling green at the Services Club
and wondering why she could not go anywhere.

Mrs Macs’ family had been trying for ages to get her into care,
without success. One of her sons (Bob) had approached me a
number of times as to how it could be done. They had tried
various things and people in order to get her to hospital. I
advised the son that when they had had no luck, then give the Ambulance a call. The day came, Doctor
Bonwick rang to authorise the transport, his final words, she won't go. I advised Doctor Bonwick, just
leave that to us. As Colin Honeyman and I arrived, in full uniform, including hats as well, the local priest
was walking out of the house shaking his head. He said Doctor Bonwick has tried, I have tried, the family
has tried and she won't budge.
Two of Mrs Macs sons were also on the footpath and said she won't budge. As we got the stretcher out of
the Ambulance I told the sons and any others bystanders to disappear, hide behind trees, that I did not
want to see any of them when I came out with Mrs. Mac. They looked at us in a funny way and shook
their heads. We proceeded into the house where we found Mrs Mac and Elizabeth, her daughter-in-law,
in a bedroom. Elizabeth was also shaking her head, mouthing She won't go. My advise to her was to stay
in the background and not say or do anything, do not reply to any pleading from Mrs Mac if it happened.

Hello Mrs Mac, this is Colin and I'm Robert. "What are doing here”, she snapped, Doctor Bonwick sent
us. "Silly old fool, he was just here a while ago", no problem with short term memory. Yes I know, but he
wants to see you and he asked us to take you to see him. You know how busy he is, like a blue arsed fly
in a bottle. Now we will just pop you on our bed and take you to see Doctor Bonwick.
So with all due care we carefully placed Mrs Mac on our stretcher fluffed things around her and made her
comfortable, no resistance at all. Elizabeth smiled and shook her head. We then wheeled Mrs Mac out to
the Ambulance and placed her inside. As I was about to get into the Ambulance, the sons came out from
behind the trees. How did you do that, we had been trying to do that for months. My comment, we have
our ways and means. They just shook their heads, thank you. On the way to the hospital Colin was in the
back looking after Mrs Mac, they discussed the farm and the weather, she was enjoying the chat. That
was just as we turning into the hospital driveway Colin made the mistake and asked Mrs Mac how old
she was. Well, did she give Colin a serve, and I thought she was going to exit via the back door. Colin
quickly returned to the farm and all settled down. On arrival at the hospital we took her to the ward to see
Doctor Bonwick. Then we had trouble getting Mrs Mac off our stretcher she was very comfortable. We will
just pop you onto this bed as Doctor Bonwick needed us to go to see another patient. So we carefully
placed Mrs Mac onto the hospital bed and left. A little dose of bullshit can go a long way.

The moral of this case, the family was trying to get Mrs Mac to the "hospital", not once did we mention
the “hospital” word. We are taking you to see Doctor Bonwick, it worked like a charm. I think Mrs Mac
knew where she was going but had no reason to say she would not go. She had that much faith in Doctor
Bonwick that she would not refuse to go and see him. One of the sons often reminds me of the case.
Funny that, I have used the same rouse on him more than once. See the doctor now and you may not
need to go into hospital - still works.
REG P
Sometimes Paramedics have to be detectives, most of the time actually….. a skill lacking back in
those days and even more so in todays Paramedics, just take them to hospital and let others work out
what’s wrong. This had been done and the Nurses and the Doctors could find any problems with Reg.

It's no wonder we are having such trouble with bed block these days. Let me explain.

We were getting regular calls to Reg, an elderly man in his seventies, with chest pain. It was still in the
days when the local ambulance took their own ambulance calls. Regs’ wife was very hard of hearing,
even when she remembered to put the hearing aids in, the call was “Reg is crook”, which she repeated,
no matter what question you asked. (Call takers of today would have great difficulty in dealing with this
one, it certainly would not follow the idiot script in front of them.)

There were many calls to this patient, usually between 0500 to 0600 hours, often on a daily basis in the
beginning, particularly in winter, if it was a cold morning. On arrival Reg would be in bed complaining of
chest pain, (angina) having had a long standing cardiac condition. Remember this is before the days of
ECG monitors, not even aspirin was given, just take them to hospital, maybe some oxygen. Often by the
time you got to Regs’ place the chest pain had gone. On arrival, his wife would announce “Reg is crook”
as you walked through the door.

Time to be a detective and get to the bottom of the cause of the chest pain - angina. Pain would come on
after Reg had been to the toilet for his morning pee and returned to his bed. Nothing too strenuous about
that. Off to the toilet for investigations, tiled floor in toilet, lino down the hallway, lino in bedroom.
Asked Reg if he wore his slippers which were found at the side of the bed to the toilet, NO I go in bare
feet. Conclusion, walking and standing on cold floor in bare feet after getting out of a warm bed. It was
suggested to Reg that he put his slippers on before going to the toilet, problem solved. No more 0600
hour callouts. Funny that.

Shooting north of Booligal…….

November 1984, it had been one of those weekends, a relief officer John Dutchatel was in town, long
weekend and shit and shootings were on the menu. First, around nine pm, called to the reserve on the
Narrandera road to a man shot. Yep, shot alright, right behind the ear with a four ten shotgun, as dead a
door nail. The lady who had shot the man was at pains to tell us that she had taken particular care in
cleaning the barrel of the gun before loading the gun and shooting the man right behind the ear, whilst he
slept in a caravan. Never found out the reason for it, just put it down to a domestic. May be she had
found out he was cheating on her, who knows. So back in those days the Ambulance did transport dead
uncertified bodies. Owing to having to wait for Scientific Detectives, we were called back after midnight to
take the deceased to the morgue once they had processed the scene.

It was around seven am, dead to the world catching up on some lost sleep, which I can assure you never
happens, when the relief officer John Dutchatel, rang my residence to tell me there was a shooting north
of Booligal. My reply to him is not printable here. He convinced me that he was not having me on. So
commenced one of the longest sagas of any case I have ever undertaken.
On arriving at the station from my residence next door, I asked where the job was, don't know, just
somewhere north of Booligal, someone will meet us at the Booligal Pub and take us on. Now some cases
can be a stuff up and turn to shit, right from the start, this was going to be one of those cases.

