'Propeller vs forearm, croc vs leg': The incredible job of a remote bush doctor
5/4/202653 min
Specialist rural doctor, Damien Brown on dramatic rescues, slow interventions and the cases that moved him, including attending to two badly burnt men after a fuel tank exploded on a remote Queensland cattle station.
As a young boy in South Africa, Damien Brown was always interested in science and medicine.
His neighbour, the local veterinarian, would let him observe surgery in the workshop, so it was predictable that Damien would end up as a medical doctor.
After his parents moved the family to Australia, the call to help others drew Damien back to the very things his parents had tried to shield him from — civil war, crime, absolute poverty and inequity.
Damien joined Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders) as soon as they would take him as a junior doctor.
He worked in Angola, Mozambique and South Sudan.
When he returned to Australia, working for the Royal Flying Doctor Service in remote communities in Central Australia and Far North Queensland, he found challenges that were more similar to his previous experience in Africa than he expected.
Further information
Bush Doctor: A memoir from the beautiful, rugged heart of outback Australia is published by Allen & Unwin.
This episode was produced by Rebecca McLaren. The Executive Producer is Eliza Kirsch.
This episode touches on remote Indigenous communities, rural doctor, Royal Flying Doctor Service, South Africa, Angola, South Sudan, civil war, gunfight, safe room, grab bag, remote work.
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Clips
Transcript preview
First 90 secondsSpeaker 00:00
It's just your average suburb, but there's a whiff of someone playing silly duckers. Reg Grundy's kids' clothes and stuffed toys are going missing.
Speaker 10:10
It's Leonardo Da Vinci.
Anne Jones0:13
Hi, I'm Dr Anne Jones, and I've secured an interview with Leonardo Da Vinci, the criminal cat thieving mastermind for my podcast series, Nature's Most Wanted.
Speaker 00:24
What the duck?
Anne Jones0:26
On ABC Listen or wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 10:29
ABC Listen, podcasts, radio, news, music, and more.
Richard Fidler· Host0:35
Damien Brown is a doctor who works in places that are often very beautiful, but where patients come in with a wild assortment of problems. He's worked in Africa with Médecins Sans Frontières, treating wounds of war and malaria and malnutrition, and then he shifted the focus of his work to remote Australia, to the territory in Far North Queensland, to desert country and to saltwater country, where medical treatment, he says, can sometimes be summarized as car versus tree, croc versus leg, propeller versus forearm, stinger versus thigh, bull versus arm, and tooth versus knuckle. Joining the Royal Flying Doctor Service, Damien was often in a race against the clock to fly out across the Outback to treat people who were barely hanging on to life. There's so much that's wrong