Olivia’s per­son­al jour­ney, from giv­ing birth to her first child; emer­gency hos­pi­tal vis­its with her sick son the fol­low­ing year; to then going into labour with twins, has opened her eyes to the often-over­looked val­ue of remote hos­pi­tals and the unsung heroes who work there.

Like most expec­tant moth­ers liv­ing in a remote area, Olivia planned to trav­el to a larg­er cen­tre for the birth of her first child. Ten­nant Creek Hos­pi­tal does not have a mater­ni­ty unit. How­ev­er, her son had oth­er plans.

Days before she was sched­uled to leave for Alice Springs, Olivia found her­self in advanced labour in the emer­gency depart­ment of Ten­nant Creek Hos­pi­tal, with only a cur­tain around her bed sep­a­rat­ing her from oth­er patients. Her son was born three weeks early.

A team includ­ing the mid­wife on call and sev­er­al off-duty doc­tors had been called in to assist. 

“They had to be pre­pared for any­thing,” she explains. ​“And they han­dled every­thing so well. I even remem­ber say­ing right after giv­ing birth, ​‘I could do that again!’”

She was lat­er told that a woman in the next bed, clear­ly expe­ri­enced in giv­ing birth, was an impromp­tu addi­tion to the team, call­ing out to her to ​‘Push. Push. Push’. 

A year lat­er, Olivia’s baby son expe­ri­enced a severe seizure at home and she was back in the hos­pi­tal emer­gency department. 

His con­di­tion quick­ly escalated.

“The emer­gency alarms went off, and with­in moments, the room was filled with staff,” Olivia recalls. 

“Many didn’t know I was a nurse and didn’t realise that I under­stood what they were talk­ing about. It was very dif­fer­ent being on the oth­er side and watch­ing the doc­tors and nurs­es work on your own child,” she says.

“But I couldn’t fault them. They were fan­tas­tic. Despite receiv­ing med­ica­tion, the seizures con­tin­ued and the team at Ten­nant Creek Hos­pi­tal act­ed swift­ly, treat­ing it as a crit­i­cal emer­gency. They intu­bat­ed him, put him under anaes­the­sia, and insert­ed a breath­ing tube. Their response was imme­di­ate and well-coordinated.”

Olivia’s sec­ond preg­nan­cy brought anoth­er unex­pect­ed turn – she was car­ry­ing twins. At around 27 weeks, Olivia start­ed expe­ri­enc­ing per­sis­tent back pain, so when she went into ear­ly labour two weeks lat­er, it was some time before she realised the difference. 

By the time she reached Ten­nant Creek Hos­pi­tal, it was clear she was in preterm labour and, despite var­i­ous med­ica­tions, the labour con­tin­ued to progress. For­tu­nate­ly, the con­trac­tions stopped long enough to be flown to Alice Springs where she had a Cesare­an sec­tion to give birth to her twins.

“On each occa­sion, my treat­ment from all these pro­fes­sion­als was excep­tion­al,” says Olivia. 

“They have my full respect. It gave me a huge appre­ci­a­tion for what the hos­pi­tal staff in Ten­nant Creek do.

“This expe­ri­ence has real­ly high­light­ed for me how for­tu­nate we are to have such ded­i­cat­ed health pro­fes­sion­als in the remote set­ting. Both the clin­i­cal and non-clin­i­cal staff were so sup­port­ive. You’re not always aware of what you need in those kinds of sit­u­a­tions, so peo­ple com­ing by and ensur­ing I had some­where to sit, or that I had been offered food and water but also pro­vid­ing emo­tion­al sup­port was a blessing.

“Many peo­ple think of remote health care as just the remote health clin­ics,” Olivia points out. ​“But hos­pi­tals like Ten­nant Creek are doing incred­i­ble work, with few­er resources, than in more pop­u­lat­ed settings.”

But, in oth­er ways, there are plus­es in attend­ing hos­pi­tals like Ten­nant Creek, she points out.

“The flex­i­ble work­ing arrange­ments at Ten­nant Creek mean that they have very expe­ri­enced clin­i­cal staff, whether its doc­tors mov­ing between hos­pi­tals or being sec­ond­ed on con­tract. When my son had to be intu­bat­ed, I was so for­tu­nate that one of the doc­tors was a very expe­ri­enced anaes­thetist and one of the nurs­es expe­ri­enced in pae­di­atrics emer­gency and ICU for example.

“Anoth­er point to remem­ber is that remote hos­pi­tal staff have to be adapt­able and mul­ti-skilled. In big hos­pi­tals, peo­ple spe­cialise and often stick to their area. In rur­al and remote set­tings, you have to be a jack-of-all-trades,” she says.

“Each team mem­ber brings dif­fer­ent expe­ri­ences, and togeth­er, they make it work.”

The com­mu­ni­ty aspect is also quite unique, says Olivia. 

“The order­ly who drove me to the airstrip to meet the Roy­al Fly­ing Doc­tor team wished me well and passed on some very kind words. That’s the kind of con­nec­tion you don’t always find in larg­er hospitals.”

Olivia’s mes­sage is clear: ​“The doc­tors, nurs­es, mid­wives, and non-clin­i­cal staff in these remote hos­pi­tals are tru­ly unsung heroes.”