Free Emergency Echo by George Ivanoff

opening of the Australian Inland Mission Aerial Medical Service (later renamed the Royal Flying Doctor Service) in Cloncurry, Queensland.
    Over the next few years, the Service began to expand across the country, and by the 1950s was acknowledged by former Prime Minister Sir Robert Menzies as ‘perhaps the single greatest contribution to the effective settlement of the far distant country that we have witnessed in our time’.
    Until the 1960s, the RFDS rarely owned its own aircraft. Progressively, the RFDS began to purchase its own aircraft and employ dedicated pilots and engineers.
    Today, the Royal Flying Doctor Service is one of the largest and most comprehensive aeromedical organisations in the world. Using the latest in aviation, medical and communications technology, it delivers extensive health care and 24-houremergency service to those who live, work and travel throughout Australia. The RFDS has a fleet of 63 aircraft operating from 22 bases located across the nation and provides medical assistance to over 290,000 people every year.
    Â 
    Did you know? The RFDS helps a person in Australia every two minutes!

The RFDS has a fleet of 33 Swiss-made Pilatus PC-12 aircraft that have been converted for aeromedical use. Equipment on the PC-12 includes two stretchers and a stretcher loading device powered by the aircraft medical electrical system, which has been designed to enable easy, safe loading and unloading of stretcher patients without the need for difficult lifting.
    Built into the aircraft is an integrated oxygen system, which distributes 3250 litres of oxygen to standard medical outlets.High-level suction is also provided to standard medical suction inlets. Aircraft 28 volt DC and domestic 240 volt AC is provided to power medical equipment. Special cabin lighting has also been fitted.
    Cabin flooring and walls have been resurfaced to provide a suitable, easily cleaned working environment. Purpose-built cabinet and baggage compartment shelving have been fitted to hold medical and general supplies and equipment.
    The aircraft intercommunication system has been extended to include cabin outlets. In addition to the standard aircraft VHF and HF radios, a satellite telephone and specialist radios are also fitted.
    Other medical equipment carried on the aircraft includes:
    Â 
Cardiac Monitors / Defibrillators / External Cardiac Pacing Units
Propaq Vital Signs Monitors
IV Volumetric Pumps
Syringe Pumps

The locations used in this book are real places. This includes the Western Australian gold rush town of Mount Magnet, situated along the Great Northern Highway about six hours drive from Perth.
    Although farmers had settled in the area since 1878, Mount Magnet was established in 1895 as a mining town. It got its name from a nearby hill that has a very high iron content, which affects compasses. Mount Magnet is the longest continuous goldmining centre in Western Australia, with Hill 50being the main mine since the turn of the 19th century. These days, however, the mining is in decline and Mount Magnet is mostly a service town for surrounding sheep stations.
    There are numerous important Aboriginal sites in the area surrounding the town. About seven kilometres to the north of the town are The Granites, a rocky outcrop with Aboriginal paintings on the granite boulders. Mount Magnet is known for its ‘Everlasting Daisies’ (also called Paper Daisies), which grow for kilometres around the town.
    As a child, legendary Australian cricketer Bill Ponsford (1900–1991) spent his summers in Mount Magnet.

Appendicitis means inflammation of the appendix, which is a small tube attached to the large intestine. The precise function of the appendix in the human body is something of a mystery, although it clearly plays a role in digestion for other animal species. Anyone of any age can be struck by appendicitis, but it seems to be more common during childhood and adolescence.
    Food or faecal matter can sometimes lodge in