This was the early era of the MAST suits, they had just been introduced into the Ambulance Service, but
you had to purchase your own from money raised or from Special Projects Fund.
Not unusual around this time in the Ambulance Service. Hay had only one suit at this time. Now this suit
was normally carried in the on call car. However the car that we needed to go to Booligal was the car that
had a single side band radio and UHF radio in it.
Yep, no MAST suit, this was only realised about half way to Booligal, ah! Shit, what to do now and
Murphy's law says you'll need it and we did. Radio call to Wagga, get hold of the police car that's
somewhere behind us, get him to turn around and go back to the Ambulance Station to get the MAST
suit. Giving them instructions as to where to find it. So we continued. Arriving at the Booligal Pub, where
we were met by a guy who had directions, we'll sort of, up the Ivanhoe road. How far, don't know. Off we
go, after crossing two of the four bridges he directed us to stop. When we asked the guy where was the
man that was shot is, he pointed to some scrub in the distance. How far, oh, one or two Km maybe.
Sometimes the gods do look after you in the way of one of the locals. Thank God for the many local that
assisted us over the years. When we asked the local what was the best way to get there he indicated
straight through the fence and through about four hundred meters of knee deep swamp, the Lachlan
River was in flood and was flowing across the low plain. Lovely just what you need.

We had determined that the man had been shot in the stomach above the navel. So we carefully set
about selecting the minimal amount of equipment that may be needed. Entonox for pain, pads and
bandages, spine board to carry patient, MAST suit, oops not here, hope it's on its way. What could be
used in its place, take two full leg and full arm air splints, same principle, might work. Use what you have
at hand. It was also ascertained that there were two other guys with the man that was shot, so two
ambos and the one other guy set off. The local was asked to await the police and send him in the
direction that we have gone with the MAST suit, hopefully. Our thoughts were that this would be a body
recovery as the man had been shot in the stomach with a 12 gauge, solid shot piece of lead at close
range hours before. ( Oh the magical golden hour, it had taken us an hour to get to where we were, yet
alone walk to the patient.) Dubbo co-ordination centre was contacted by SSB radio to advise Wagga of
what was happening and that we were ditching the Ambulance and had no communications until we
returned to the Ambulance.

First through the fence, then 400 metres of swamp, mostly knee deep water from the over flow of the
flooded Lachlan river. Just what you need. After clearing the swamp we asked the man, which direction,
he indicated somewhere in a 45 degree arc towards the circle of trees. The local had advised that the
trees were also surrounded by water, great.

So, how to attract the attention of two people, probably sitting down in the middle of a thousand acre
paddock. It was noted that the key to the entonox cylinder made a distinct clanking noise when struck,
good idea. So hit the cylinder firmly, very good, what looked like a man standing up, walk towards,
bugger, it hopped away. We walked towards many a kangaroo that morning. Eventually, it was a man that
stood up then two. We arrived to find a man lying on the ground, still alive and talking. Well, so much for
the magical golden hour it had already taken us neatly two hours to get to the patient. We proceeded to
examine the wound to his stomach, after removing several layers of clothing, just a hole, not much
bleeding. Checked his back, no exit would, just a large bulge in his back muscle. Blood pressure not all
that good either. Whilst waiting for the MAST Suit both full leg air splints were applied. Some time later a
Police Officer was spotted heading our way. The Police Officer delivered the MAST Suit and was
immediately asked to return to his vehicle to request Doctor Matthews to attend the scene. He was told
that a “NO” reply from Doctor Matthews was not an option, put her in a Police car and get her here. I was
aware that Doctor Matthews had a patient in labour at the hospital. The Police Officer was given some of
the equipment that was not needed and sent packing. The MAST Suit was applied to the patient and he
was placed on the spine board and readied for transport, carried.

The first part of the carry was not too bad, being able to rest and change those carrying. The swamp
presenting the biggest problem, there were very few places where you could put the spine board down to
rest. Knee deep water not all that good for the patient. Eventually and after much struggling we managed
to get through and get to the ambulance, the patient still in a stable condition, conscious and talking to
us. There is hope he may still make it.
On arrival the police officer advised that Doctor Matthews was in a police car heading to Booligal at warp
speed. I readied the SPPS kit that we carried but could not use, only a Doctor could use it. It contained
‘cannulas’, you know, sharp things that went in veins, things that Paramedics use routinely these days.
The fluid was SPPS, Stable Plasma Protein Solution.

Doctor Matthews listened to a brief handover and immediately inserted a 16g gauge cannula into the
patients arm, the drip line was already primed connected. The Doctor said ‘you’re a sensible person’,
give what you think necessary and exited the ambulance, jumped back into the police car and departed.
On our arrival at the Hay Hospital the Doctor was waiting in the ED, a short version of the story was
given. The Doctor requested that she look at the wound. The Doctor was advised that it was “unwise” to
remove the MAST suit once applied and was warned against its partial removal. However the ‘it I'll be
right Doctor’ asked for the stomach part to be removed so that she could check the wound. The
abdominal section was deflated, so was the patient, to being unconscious. A quick look at the wound took
place. The abdominal section was re-inflated as was the patient to being conscious again.

An emergency air ambulance was requested from Melbourne. The flight nurse was not trained in the use
of the MAST suit, this resulted in myself having to accompanying the patient in the aircraft to Melbourne.
This was the first time that a patient in a MAST suit had been flown in an unpressurised aircraft. The
problem, as the plane goes up the MAST suit goes down, as the plane comes down the suit pressure
goes up, great!. It was very difficult to maintain the desired pressure in the suit during the flight. The pilot
flew as low as possible, It was a rather rough flight. The air ambulance was met by a MICA crew at
Essendon Airport for a quick trip to the Royal Melbourne hospital. The ED was expecting us. There were
attempts to get the MAST suit off in the ED, but it was not possible to let the last leg down despite large
boluses of fluids. That then necessitated me having to accompany the patient to theatre. The suit was
eventually removed in theatre, not before much of the repairs to the patient had been done. The patient
made a full recovery and was discharge after four months in hospital. There is a full report on this case
somewhere in my archives, if I find it I will attach to the bottom. The thank you from the patient, months
later was a thank you and a carton of beer, don’t know as I entered that in the gifts register.

Getting home after this case was an experience on its own ending up in hospital when I got home and
three weeks off work. Some put it down to “swamp fever”, another a dodgy meal, or Scarlet Fever, in the
end, no-one could say what it was. I was put up the Lygon Lodge Motel, not the best part of Melbourne.
There was an Ambulance from Albury coming to Melbourne the next morning, so got back as far as
Albury. Then jumped on a Deniliquin car to Deni. Met a Hay car half way to Hay. When I got to Albury I
was not well and worse when I got to Hay. I spent a number of days in Hay Hospital. The end of an epic
case.
Miss. Rene Brown ……. Bank Street - Break and Enter, not so much break.

Miss Rene Brown was somewhat of an eccentric lady well known in Hay. She was
often seen either riding or pushing her old pushbike around the streets of HAY.
She was a keen photographer having taken many photos of the streets and
buildings in the town. It is my understanding that this lady back during the war
was and Honorary Ambulance Bearer.

