Today marks 94 years since the first flight of what is now known as the Royal Flying Doctor Service (RFDS).
Its services are in more demand than ever; last year the RFDS transferred more than 10,000 patients in regional and remote Western Australia for medical care and flew more than 9 million kilometres.
One woman who had to use the service was Broome woman Kim Brown when her daughter Charlotte was born five weeks premature with a rare medical condition.
"When she was born, it was quite apparent there was something wrong with her face, she had a completely droopy left side and doctors were concerned she actually had had a stroke," Ms Brown said.
"I also had a serious pregnancy condition called placenta accreta, so there was lots happening.
"We had to wait a couple of days until I had stabilised and then when she was three days old, we were flying down to Perth so she could be admitted to [Perth Children's Hospital].
"It was so emotionally and physically draining. I was recovering from complicated major surgery and obviously then furiously worried about the unknown with our daughter ... she was strapped up to a lot of machines and her oxygen dropped quite a few times.
When Charlotte was three months old, she had to be flown to Perth a second time because of a serious viral infection.
"We have used those services twice in her first year of life, so for her first birthday I asked family and friends to donate to the RFDS in lieu of presents," Ms Brown said.
'Patient transfers I'll always carry with me'
Heather Cudmore has been working as an RFDS flight nurse for six years.
"Sometimes people have amazing outcomes that you wouldn't expect when you transfer them and they're so critically injured or critically unwell ... sometimes people don't have such great outcomes," she said.
"You also carry with you the things that affect you personally, whether that's because you make a real connection with someone that you're looking after or whether it's because you may have someone that's a similar age to one of your own children.
"There's many, many patient transfers that I will always carry with me."
Recently Ms Cudmore was involved in the rescue of an Indonesian fisherman after his vessel capsized, and the separate transfer of a six-month-old baby with COVID and his mother.
"It's always challenging moving little tiny people who have little airways and little tubes and there's risks involved in moving them because of the risk of them being dislodged or getting kicked off.
"Then COVID and the additional precautions we take with those flights makes it more challenging.
"It's a demanding day but it's really good to be able to move someone like that to a higher level of care, and I hope that he and his mum have made a full recovery."
Since the onset of the pandemic, the RFDS has transferred more than 300 suspected or confirmed COVID patients in WA.
RFDS WA chief executive Rebecca Tomkinson said she was proud of the team's contribution to the state's COVID response.
"We've established specialist patient transfer facilities for our COVID-19 patients," she said.
"We're also working with new clinical protocols and new health and safety programs for our people to really ensure that we can be able to provide the best possible care for patients with COVID-19.
"We've also been very involved with the vaccination program throughout regional WA. We've vaccinated more than 11,000 people in regional and remote WA."
While the RFDS experienced unprecedented demand last year, it also expanded its fleet.
"We've also brought on board our third Rio Tinto LifeFlight PC-24 jet. Today, the RFDS in Western Australia has a fleet of 22 aircraft, the largest fleet anywhere in the country," Ms Tomkinson said.
"I'm also delighted to say that we have launched the Fortescue Heli-Med Helicopter Service, and that's the first anywhere in the country for a RFDS to be able to provide a helicopter service for patient transfers."
The helicopter service will be trialled with WA Country Health over the next few years.
Flying Doctor Day celebrations this year coincide with a drive to raise $600,000 to equip the expanding RFDS fleet.
"It's such a fantastic support that we receive from the West Australian community that really enables us to do the job that we do each and every day; a service that's more in demand than it's ever been," Ms Tomkinson said.
