Fly Me A Doctor

 By Suzanne Norquist

What do you get when you combine a pastor, an airman, an inventor, and a wealthy industrialist? In Australia, you get the Aerial Medical Service, later known as the Royal Flying Doctor Service.

The pastor, Reverend John Flynn, recognized the need for medical professionals in remote parts of Australia in the nineteen-teens. As head of the Australian Inland Mission, he aided people in the sparsely populated Outback. Flynn became an advocate for those who routinely lost loved ones because the trip to the nearest medical facility would take days. He shared their stories in speeches and articles.

A well-known example was the death of Jim Darcy in July of 1917. He was injured in a cattle stampede near Halls Creek in Western Australia. With no doctor nearby, a surgeon telegraphed instructions to the postmaster, using Morse code. The postmaster operated on him with a pen knife right there on the Post Office counter. After the surgery, the doctor from Perth made the arduous six-day journey to Halls Creek to check on his patient but was too late. Although the surgery was a success, Jim died soon after from malaria. At the time, all the Australian newspapers picked up the story.

Airman John Clifford Peel read Flynn’s articles and formulated a plan to use airplanes to bring doctors to remote areas. He sent a letter with details to the Reverend. Unfortunately, Airman Peel was killed in the war about a year after sending the letter. He never saw his plan come to fruition.

Over the next ten years, Reverend Flynn solicited support for the flying doctors. As part of this, he tried to find radios to communicate with people in isolated regions.

Enter the inventor . . . Alfred Traeger designed a pedal-powered radio while working for Flynn. His device used bicycle pedals to power a radio that would send Morse code over long distances.

Though all great ideas, Flynn needed money to implement them. This is where the wealthy industrialist came in. Hugh Victor McKay headed the Australian company that developed farm equipment, including the first commercially viable combine harvester. When he passed away in 1926, he left a large bequest for an aerial experiment, which was enough to make the dream a reality.

On May 17, 1928, the Aerial Medical Service made its first flight (it changed its name to the Flying Doctor Service in 1942 and the Royal Flying Doctor Service in 1955). The first year, it made fifty flights and treated 225 patients.

Over time, the organization grew, as did the number of dramatic rescue stories. There is a PBS series based on the modern-day flying doctor service.

Other ideas branched from the service. Trager’s radios were used for remote schooling and social connections. And the nurses involved developed a “body chart” to aid in communications by radio.

Reverend Flynn’s contribution was so significant that he is featured on Australia’s twenty-dollar note.

So, what do you get when you combine a pastor, an airman, an inventor, and a wealthy industrialist? You get a mechanism for providing doctors and nurses to remote parts of Australia for nearly one hundred years and counting.

 

***

”Mending Sarah’s Heart” in the Thimbles and Threads Collection

Four historical romances celebrating the arts of sewing and quilting.

Mending Sarah’s Heart by Suzanne Norquist

Rockledge, Colorado, 1884

Sarah seeks a quiet life as a seamstress. She doesn’t need anyone, especially her dead husband’s partner. If only the Emporium of Fashion would stop stealing her customers, and the local hoodlums would leave her sons alone. When she rejects her husband’s share of the mine, his partner Jack seeks to serve her through other means. But will his efforts only push her further away?

Suzanne Norquist is the author of two novellas, “A Song for Rose” in A Bouquet of Brides Collection and “Mending Sarah’s Heart” in the Thimbles and Threads Collection. Everything fascinates her. She has worked as a chemist, professor, financial analyst, and even earned a doctorate in economics. Research feeds her curiosity, and she shares the adventure with her readers. She lives in New Mexico with her mining engineer husband and has two grown children. When not writing, she explores the mountains, hikes, and attends kickboxing class.