According to the case statistics of the time Miss Brown undertook some 18
cases during the War as an Honorary Ambulance Officer (bearer). The first
case was case 79 on 18 October 1942. The case was to transfer a patient
from Audreylea north of Booligal, they left HAY at 15:30 hours and were
back home at 21:40 hours having travelled some 100 km. Miss Brown's last
case was on 1st November 1945 when she took a maternity case to hospital.

I did not have a lot to do with Miss Brown, with one exception I was called by the meals on wheels ladies
to a concern for welfare as Miss Brown did not answer the front door. On arrival I found the place all
locked up, having checked the shed found the bicycle leaning up against the wall.
Miss Brown would never go anywhere without that bike. I contacted Hay Police explain the situation and
sort permission to enter the house by any means available, this was granted.

On checking one of the side windows, this was an old building with a large sash type windows. I noticed
that at the top of the bottom window a 4 inch nail on either side to prevent the window from being
opened. A couple of well-placed bumps near the nails cause them to fall out. This allowed me to open the
window and enter the house. I made a thorough search of the house, not finding Miss Brown anywhere in
the house. It was most unusual that she would go anywhere without telling someone or taking the trusty
bike. I closed the window and replaced the nails and exited via the front door closing it behind me.
I reported my findings to the Police and meals on wheels. No further action could be taken. I found out a
couple of days later that Miss BROWN had actually gone to a medical appointment out of town. One of
the neighbours related the concern for welfare and stated that the Ambulance Officer had got in through
the front side window and left via the front door. Miss BROWN found this hard to believe as she said she
had nailed the windows closed.

There were many other enters in to houses effected over the years. One note was in Leonard Street
when called to a concern for welfare of a known diabetic patient. On arrival, a search around the house,
and the backyard was conducted without any success. It was decided that we needed to enter the house
to check if the patient was inside. After testing a number of windows, it was found that one window
opened. I cleared some ornaments from the table under the window and end of the house opening the
front door to let Dean in the front door.

Both of us conducted a search of the house, no one to be found. Dean picked up the land, line phone
and dialled the code. To check as to what number had been dialled last. The number came back as
Wagga base Hospital. The hospital number was run and Dean asked if the patient was actually in Wagga
base Hospital, he was. It appears that the patient was talking to his daughter on her mobile phone when
it dropped out. The daughter was unaware that her father was in hospital and called it in as a concern for
welfare at Hay. The items were replaced on the table, the window shut, and we made an exit by the front
door. The patient never knew that we had entered the house and had searched for him.
CHURCH STREET SEIGE

Called by Police to a siege in Church Street late one night, one out of course. On arrival I was met by
Constable Nathan Campbell, highway patrol who was ushering a number of children out of the house and
into the Police car. Nathan explained the situation, the father of the children was in the back yard with a
knife in hand and was going to stab anyone who came near. Two other Officers were attempting to
resolve the situation. Nathan asked me “what do we do with the children, we need to get them out of here
to a safe place”. My first thought was the home of the Catholic priest. A quick phone call to the priest (had
him on speed dial) and Nathan headed off.

When Nathan returned we both took up a position to observe what was going on in the back yard. The
the two Police Officers were attempting to negotiate with the man to put the knife down. Each time, one
of the officers approached the man, He made threats that he had a gun in the shed and would go and get
it, so police officers would back off a bit. This to-ing and fro-ing continued for sometime. One of the
officers asked Nathan to contact the police Sergeant and arrange to get him to the scene. Both Nathan
and myself retreated to the street, Nathan went and brought of the Sergeant back to the scene.

The police Sergeant, Bruce Moore had not been in town all that long. It was known that Bruce spent
considerable time at the local golf club, so getting him out of bed in the middle of the night may well be
interesting. When the Sergeant is arrived he armed himself with one of the steel batons, and proceeded
to the backyard. The Sergeant attempted to negotiate with the man to put the knife down, every time the
Sergeant step forward the man would threaten to go to the shed to get his gun, this was causing some
concern. At this stage, both Nathan and myself become snakes down the side of the house. Being close
enough, if something happened, and far enough away, if it turned to shit.

After sometime the Sergeant said to one of the two police officers in the backyard beside him, “Constable
give me your gun, I'm going to shoot this bastard.” ( don’t know if he would get away with that in todays
climate ) The constable was hesitant to give the Sergeant his gun, the Sergeant again asked for the gun,
which was handed over. With gun in one hand and batten in the other, the Sergeant walked towards the
man with a knife, and said, put the knife down or I'll shoot you. It appears that the man was somewhat
fixated on the gun being pointed in his direction, when the Sergeant was close enough, he took a swing
with the batten towards the man's arm, holding the knife, the arm was struck and the knife flew of the air.
The man said what did you do that for. As soon as the knife had been dislodged, the two police officers
quickly pounced all the man knocking him to the ground, he was cuffed and taken to Police vehicle.
All done without any fuss.

BUSSELTON BUS ACCIDENT. MARMONT, HONEYMAN, MCROBERT AND WILLIAMS.

THE INFORMATION BELOW IS TAKEN FROM THE OFFICIAL

REPORT THAT WILL BE ATTACHED TO THE END OF THIS
BOOK.

Mother's Day 1982, I was still living in the old Gaol house though
we worked from the station in Lachlan Street. Just after 0600
hours the phone rang, still the days of manual exchange. The
night guy advising us that a mini bus had rolled over five kms
from Hay on the Narrandera road with five or six persons injured.
 The usual thoughts of a small coaster type bus had rolled, how
wrong can you be, information back then is in some
circumstance today can be ‘shit’. Earlier that morning officers
McRobert and Williams had taken a patient to Griffith. Interesting
enough, one of the teachers on the bus noted the ambulance
pulling into the Mobil service station to get fuel as the bus was
heading out from the service station. Fate, may be.

Officers Marmont and Honeyman took the call from the exchange
on the party line.
Due to having an ambulance that was on transfer to Ivanhoe,
there was a need to change radio channels so the Ivanhoe car
could be communicated with on the Hay network, State channel
one, the Ivanhoe car only had the state channel in the radio.
The base station was still in my residence, so officer Honeyman
was advised to change the radio channel in his car to channel one,
the state channel. I changed the base station to the common channel and proceeded on the case. In
changing the radio channel Hay was not able to communicate directly with the co-ord centre at Wagga.
This in one way was fortunate, no bloody interference, though they tried.

