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NewsMeet the oldest Air Ambulance Nurse in Australia
Meet the oldest Air Ambulance Nurse in Australia

Meet the oldest Air Ambulance Nurse in Australia

Maureen Roberts has many career highlights to share from her 32 years as Australia’s longest serving air ambulance nurse.

In a recent interview on Macquarie Media, Maureen told the story of the pilot of her aircraft passing out at the controls and how she calmly popped his oxygen mask on and brought him around enough to land the plane. And you thought your job had challenges!

Maureen began her career in the Riverina and became interested in the Air Ambulance are speaking to a fellow nurse from the service. She started her career in Albury but is now based at Mascot, near Sydney.

Another memorable moment of her career involved a premature baby in the skies over the Hunter Valley in NSW. The Air Ambulance needed to land but a FA18 Hornet on “critical fuel” took precedence. Maureen remembers saying to the Air Ambulance pilot “the fighter pilot can eject if he needs to but we can’t, we need to land”!

One of the wonderful things about her job, Maureen told us, is that every day is a different experience depending on the patients you're transporting.

“Sometimes you're taking people home to die and they know they're going to die and they have the most amazing conversations with you."

Hear the full interview with Maureen Roberts here

Originally posted on .

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Glenda
Glenda from NSW commented:

On Friday 6th December night, my elderly mother (85) fell down in my home where she is currently living. She had to be taken by ambulance to a well known public hospital in Sydney. I took care to inform the paramedics who came in the ambulance, that my mother already had pre-existing conditions with her hip, knees and feet that affected her way of walking, + a frozen right shoulder,and she had lived with these conditions over 6 yrs and managed them well. These conditions should not be attributed to her fall unless there was a flare up of any kind. Of course, no notice was taken and the well known hospital to which she was admitted, decided that these conditions were in fact a result of the fall. It then became a big struggle for me to convince the hospital staff that the above were indeed pre-existing conditions, and that these pre-existing conditions may have flared up because of the fall because as it turned out, thank God no bones were broken. What was caused by the fall were a cut on the right side of her face and a general feeling of her entire body being shaken up. My first question: WHY did I have to go through this unnecessary stress because of a hospital's miscommunication or lack of its internal communication?.... and also because they JUST DON'T LISTEN. After 4 days, my mother was transferred to another hospital and again this well known hospital provided us with misinformation that she was going to rehab, which was not the case! The receiving hospital was not even made aware of her transfer over to them! My second question: how do we, as "small people", combat these injustices? Who can we turn to? If I did not become so strongly vocal and somewhat stroppy with the first well known Sydney hospital, I do believe that my mother's medication would have been seriously mismanaged. 

jude
jude from ACT commented:

If its only for the first year then i've saved over $480. Better in my pocket than theirs and that makes me happy. :=) 

Perrine - FiftyUp Club
Perrine - FiftyUp Club from NSW replied to jude:

Hi Jude, that is great news! 

Someone
Someone from NSW commented:

I recently sourced the Coles Insurance for my 1990 Honda Legend 2 door coupe and after talking to an advisor for some time & giving full details,the premium was over $600 more than what I'm paying from the NRMA. How's that for a con ? 

Kay
Kay from NSW commented:

There are insurance deals to match the ones given by Coles. You just need to do a bit of searching. I also have issues with Coles now going into Insurance. Coles are doing enough damage to our country. I certainly wont be supporting them in this venture. 

Someone
Someone from NSW commented:

YES, YOU AND A FEW MILLION OTHER AUSTRALIANS,many of whom are afraid to speak up The anger in the community shows in many ways.Often that driver cutting in is not the reason someone commits acts of road rage, the comment in the pub is not the real reason behind the brawl. Many violent acts are committed because people feel bewildered, lost, angry, let down by those in power, and themselves powerless to do anything about it This means 'the straw that broke the camels back' situations are blamed and the real reason remains unmentioned. 

Someone
Someone from NSW commented:

The car insurance savings are quite remarkable. However my concern is for subsequent years. The terms and conditions state that the savings are for the initial year only. Does this mean after the first 12 months the premiums will revert to the price we are paying with other insurers before switching? If so is it really worth the switch? 

Kye
Kye from NSW commented:

I rang AGL and asked what percentage of my bill was the actual electricity I had used. Turned out that one half of my account was for the amount I used the other half was for the pleasure of having electricity connected . Plus i was told that it is reviewed each July and goes up accordingly (to what i don't know) 

Someone
Someone from NSW commented:

I want the governments of this nation to man up and be responsible. I want affordable utility and service bills. I want honest politicians or jail terms for those who are not. AND I ABSOLUTELY WANT ALL GOVERNMENTS TO STOP SELLING MY ASSETS. I AM AN OWNER OF PUBLIC ASSETS, MY TAXES HAVE PAID FOR THEM FOR THE LAST 35 YEARS AND IF ANY GOVERNMENT IS GOING TO BE FINANCIALLY IRRESPONSIBLE AND SELL THEM I DEMAND MY SHARE. 

Someone
Someone from QLD commented:

To find easier ways of managing our limited funds, fair prices and discounts. 

alan
alan from NSW commented:

Electricity Special Offer is useless to the members that reside in a relocatable home park, We have to purchase our power from the park owners at a jacked up rate. We are unable to negotiate any other provider for our electricity. The Coles discounts on home insurance was just a joke I was informed that as I didn't own the land they could not provide any service. Then I get phone calls from india trying to sell me vehicle insurance when I declined as I am about to purchase another vehicle, they offered to phone me back weekly, I did not join the club to have my name and number placed on a register for cold canvasing, this is the first & last warning, 

Allan
Allan from QLD replied to alan:

If you live in a relocatable home park or Over 50's village as we do,it is illegal by legislation for the park owner or management to resell any utility eg electricity! gas or water at a higher rate than what it is initially purchased at by management some also try to charge a reading fee to read meters etc, but this is also illegal. Go to your Home Owners Association if this is the case. 

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