An Island Off an Island

One of the concerns we had initially about moving to Bruny Island was its relative isolation in terms of health facilities. Most of our fears have since been allayed due to the excellent Health Centre at Allonnah. There still remained the question of an emergency situation. Could the local services cope?Well, I’m going to answer that question with a resounding “Yes”!

On Saturday I was erecting a new set of shelves in my workshop under the house. No gory accidents with power tools or falls from a ladder, just a step down off a set of steps and something jarred or jammed in my already dodgy hip that totally immobilised my leg with a great deal of pain. The slightest movement was agony. Jan eventually arrived from the studio and She helped to get me on a chair.All fairly pedestrian up until now but the comedy of errors was about to unfold. What follows is not meant to be a criticism of any sort – quite the opposite.

Jan rang triple zero and the ambulance ( which is operated by volunteers) arrived in less than twenty minutes – two ambulances . It just so happened that the big ambulance was on the island for training purposes, so it’s crew responded as did the recently appointed paramedic and the emergency nurse.So we had Mary, Margaret, Tam, Clare and Kaitlin all in attendance.

With four ambulances in the street and driveway, the whole neighbourhood had been alerted to the unfolding drama.The plan was to back the ambulance under the house, put the stretcher in the workshop and from there, into the ambo (with me on it). Unfortunately, in formulating this plan, everyone’s input into how it was to be achieved resulted in the ambo getting bogged in the loose gravel of the drive. They finally manoeuvred me into an SUV via a wheelchair.

Once I had been dispatched and transferred to yet another ambulance at the ferry, Lee and our neighbour “Chainsaw”(Justin) from the SES and his tractor were summoned to ‘unbog’ the vehicle.

Lying in Hobart Private Hospital I can only marvel at the enthusiasm and alacrity of all involved. Thanks to everyone in the rescue mission and much appreciation for all the well-wishers.No prognosis yet on what has caused my condition but I suspect only rest will be the solution.