As I was proceeding down Lachlan Street I noticed that the other officers were at the ambulance station. I
realised that I could not call the car on the radio because of the channel change. In order to attract their
attention I did a 360 just passed the station with the siren on, most unusual at six in the morning. Officer
Williams realised that something was wrong, jumped in the car and followed, leaving officer McRobert at
the station. This turned out to be fortuitous, officer McRobert had been a co-ord officer at Liverpool during
some of his time in Sydney so managed that end on his head.
On arrival at the scene we were expecting a small Toyota coster type bus - the head lights revealed a
large tourist coach on its roof!! The usual expletive came forth followed by very dry mouth, followed by
constricted fluttering anus. Otherwise known as AF (anal flutter)

I drove the four wheel drive ambulance I had off the side of the road to turn it around, however I did not
realise that the DMR, the RTA, the RMS or whatever they call themselves these days, had graded the
road edges. It had been raining and the edges soft so the ambulance become bogged.
I got out, swore and left the ambulance, there was a truckie who said I will fix it mate. The next time I
looked the ambulance was up on the road facing back to Hay. Thank “god” for truckies.

It was quickly established that there were thirty teenagers on the bus. With all cars on the same network
Hay station was advised that we had a major incident. Officer McRobert relayed this to the co-ordination
centre in Wagga by phone. The only calls through the exchange that morning were emergency service
call. Not even calls form Wagga co-ord were getting through, only the ones made from the ambulance
station and hospital and did that create constipation in Wagga. The telephonist would advise officer
McRobert that Wagga was trying to contact him, he would keep Wagga advised as he thought needed.
This did not please some, but.

Griffith station was alerted by Wagga co-ord and sent two cars to assist. The station officer Peter Taylor
(old school of course) who used his brains by sending one ambulance via the Mid-Western highway to
the Hay Hospital and the other via the Sturt highway to intersect the accident scene. The area
Superintendent, Keith Beresford, though rang by co-ord chose not to attend??? It was probably better
that he did not, for reason better not aired here, those who knew him would understand. Often better
known as billy bare foot.
Most of the teenagers were off the bus by the time we arrived, the injured were sitting beside the up
turned bus on a tarp. The others mostly not injured were on the other bus. The injured beside the bus
were quickly assessed and were found to have minor injuries mainly fractured collarbones. There was
one male who had a head injury.

We were advised that there were still four persons on the bus, the driver and three students. Officers
Marmont and Williams checked the driver who was deceased. Then Officers Honeyman and Williams
entered the upturned bus, one from the front and one from the rear making their way to the middle.
The middle was actually obstructed by a large floor panel that had been displaced during the accident
and was blocking the Isle. As the officers in the bus came across a patient I would move along the
outside to the indicated place. One live patient was found and assisted out of the bus he could not work
out how to get out. The other two students were found and confirmed deceased. There was some
discontent from one of the teachers who did not or would not believe the students were dead.
So one of the officers in the bus had to go back and double check, both officers conferred and then
confirmed the student to be dead. This was related to the teacher in fairly firm language, no time for
pleasantries. We had to get on with looking after the injured.

It was then time to triage those other students on the other bus. On entering the second bus I called for
silence in the usual authoritative loud voice, then instructed those that had been on the other bus to line
up outside the bus. I was very amazed at the compliance of the students. Once lined up each student
was quickly assessed, if they were walking it was presumed that they were good from the waist down,
each student was asked to take a deep breath, hold their arms out in front and then asked to push up
then down, anyone who complained of pain or injury was placed in an ambulance.
Those not injured were told to get back on the bus. Those with injury were transported to the Hay
Hospital. As was needed the information was relayed back the Hay station where it was either relayed to
the hospital or to Wagga co-ord. There was a Sister in the main sisters office who was relaying the
information down to casualty. There was only one problem, she had the nervous shits and had to
abandon her post from time to time. We all managed to manage the situation regardless of the isolation.

In the early stages some of the students on the overturned bus were taken to the Gaol where they went
through a quick shower at the ambulance residence until the hot water ran out. Members of the Rotary
Club were contacted and it was decided that Claughton House Hostel would be the best place for all the
students from both buses.
Claughton had some sixty beds, full kitchen and dining room that seated sixty odd. There was only one
problem, it was school holidays and the manager was away, so a break and enter took place and the
place became fully functional with the recall of Hostel kitchen staff and Rotarians and their wives.

Some forty years on, a memorial to those killed in the accident, the bus Driver John Mackenzie,
Tracey Blum and Ann Lloyd was dedicated. The memorial was completed with the dedication of a thank
you plaque to the town of Hay being erected. The wife of the bus driver and daughter were present.

Photos in Chapter 13.

BABY DELIVERIES - LAST ONES:

After the maternity unit was closed at the Hay Hospital paramedics found themselves delivering babies
on the side of the road or assisting with the delivery of babies in the hospital prior to transport. This was
due to there being no maternity qualified nurses able to do deliveries in the hospital, they relied on Locum
doctors or doctors who had no maternity experience. I delivered or was part of a delivery of your babies
in an out of the hospital in the last five years then I had delivered or be part of in the previous 45 years.
There are two deliveries near the end of my career that rate I mentioned here.

Delivered near ‘Bringagee’

This case occurred when one of the last maternity nurses came as an escort on the transfer of a patient
in labour to Griffith. The patient the young lady pregnant with her second child was 34 weeks when she
went into labour at the Hay Hospital. The patient was loaded with the assistance of a maternity nurse and
we headed to Griffith, via the Midwestern highway. As we were approaching the Murrumbidgee River
Road turn I asked the sister were we going to get to Griffith before the patient delivered, “no” was her
earnest reply. At that stage I decided to take the River Road and called Wagga Coord for urgent
assistance from Griffith Ambulance to meet us on the River Road or the Bringagee Road explaining the
current situation and requesting that they bring a humidity crib with them. I made good time to almost the
Bringagee Road term when the nurse stated that birth was imminent. At that time we found ourselves in
the middle of a mob of cattle along the road, pulled up underneath the tree. Open the back door to find
that the nurse was in the process of delivering the baby. At that stage the car from Griffith pulled up
beside us. To my surprise Doctor Hopp alighted from the side of the Griffith Ambulance. His first words
were, I couldn't leave a paramedic on the side of the road with a 34 week old baby, so I decided to come.
It came to light that Hay Hospital had rung the doctor prior to our departure and advised that we were
heading to Griffith with this patient in labour. Baby was placed in the humidity crib in the Griffith
Ambulance and we also departed of the scene for Griffith at a much reduced speed.

The baby was transferred from Griffith to Canberra later that day. The irony of this case is that the patient
already had a nine month old baby from a previous delivery, ‘now you do the maths’. All ended well and
the patient thanked us for our efforts when she returned to Hay. This was the first time in my 50 years as
a paramedic that I delivered a baby on the side of the road in the middle of a mob of cattle.

Last delivery in the Hospital…..

Call to undertake an urgent transfer of a patient in labour, not unusual.

