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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

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Last updated by Someone on

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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Daryl
Daryl from NSW commented:

Fairness For All on The Cost Of Living. 

Daryl
Daryl from NSW commented:

The Government Should Look After All Of These Essentials. They are utililities for the public and be kept in the Publics Interest by the Government. Same for Transport in NSW. Too much Privitisation only amounts to Corporate Greed and the Workers Lose Out, Everytime.. Just about anything good in this Country is being slowly destroyed by every Government Past & Present. 

Claude
Claude from QLD replied to Daryl:

I agree assets are publicly owned and should not be sold off then we are held to ransom. I worked for 21 years in Telstra only to have my job go offshore to India, I loved my job and was devastated to find India now is the provider of the services I performed. If you are like me I can not understand the mentality of this inefficient system and now see many people are returning call centres and IT services back to the mainland what a waste of time and effort to have to re-invent the wheel. 

Robert
Robert from NSW commented:

The gov needs to put electricity, gas, water, all under one umbrella run by the gov. But separate lines . Example. Water = $ Gas = $. Electricity =$. Total. =. $. BUT once you turn 50 you should get huge discount. 

Someone
Someone from NSW commented:

If Abbott was able to get rid of the carbon tax that would be a big help. Gillard said there wouldn't be one - she lied, and now Abbott has a mandate to get rid of it, Labour and Greens stand in the way. 

Casey
Casey from NSW commented:

The main problem is privatisation. When admimistration of electricity companies becomes responsible to shareholders rather than the voters, price hikes are inevitable. Governments retain a shareholding and therefore receive a dividend, so they're all for price rises. 

Someone
Someone from NSW commented:

It's a joke when the Elec. Companies jack the price up because not enough is being used they say. Are they stupid, or do they just think that we all are. Haven't they figured out that it was their ridiculously high prices that forced us to all become as frugal as we can. If they want us to use more then put the prices down. And there has to be something wrong when the powers that be allow them to put the prices up because they're now selling less. All businesses have risk involved, except electricity companies it seems. No risk, instead it's made up for with lots of greed. What a joke. 

Someone
Someone from NSW commented:

Its all about shareholder and CEO driven GREED !!!!!!!!!!! 

Someone
Someone from NSW commented:

Lower speed lower fatigue = lower crash rates lower fuel burned more money in the bank. What don't they get ???? 

Paul
Paul from NSW commented:

As a professional b-double driver with more than 30 years accident free driving, lower speeds = longer trip times and that = more fatigue not less. If you cant do the speed limit do be on the road, If you worry about the cost of fuel that much that you need to drive slower then you probably cant afford your car in the first place. There is a lot the Government don't get 1. the roads in Australia are in poor condition 2. the skills of the average driver are as poor as the road conditions. 3. Fatigue is a bigger killer on our highways than speed, although the revenue raising Government will like you to think otherwise. In NSW with more speed cameras, more mobile cameras and more highway patrol than ever before why is the death rate higher than previous years. 

Bill
Bill from NSW replied to Paul:

Good sense from a truckie. Although I would put inattention ahead of fatigue. Overseas research puts speed well down the list of accident causes, which causes me to make reference to your comments on speed cameras. Consider this: In the 14 years PRIOR to the introduction of speed cameras in NSW, road deaths dropped from 1,384 to 663. In the 14 years AFTER speed cameras were introduced, the death rate only dropped from 649 to 496. If road deaths were more than halved in the period prior to speed cameras, what were the causes? All of the factors involved in achieving this reduction were still in place post speed camera introduction, so they still played a major role in the continued drop in road deaths. We can deduce from this that very little, if any, credit must go to speed cameras. They are indeed a means of gaining revenue for governments. I do not have a problem with speed cameras if they are recognised as a means of catching drivers breaking road rules. I have a MAJOR problem with them being promoted as a significant road safety tool in order to justify their use. Keep on truckin' Paul. Rest assured there are many (including myself) who believe that many crashes involving trucks are caused by the actions of car drivers. In all the years I have been attending road safety seminars and giving evidence to committees, I have never experienced truck drivers being invited to have a say or make submissions. This has always been a glaring anomaly. Authors notes: Statistics are taken from The RTA statistical statement for the year 2011 (latest available). The 14 years period has been used for comparison purposes as the death toll 14 years before speed cameras were introduced (1992) was a record. 

Paul
Paul from NSW replied to Bill:

Well said Bill, I do agree about inattention and in the local areas your spot on, people getting distracted with mobile phones, ipods, gps, stereos ect. The fatigue I refer to is more long distance driving although I did read about a young bloke who worked a double shift and fell asleep at the wheel going home, hit a pole and died. Loosing a life on the road is unacceptable and impacts on all the family left behind. I agree that anything that saves lives is a good thing and the statistic will vary every year. A year with a lot of rain will increase the figures, we at least now have a lot more dual lane highways, cars with abs brakes, traction control, stability control, air bags and a host of safety options you and I did not have when we started driving. Safe driving is also about peoples attitude, perception and ability. I would like to see the day when no one dies on our roads. I strongly believe in visible policing over cameras any day. 

Someone
Someone from NSW commented:

Having lived in the USA for 20 years and in a cold climate, my electricity bill was never more than $60 a month. I never had to be frugal. I left lights on, appliances on viz TV vcr, 

Michael
Michael from WA commented:

As we get older the everyday manual tasks become more dificult. Things such as yard cleanups and cutting back trees and so on can really take it's toll on aging muscles. Perhaps a discount on yard, garden and mowing services could be considered. 

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