QAS INSIGHT | Summer 2017-18 edition

Quiet Achiever’s Story

Neil has served in many different areas in the south-east, including Toogoolawah, Lowood, Boonah, Tamborine and Canungra. There have been many memorable incidents Neil has witnessed in his career, including being one of the first crews on scene at the tragic Boondall bus crash in 1994 which claimed the lives of 12 people and injured dozens. The bus, which had been carrying about 50 passengers, had been travelling along the Gateway Motorway, when it crashed and rolled. “We were the second or third unit on scene and my partner and I stayed there the entire time. Our role included assessing the severity of the patients’ injuries and deciding who needed immediate transport,’’ Neil said. “It was very chaotic with lots of activity, but it was organised chaos as the area had been set up properly for categorising patients.” A lighter incident involved a ‘gnome-napping’ at Toogoolawah which made the local paper when one of a number of stolen gnomes that were turning up around the town, was placed at the ambulance station with a note requesting that it be given first aid. “Throughout my career I have witnessed tragedies and miracles, I have seen mostly the best in people, with occasionally the worst,” Neil said.“I have seen people with major injuries or illnesses taking it in their stride and I have seen people with minor problems collapse in a heap, but one thing I will say is that I hope in some way I have helped them all and made their recovery quicker and easier.”

“On joining, we had two weeks of in-service training where we learned the advanced skills of bandaging, splinting and CPR, plus how to use use oxygen and entonox – which were the only drugs we had at that time. ‘’After completing our training, we were deemed qualified to go and treat patients. Our vehicles were a bit of a mix: Holdens, Fords and a few Dodges, all with canvas litter-style stretchers and very basic equipment.” The shifts were a mix of one and two-officer lines. Neil said he was fortunate to start the job “One of our first jobs was a Code 1 through city peak hour traffic to a pedestrian who had been hit by a car,’’ he said. “I am glad the patient was fine as I was a nervous wreck by the time we arrived on scene.” In the early days, Neil said, there was not much in the way of equipment or interventions but, ‘just as it is now, our patients were always our priority’ and received the best treatment possible. He said the biggest changes he has seen in his career are advances in equipment and the way patient care is delivered. “The way we look after and treat our patients has vastly changed: at the start of my career we were not even allowed to have a stethoscope in our possession,” he remembered. “As well, no longer do we have to transport our asthmatic, diabetic and chest pain patients Code 1 to hospitals because they are too serious for us to treat; we can stabilise our trauma and cardiac patients on scene.” on a two-officer line with a partner who had been in the QATB for a few years.

Above left ■ First responders: Neil at the scene of the bus crash at Boondall in October 1994 which killed 12 and injured 39 people. Above ■ Triage of a different kind: stray garden gnome in need of care at Toogoolawah on January 9, 2002.

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Below ■ Neil at the wheel of a vintage QATB vehicle at the George Street Festival in 1990. (If any reader knows the identity of the officer standing on the running-board please get in touch!)

All photos courtesy of Neil Hobbs; thanks for the great archive!

Summer 2017–18