On arrival in the ED found a middle-aged lady on the casualty bed being attended by Locum Doctor,
registered Nurse, who did not like maternity patients and two EN’s. As per usual I asked what birth
number this was?, and how far dilated was the patient?. I was advised that this was birth number seven
and that they did not know how far dilated the patient was. I advised that we probably wouldn't make
Griffith before the patient gave birth. The Foreign Locum Doctor said the patient must go to Griffith. On
observing the patient I noted that she was still fully dressed this answer the question with regard to not
knowing how far dilated the patient was. As I was about to get the patient onto the ambulance stretcher
the patient said just wait there's another contraction coming. The patient is lying on her left side facing
away from me when the contraction started.

About halfway through the contraction the patient said Oh! I felt something pop, with that I quickly
removed the patient's trousers to notice a bulge between her legs, the head of the baby. I quickly turn the
patient out of her back and ask one of the old EN's to get the gear. At that time I was nearly sucked out of
the room as the Doctor had left the room in such a hurry, not to be seen again.
The RN just stood back as she did not like births. With the assistance of the EN, the cord was clamped
and cut and the baby was placed in the humidity crib put in the Ambulance for transfer to Griffith.
As we approached Darlington point, it was noted that the babies pulse had dropped below 100 although
though still maintaining reasonable oxygen saturation.

An urgent phone call was placed to Griffith Base Hospital maternity and Wagga coordination advised of
the situation and that we would be proceeding “HOT” to the maternity unit at Griffith Hospital. Had the
baby's pulse dropped below 80 it would it be necessary for me to commence CPR. Not a very nice
thought to have to undertake.

The baby arrived in reasonable condition and was taken into care by the maternity staff and we were
reassured that sometimes this happens in newborns. It would've been nice to have known that prior to it
happening.

That concludes my maternity stories. About 12 months before I retired I undertook a one-week course as
every paramedic in the state was doing to manage births on the side of the road. This included dealing
with all the problematic births that could occur when presented with a delivery. That is, breach births, limb
births and any other odd birth.

So paramedics have now become the mobile Maternity Wards and birthers instead of babies
being born in the controlled environment of the local hospital. The edict appears to be transferred
out at all costs, let someone else take “shit” and the responsibility.

A CASE OF NEGLECT:

This case is presented as probably the worst case of medical neglect I encountered in my fifty years as a
Paramedic. I was involved in all three treatments and transports of this unfortunate patient. It took two
years before I was asked to make my statement to the Police on this matter. Someone kept loosing the
legal paper work. It was another two years (all up four years) before I and others were requested to front
the State Coroner in Sydney, a rather daunting experience. It came to light that NSW Health kept duck
shoving in order to avoid fronting the Coroner. A certain Doctor went overseas after the death and was
difficult to get back. Nursing Staff involved in the patients treatment in Griffith went interstate and were
difficult to find.

Statement from the State Coroner in his summing up: “If this case had come before me three
years ago, some of you would be in gaol”.

(Now that is an inditement of some of those professionals involved if ever I heard one.)

Names have been redacted so as to protect the patient and Doctors.

MY STATEMENT OF EVENTS REGARDING PATIENT…………. 11th February 2009

Paramedic Station Officer Robert Marmont was on duty at Hay (0900-1700) hours on Sunday the 25th
January 2009 when a call was received from Co-ord at 1613 advising of a case at an address in Hay.
Paramedic Julie Whitton was off duty on this day, however was recalled to duty to undertake this case.
Officer Whitton was picked up by Officer Marmont en-route to the patients address.

The call was to a male patient with headache and sinus problems. Officers were met at the door by a
(partner) of the patient, who informed Officers that he had been unwell for some weeks with headaches
since an incident around New Year. The partner advised that the patient had been undergoing drug and
alcohol counselling for the past fortnight and had not been drinking any alcohol.
Officer Whitton undertook the preliminary examination of patient which included his observations as per
the case sheet (PHCR. H414169).
These observations were within normal limits and patient stated that he had not had any alcohol or drugs
in the past fortnight. A further examination was conducted by Officer Marmont which revealed a number
of neurological abnormalities.
At no stage, despite being in close contact with patient did I smell any alcohol on his breath. Patient
stated that he could not see, nor did he react to my hand passing closely in front of his eyes, twice.
Patient was not able to perform the normal request of touching his nose with either of his index fingers.
His hands would only come half way up towards his nose.

During Officer Whittons' examination of the patient Officer Marmont questioned partner on a number of
matters regarding patients recent medical conditions.The partner stated that patient had been involved in
an incident around New Year and that he had not had any drugs (apart from OTC pain and sinus
medications) or alcohol in the last fortnight.

When Officers' were going to load patient onto the ambulance stretcher that was at half-height, Officers
stood the patient up in order to walk a couple of steps and sit on the bed. patient was able to stand with
support and assistance; however, he was not able to walk in spite of being asked to walk. Officers then
lifted patient onto the stretcher. He was conveyed to the Hay Hospital for further treatment. En route
patient began to hyperventilate and Officer Whitton attempted to settle him down and slow his breathing.
The patient had stated he had tingling in his hands. As officers were getting the patient out of the
ambulance at the hospital, Officer Marmont asked the patient did he know whom he was talking to.
The patient took some time to answer "Marmont, Robert Marmont." patient has known Officer Marmont
for many years. Patients response to this questioned was very slowed and stuttered.

On arrival at the hospital Officer Marmont assisted hospital staff with the care of the patient until he
settled. This included the treatment of his hyperventilation using a brown paper bag, this treatment
worked. The patient was agitated, restless and moving around on the bed on his hands and knees, rolling
over and over and complaining of pain in his head. When hospital staff asked the patient his birth date
and address, he had no idea of these details.

It was observed that patients agitation was exhibited by him plucking at his clothes and at the sheet, he
was doing this at his home as well. He was also pushing his hand through his pubic area (this agitation
and restlessness reminded Officer Marmont of a patient who was in the DT's.) Officer Marmont was able
to speak to the patient and to get him to lay quietly on the bed, this took some time to achieve. As
Officers were leaving the patient was laying quietly on the bed. The patient still knew who he was talking
to but knew nothing else. Case completed at 1723 hours.

At 1837 on the 25th January 2009, Officers Marmont and Condon were requested to transport the patient
to Griffith Base Hospital on PHCR number H.414170 for further investigations of headache and current
condition. Patient contact was at 1909 and departed Hay Hospital at 1940. The patient was in the same
condition as when Officers left the hospital some 2 hours earlier.
The Doctor was consulted prior to departure, he stated that the patient needed to be scanned due to him
having something happening in his head. Prior to leaving the Hay Hospital, Officer Marmont asked the
Doctor about giving the patient some pain relief for his headache en route. Administration of pain relief in
the form of IV Morphine was suggested to be given in small doses. At this time the Doctor suggested to
me that the patient had one of two things: the most likely being a brain tumour or lesion or a Mental
Health issue, the Doctor believed it to be a lesion and needed a scan. At 2003 during transport the
patient headache increased. The patient was administered increments of Morphine IV and a dose of
Metoclopramide as per PHCR. The hospitals IV Normal Saline completed at 2045 and IV Hartmanns was
commenced at 2050 hours. The Morphine had no effect on the pain in the back of the patients head.

