The Flying Doctor

From chewing fibrous plants in Uganda to treating indigenous communities in the mountains of Peru, RFDS Senior Dentist Dr Vaibhav Garg has experienced his fair share of oral health adventures during his career. But it is the time 'Dr Vai' has spent in some of Australia's most remote and isolated communities that he credits most, for inspiring him to make remote oral health care his life's work. And it was a tiny, WA wheat belt town called Wongan Hills, that became a pivotal sliding doors moment for a young dentist simply wanting to 'make a difference'. Having recently been named the Rural Health Pros' Rural/ Remote Health Professional of the Year, Dr Vai has big plans for the future of outback oral health care.

****

Thanks so much for listening to this episode of the Flying Doctor Podcast. It is lovely to have you along on the journey with us. There has been some wonderful feedback from listeners about our podcast and the incredible people we have interviewed. Word of mouth is always the best promotion for a podcast – so if you enjoy this podcast, or a specific story, please share with family and friends.

This is the extraordinary tale of how an American born IT sales rep. from Melbourne suddenly found himself making international headlines from the Australian outback! When Edward McKinney headed to Uluru with his wife and baby daughter in early 2022, he was looking forward to enjoying the ‘ultimate NT Aussie adventure’. But after stepping on a brown snake in his hotel hallway, Eddie soon found himself strapped onto an RFDS plane and headed to Alice Springs hospital. And all for the sake of a little baby brown snake!

****

Thanks so much for listening to this episode of the Flying Doctor Podcast. It is lovely to have you along on the journey with us. There has been some wonderful feedback from listeners about our podcast and the incredible people we have interviewed. Word of mouth is always the best promotion for a podcast – so if you enjoy this podcast, or a specific story, please share with family and friends.

It's the ultimate Australian outback legend. In July 1917, a young stockman named Jimmy Darcy was critically injured by a horse accident. In a desperate bid to save his life, his brothers transported Jimmy to the remote community of WA's Halls Creek, via a 12 hour cart ride. What followed was an extraordinary tale of courage, survival and incredible outback ingenuity. Jimmy Darcy would become the first patient to undergo an 'Operation by Telegraph'.  And on August 2nd, 1917, all the wartime wires in WA would fall silent - as the Halls Creek Postmaster and a Perth based Doctor used morse code to try and save a stockman's life. This is the story of Dr JJ Holland, Fred Trickett and Jimmy Darcy...

***

Thanks so much for listening to this episode of the Flying Doctor Podcast. It is lovely to have you along on the journey with us. There has been some wonderful feedback from listeners about our podcast and the incredible people we have interviewed. Word of mouth is always the best promotion for a podcast – so if you enjoy this podcast, or a specific story, please share with family and friends.

Many of us dread the thought of having needles - let alone having to inject a needle into ourselves! But when 44-year-old remote nurse Ryan Franks suddenly suffered a heart attack in the isolated community of WA's Coral Bay, taking his own bloods was just the first, daunting step in an extraordinary and terrifying bid to safe his own life. As the only professional medical practitioner on duty that night, Ryan would need to draw on all his remote medical training and sheer will power, to connect himself with an emergency tele-health doctor, attach his own ECG, insert his own canula and then talk his volunteer paramedic colleagues through his own (potential) resuscitation. 

***

Thanks so much for listening to this episode of the Flying Doctor Podcast. It is lovely to have you along on the journey with us. There has been some wonderful feedback from listeners about our podcast and the incredible people we have interviewed. Word of mouth is always the best promotion for a podcast – so if you enjoy this podcast, or a specific story, please share with family and friends.

When Mick Oates woke up in his campervan, completely unable to move, he couldn't even recall how he'd ended up there. As anyone who has had the opportunity to travel outback Australia already knows, taking 'the road less travelled' doesn't always go exactly to plan! But for Mick, a series of unfortunate events had finally caught up with former police officer's spine. Mick had officially 'done his back' on the Birdsville track! This is also the story of how Mick and his mates found themselves returning for a third, Big Red Bash experience in Birdsville this year - carefully hiking down a sand dune in full 'Priscilla, Queen of the Desert' costume in the famous RFDS fundraising Drag Race. Seriously!

***