Medivac on Eyre H'way

I wonder if it was a GS Sat phone ;)

Most likely the nursing post at Eucla didn't have a HF radio so direct contact was best achieved by Sat phone??

RFDS HF service is only via a couple of the major RFDS bases to my knowledge??

Probably because it was Television.....adds a little suspense :-)

I thought the same thing when I saw it. I was astounded they did not use their own HF at the scene.

They were Perth city coppers on assignment to Eucla and possibly had no HF training and therefore not able to use the installed unit in the car at the scene?????.

The radio they did use to talk to the plane on was a portable HF, possibly the Eucla bush nurses own radio.

JMHO

Might have helped if the young constable had the aerial pointing to the sky instead of the ground.
That was the first thing we noticed!!
Did anyone else see this ?
As above this was probably all set up for the camera.
Dean

As I've said before.... so many experts on this Forum.

Can you remember back to when you first did something....did you know how to do it ?

Bottom line is they did a good job and helped someone.....

I was actually passing through Mundrabilla at the time when they were filming. Was quite eerie as we didnt know what was going on, the old fella was standing up leaning against the bowser, in extreme agony and they were sticking the camera right in his face. The cops were walking around with bullet proof vest type things on and were standing at the roadhouse door guarding it. There were about 6 other travellers standing right beside the camera crew all with huge smiles on there face cause they were close to the action. We thought there must have been an armed hold up or something and they must of been interviewing the old fella for the news. Was very bizarre. We didnt notice that he was in pain until we were leaving, and then passed the Ambulance on way out. Thats when we started feeling sorry for him and his wife, the big trip cut short and knowing that with no hospital in hundreds of k's that she would then be travelling alone with caravan back across the Nullabor. I couldnt believe how careless and selfish everyone was, he was in some serious pain and no one was helping him stand or walk. They could of laid him down in the van till the Ambulance arrived, or at least helped him in some way instead of standing there gawking and laughing behind the camera. I tell ya what, i took note of them and there vehicles and if i had of seen them on the side of the road i wouldnt of been helping.

If you think about it,

Sat Phone maintains patient confidentiality as long as possible - HF alerts the world and soon the press.

Nuthing police hate worse, than having to inform next of kin - when they have already heard it on the news! They come in for a LOT of criticism - for not having let the next of kin know sooner, while it was still "a private matter".

Damn hard to beat the radio waves to the next of kins place.

Hence keep it private wherever possible.

Cheers

Consideri the damning report on a recent 4 Corners regarding WA ambulance, the patient was very lucky to have received the care and attention given. Don't get sick or injured in WA and expect timely and appropriate medical internvention from ambulance service - was the finding on 4 Corners.

Bent, the two coppers from Perth really didn't have a clue, waiting waiting waiting, then oops plane can't land, the white posts are still in the ground, I felt sorry for the two of them, a big oops on national tv......... There was another cop car present, they didn't know or didn't notice the posts either. May have been the same with the Sat Phone and HF, as some one else said, untrained/inexperienced.

Hi. I was really surprised that the two Police allowed the poor fellow to keep driving in the condition he was in. Almost 200Klm with around 20ft van behind. Could have turned nasty really quickly. Bob.

This is the closest one to Eucla, on google Earth S31 42 13.1 E128 49 31.0

I finally got to see this episode as I had taped it.

Some of the comments above are so out of line and if you take offence, I will not apologise.

You cannot put old heads on young shoulders and if I was the coppers boss, I would've congratulated them on a job well done. And as for the bloke standing around while no one helped him...easy, he couldn't sit down !!!! And after awhile, people move about as they are bored....and NOT DOCTORS.

The cops assessed so many things and the only comment I would agree with above is that they allowed him to drive which I would never have done, but I was NOT THERE and there may have been other issues that we didn't hear. The cops did follow him and they did have UHF and there was a motor home in front of him...etc etc.

Bottom line...they did a mighty fine job of which not many of you would've been able to do.

Get a life and stop kidding yourselves that you are so good.