The patient was triaged by a registered nurse at Griffith Base Hospital at 2140 and placed on their bed at
2143. Ambulance and Hay Hospital paperwork was specifically brought to the attention of the triage
nurse and the fact that the 10mg Morphine was ineffective in reducing the patient pain. All the
observations and comments obtained from previous contact with the patient were related to the RN. The
RN was specifically taken aside and advised of the patient medical history and that he had not had any
drugs or alcohol in the past fortnight.
The patients' previous attendance at the Hay Hospital on or about the 18th January 2009 was brought to
the attention of the RN as it related to an incident that resulted in a blow to the head some time earlier in
the month. At this stage the patient did not know where he was, could not tell the nurse his birth date or
indicate where he was. The nurse told the patient that he was in Griffith Base Hospital and that she
would ask him again shortly as to where he was. the patient still knew that he was talking to Officer
Marmont. Ambulance Officers departed the hospital shortly afterwards.

At 0640 on the 26th January 2009 Officers Marmont and Condon were called to an address in Hay, to a
24 year old male unconscious. Officer Marmont was in disbelief that we were being called to this address
again as the patient had been taken to Griffith Base Hospital for admission.

On arrival, Officers found the patient in left lateral position on a bed with his partner extremely distressed.
He was rigid, unresponsive, fixed medium pupils, and noisy respirations and had vomited. His partner,
advised that they had been requested to come to Griffith at about midnight to bring the patient back to

Hay because he had been discharged. She was in sheer disbelief. The partner told me that they had had
to load him into a private car in spite of him not being able to walk and that he had "pissed" himself twice.
Hospital staff had assisted in changing his clothes. the patient had not been able to communicate with
them on the way home. The partner stated she was woken by a sudden change in the patient snoring
sounds.

Officer Marmonts' assessment of the patient at 0648 was that he was in a critical condition and
immediate transport needed to be undertaken. Whilst Officer Condon was getting the stretcher Officer
Marmont rang the Hay Hospital and advised Sister that we were again bringing the patient to the hospital
in an unconscious condition and requested that the duty Doctor be summoned to the hospital urgently.
(Officer Marmont was of the opinion that at this time that the patient was brain dead.)

On arrival at the hospital we were met by nursing staff and the duty Doctor. Whilst the patient was being
transferred from the Ambulance stretcher to the hospital bed, he went into respiratory arrest.

Ambulance Officers assisted the Doctor and the nursing staff in treating the patient. Officer Marmont was
requested to insert an LMA owing to the fact that it was very difficult to intubate the patient due to his
unusual anatomy. Officers continued to assist hospital staff until approximately 0945 when they left the
hospital to resume normal Ambulance duties. The Doctor had two unsuccessful attempts at intubation
without any sedation, the LMA was inserted without sedation.
At 1050 Officers Marmont and Whitton were called to go to airport to pick up a medical retrieval team for
the patient. En route to the hospital Officer Marmont related the events to the retrieval Doctor. Ambulance
Officers assisted the retrieval team in readying the patient for Air Ambulance transport to Sydney. The
patient was transported to the airport and loaded onto the aircraft at about 1251. Officer Marmont asked
the retrieval Doctor at the airport about the patient prognosis. His comment was “to harvest organs." At
the conclusion of the case officers Marmont and Whitton discussed the Doctors comments and Officer
Whitton stated the Doctor had told her that the patient was brain dead but takes 24
hours to do the tests to confirm this.

Robert J Marmont
Station Officer
Hay Ambulance

This is an unsigned statement of events pertaining to this incident completed on the 11th February 2009.

The following document is a review by a Doctor in Melbourne on the treatment of a patient,

( no names no pack drill) -

YOU MAKE UP YOUR OWN MIND ABOUT THE TREATMENT, OR LACK THERE OF.

This review is scathing of the treatment given. It should also be noted that the ’Hay Doctor’ left
Hay shortly after the death of the patient.

DOCTORS OF NORTHCOTE REVIEW OF DEATH OF HAY PATIENT……. 2009

I confirm that I have read the Expert Witness Code of Conduct of New South Wales contained in the
Uniform Civil Procedure Act 2005 (Part 31, Rule 23, Part 28, Rule 9C and Part 28A, Rule 2) and agree to
be bound by the code for the purpose of preparation of this report and for the giving of any oral evidence
in any procedures*.

I have read Court Procedures Rule 2006 Schedule 1 Rule 1.1 Expert Witness Code of Conduct and I
agree to be bound by it. In order to prepare my report, I have read the following documentation that you
have provided:

Records of The Hay Doctor;

Records of Hay Hospital;
Records of Griffith Base Hospital;
Records of St Vincent's Hospital; and
Your instructing letter.

The sequence of events as I understand it, is as per your instructing letter, as having read the
documentation that you have provided, I can see no differences of significance.

I now address the questions in your instructing letter in question and answer form:
Q1. Given the patients presentation on 19 December 2009, what differential diagnoses ought to
have been made by a medical practitioner acting to the standard widely accepted in Australia as
competent practice (hereinafter referred to as the appropriate standard)?

Given the patients presentation on 19 December to the Hay Doctor and having available the history of:

1) Five days new onset headache

2) Tight quality
3) Comes in spasms
4) Associated with nausea
5) Sometimes blurred vision
6) Pain in back of head and on top
7) Attended the Emergency Department on day prior-----
8) .and was advised to see General Practitioner for further investigation like CT scan if headache
persisted
9) No respiratory symptomatology,

The list of differential diagnoses that ought to have been made are:

1) Primary headaches, e.g. tension headaches, migraine or cluster headaches, and Secondary
headaches which have an underlying cause, e.g.

a. Temporomandibular joint disorder

b. Giant cell arteritis (temporal arteritis)
c. Sinusitis with the associated symptoms of constant throbbing facial pain,
aggravated by head movement, sometimes associated with facial tenderness to palpation and may have
general symptoms such as respiratory tract infection and rhinorrhoea (runny nose).
d. Intracranial pathology - brain tumour or bleeding or infection
e. Alcohol withdrawal
f. Post-concussion headaches
g. Stroke
h. Infections
i. Trigeminal neuralgia.

This is a list of the differential diagnoses but the working diagnosis is formulated after
taking into account the history of the presenting headache including previous medical
consultations, and advice, and the examination findings.

Q2.Please assume that the Hay Doctor formed the view that the patients presentation was
consistent with a diagnosis of sinusitis. In your opinion, was this a reasonable
diagnosis to make?

No. In my opinion it was not a reasonable diagnosis to form the view that the patients presentation was
consistent with a diagnosis of sinusitis because the patients headache was of six days' duration, was
associated with blurred vision, dizziness, nausea and history was available that the headache was at the
back and top of his head. Additionally his examination did not reveal any sinus or facial tenderness on
palpation and he did not have any symptoms or signs of respiratory infection or rhinorrhoea.
Q3. In the alternative, please assume that the Hay Doctor formed the view that his presentation
was consistent with a diagnosis of "sphenoid sinusitis”?.

In your opinion:

(a) Would a medical practitioner acting to the appropriate standard have recorded
"sinusitis" in the clinical notes if he had in mind a differential diagnosis of
"sphenoid sinusitis"?

Assuming that the Hay Doctor formed the view that his presentation was consistent with the diagnosis of
"sphenoid sinusitis", it is my opinion that a medical practitioner, acting to the appropriate standard, would
have recorded the diagnosis as sphenoid sinusitis rather than the more general term of sinusitis. The Hay
Doctor does not record any history of pain related to the sphenoid sinus nor any examination findings of
tenderness in that region.

(a) In your opinion, was this the most likely differential diagnosis?

No, in my opinion sphenoid sinusitis was not the most likely differential diagnosis as the headache was
recorded as being occipital and not frontal in the Hay Doctor own medical progress notes. This is the
same region as recorded at the hospital presentation the day prior, in which the headache was on the
"back and top of head". These regions are not associated with sinusitis of any type, let alone sphenoid
sinusitis.

Q4. In your opinion, what investigations would a medical practitioner acting to the appropriate
standard have arranged for the patient in light of his presentation on 19 January 2009? In
particular, please identify whether a CT scan ought to have been arranged and the urgency of that
or any other investigation you consider was indicated?

A medical practitioner acting to the appropriate standard would have arranged for the patient to have a
CT scan as a matter of urgency there were no examination findings to support the diagnosis of sinusitis
and also the Hay Doctor needed to consider that the doctor at the hospital the day prior suggested further
investigations like a CT scan should the patients symptoms persist, which they did. An x-ray of his
sinuses was not an unreasonable investigation prove or disprove the Hay Doctor working diagnosis of “?
sinusitis".

Q5.Given the patients presentation, was it appropriate for the Hay Doctor to refer the patient for
an x-ray of his sinuses on 19 January 2009? Please provide your reasons. Please assume that a
radiologist attended Hay to perform the x-rays on Thursdays only.

An x-ray of the patients sinuses was not an unreasonable investigation but this investigation was normal.
As a consequence of the normal sinus x-ray, a medical practitioner acting to the appropriate standard,
having had his working diagnosis of sinusitis disproven, would have proceeded to a CT scan of the
patients brain. A CT scan of the patients brain would also have examined the sinuses and also disproved
sinusitis as a diagnosis but because of the more detailed nature of this investigation, and the fact that it is
more comprehensive, the diagnosis of intracranial space occupying lesion would have been made.
The delay caused by waiting from Monday, 19 January to Thursday, 22 January for the radiologist to
attend Hay to perform the x-rays was unreasonable and Hay Doctor should have made arrangements for
an earlier radiological investigation. Had Hay Doctor arranged for the sinus x-ray in Griffith within the next
24 hours after the consultation on Monday, 19 January 2009, he would have found that the sinuses were
free of infection and consequently the cause of the headache had not been explained. A medical
practitioner acting to the appropriate standard would then have proceeded to a CT scan on his brain, as
suggested by the medical officer at the hospital on Sunday, 18th January 2009.
Q6. Please assume that the Hay Doctor will give evidence that it was "suggested (the patient)
undergo a CT Scan (in Griffith), which he preferred to get done if he got worse and
an x-ray was ordered to exclude any sinus disease”,

(a) In your opinion, would a medical practitioner acting to the appropriate standard have made a
note that a CT scan had been recommended and the patient’s attitude to that
recommendation?

In my opinion, a medical practitioner acting to the appropriate standard would have made a note that a
CT scan had been recommended and would have recorded the patient’s attitude to that recommendation.
It should be noted that patients who are very ill may not fully comprehend the significance or importance
of investigations recommended by medical practitioners. Consequently involvement of family members in
the patient’s management and using them to ensure that such appropriate investigations occur is
Important. Patients who are very ill may not be able to make informed choices as to their management. A
medical practitioner acting to the appropriate standard would therefore make medical progress notes as
to the patient's attitude to recommendations for reasonable management.

(b) If the Court accepts that a CT scan was suggested to the patient, what warnings would a
medical practitioner acting to the appropriate standard give to a patient who declined that
suggestion?

A medical practitioner acting to the appropriate standard would give warning to the patient and as the
patient was very ill, to the relatives of the patient, that failure to heed reasonable recommendations for
investigation or management may lead to catastrophic consequences including death, because of an
undiagnosed serious intracranial lesion.

(c) In your experience, it is more likely than not that a patient would comply with a
recommendation to undergo an investigation if appropriate warnings are given?

Yes, in my experience, it is more likely than not that a patient would comply with a recommendation to
undergo an investigation if appropriate warnings are given to the patient and/or relatives. As I have stated
previously, seriously ill patients may not be able to make appropriate informed choices regarding their
management and investigation.
The provision of warnings to the patient and/or relatives regarding the consequences of the failure to
proceed with reasonable investigation or management need to be given in
writing and such advice recorded in the medical progress notes.

Q7. In your opinion, was the Hay Doctors management of the patient on 19 January 2009 to
the appropriate standard? Please provide reasons.

No, in my opinion the Hay Doctors management of the patient on 19 January 2009 was not of the
appropriate standard because the Hay Doctor did not give appropriate weight to the facts that the
patients headache was at the back and on top of his head, in the occipital region, was of five days'
duration and was a new condition for the patient.

The Hay Doctor did not give adequate weight to the history that was available to him that the headache
was associated with blurred vision and also associated with dizziness. In addition, the Hay Doctors
examination did not reveal any evidence of sinus tenderness and he did not record any symptoms of
respiratory tract infection or allergy which could have caused such sinusitis.
The diagnosis, that a medical practitioner acting to the appropriate standard would have made at the
consultation of Monday, 19 January, was, “five days of new onset headache in the occipital region and at
the top of the head, associated with nausea, blurred vision and dizziness but without symptoms of
respiratory tract
infection and a normal examination in particular, no evidence of facial tenderness on palpation.
Intracranial pathology needs to be excluded as per recommendation of medical practitioner consultation
the day prior.”

Q8. Please assume the patient presented to the medical centre on 21 January. In your opinion, did
the Hay Doctor act to the appropriate standard by issuing a medical certificate without examining
the patient on that occasion?

No, the Hay Doctor did not act with the appropriate standard by issuing a medical certificate without
examining the patient on that occasion because on 21 January 2009, the patient was still suffering from
the headache, which was the reason for the certificate. The Hay Doctor had not diagnosed the cause of
the headache and issuing a certificate without an examination, was not of an appropriate standard. The
request for a certificate should have been used by the Hay Doctor as a lever to ensure that the patient
was able to be re- examined on 21 January 2009 and that he had the appropriate investigations of CT
scan performed as a matter of urgency, because of the persistence of the symptoms and the failure of
the Hay Doctor to correlate the history with the absence of any physical examination findings to support
the diagnosis of sinusitis and the absence of any radiological results to support the diagnosis of sinusitis.

Q9. If the Court accepts that the Hay Doctor suggested a CT scan on 19 January 2009, in your
opinion, what would a medical practitioner acting to the appropriate standard have done when the
patient returned on 21 January 2009 requested a medical certificate?

The Hay Doctor should have used this opportunity to re-examine the patient and to explain to
him and his relatives that the CT scan was vital and that he would not issue a certificate until he had seen
the result of the CT scan as this would prove or disprove sinusitis and prove or disprove intracranial
pathology including brain tumour.

Q10. In your opinion, was the Hay Doctor management of the patient on 21 January 2009 to the
appropriate standard?

No. In my opinion, the Hay Doctors management of the patient on 21 January 2009 was not of the
appropriate standard as the Hay Doctor needed to re-examine the patient on 21 January 2009 because
of the persistence of the symptoms, which were of such severity that the patient required a medical
certificate because of those symptoms.

They were now of a week's duration and for which no clear diagnosis had been made. The Hay Doctor
should have said to the patient or his relatives that the diagnosis, to be recorded on the medical
certificate, required radiological support and consequently the certificate could not be issued until the
cause of the dizziness, blurred vision, and headache on the occipital region and on the back and top of
his skull and associated nausea, had been diagnosed.Radiological investigation needed to precede any
certificate issue.
OPINION:
It is my opinion that the Hay Doctor did not act with the appropriate standard on Monday, 19
January 2009 when he did not make arrangements for the patient to have x-ray of his sinus and/or
CT scan of his skull to investigate the new onset of headache in the occipital region back and top
of head, blurred vision, nausea, dizziness, which was unresponsive to analgesia and for which
there were no physical examination finding to support a diagnosis of sinusitis. Had the Hay Doctor
ordered an x-ray of the sinuses, this result would have been normal and further investigation by
CT scan would have followed to determine the cause of the patients new onset and persisting
symptomatology. Had he proceeded to CT initially as suggested the day before, the sinusitis
would have been disproven and the brain tumour diagnosed.
Yours sincerely,

END
……………………………

Below is part of the Post Mortem result.

POST MORTEM OF HAY PATIENT

OPINION

Doctor
I acknowledge that I have read the Expert Witness Code of Conduct in Schedule 7 of the
NSW Uniform Civil Procedure Rules 2005; and agree to be bound by the Code.

Based on what I have observed, my experience and training, and the information
supplied to me:

The patient died on 27 January 2009 at St Vincent's Hospital and that the cause of death is as follows:

1. DIRECT CAUSE:

Disease or condition directly leading to death:

(a) ACUTE HYDROCEPHALUS

ANTECEDENT CAUSES:
Morbid conditions, if any, giving rise to the above cause, stating the underlying condition last:

(b) COLLOID CYST OF THE THIRD VENTRICLE

2. Other significant conditions contributing to the death but not relating to the disease or condition
causing it:
REPORT SUMMARY:

History:
The following information was provided from a variety of sources, which may include police
and medical records. It is acknowledged that some personal or other details provided may
be inaccurate.

The deceased was a 24 year old gentleman, who reportedly first presented to his local Doctor
complaining of headaches on 19 January 2009. The doctor apparently formed the view that his pain was
likely due to sinus problems, but advised that if his pain persisted he should attend Hay Hospital. On 25
January 2009, the deceased attended Hay Hospital as advised, because his symptoms had continued to
worsen. He was then apparently transferred to Griffith Hospital for a CT scan, because Hay Hospital did
not have suitable facilities. However, a doctor at Griffith Hospital seems to have decided that a CT scan
would not be necessary after all, and therefore no scan was performed.

He was re-admitted to Hay Hospital early in the morning of 26 January 2009, in what appears to have
been a critical condition. He was subsequently transferred to St Vincent’s Hospital in Sydney for further
treatment, where upon his arrival he was noted to be deeply unconscious, and to have fixed and dilated
pupils. Emergency neurosurgery was undertaken, with insertion of a drain into the ventricular space
within his brain.

Unfortunately, his condition failed to improve and death was verified shortly after noon on 27th
January 2009.

Postmortem findings:

This postmortem examination revealed the body of a well nourished young adult male. He was found to
have died as a result of a colloid cyst in the third ventricle within his brain.
These intrinsically benign grape-like tumours cause problems by way of a ball valve like effect on the flow
of cerebrospinal fluid within the brain, with resultant hydrocephalus (‘water on the brain'), associated
brain swelling, and pressure effects on vital intracerebral structures. The neurosurgical placement of the
intraventricular drain appears to have been undertaken without local complication, but it seems that the
brain was already too damaged prior to surgery to affect the outcome. The autopsy also identified an
accumulation of blood and fluid in the lungs, and an evolving respiratory tract infection - which are both
likely to have been secondary terminal developments.

Conclusion:
In conclusion, this young gentleman died as a result of acute hydrocephalus due to a colloid cyst of the
third ventricle. It may be prudent to seek an opinion from an expert in neurosurgery with regard to the
clinical management of the deceased prior to death.

SUMMARY OF SIGNIFICANT POSTMORTEM FINDINGS:

BODY OF WELL NOURISHED YOUNG ADULT MALE.

NEUROPATHOLOGY (SEE ALSO SEPARATE REPORT):

Colloid cyst of the third ventricle, with obstruction of the foramina of Monro,
resulting in:

Acute hydrocephalus, status post right external ventricular drain.

Marked brain swelling with associated raised intracranial pressure.
Severe cerebellar tonsillar herniation, moderate transtentorial herniation.
Secondary haemorrhage, thalamus, midbrain and rostral pons.
Hypoxic/ischaemic encephalopathy.
RESPIRATORY SYSTEM;

Pulmonary congestion and oedema.

Patchy bilateral acute bronchiolitis and focal left-sided bronchopneumonia.

……………………..
END