Steel. The Man of steel.

Steel wool like hair.  Eyes like a steel trap.  Hand on the throttle like a steel cable.  Concentration as sharp as a steel fine edged knife.  Uncle, navigated the waves for 50 minutes , sometimes higher that the dingy was long, and in no tome we were on Stephen Island.

Stephen Island is a volcanic rock about 20 km north of Darnley.  It is home to about 80 islanders.  It is serviced by a clinic that has a trainee health worker and that is about it.  Today at 215pm-I get a call from the health worker asking me what sort of needle she should use for putting in a drip.  ALARM BELLS!!

I contacted the oncall doctor, and all the managers in TI to discuss the "lack "of services for the health worker, and it was suggested that I jump in a dingy and make the 1 hour trek to Stephen Island to help assess and treat the patient.  An elderly man has deteriorated in his health. and may need to be Medevac airlifted to Thursday Island.  But with lack of services and staff with assessment skills, a RN was needed.

So off I go in the dingy of a man I never met, into an ocean that i never boated in, and to an island that i had only heard of.  What an amazing experience.  Turtles, dolphins, and massive sharks  all visible over the vast coral reef beneath us.  We arrived at Stephen Island and docked the dingy. I asked a kid on the beach where the clinic was, and he walked me to the clinic.  We seemed to be going the long way, and when i asked him why we were walking in circles, he responded with "there is mad dogs that way".  Note to self.  when on Stephen island ...take the Left road to the clinic on the right of the island!!!

We arrived at the clinic, and a man (I didnt know) in a Ute I hadn't seen, and took me to a place of a man with a sickness that I hadn't yet assessed.  I introduced myself to the son and  the elder.  Assessed the man and stuck in the drip.  It is now 430pm.  After phoning the doctor and being told that the Medevac chopper is busy in Saibai, i treated the patient for his ailment gave an adhoc inservice to the health worker on the management of the Patient with an IV.
It is now 530pm and I am running out of light to be stuck at sea on Stephen Island with no one i know.

I went back down to the jetty, where Uncle (the man of Steel) was waiting, and we headed home to Darnley.
Half way near the Island of Nepean (uninhabited due to Ghosts and Bad Poripori)  the engine failed on the dingy.  Uncle ripped off the top of the motor, played with something, poured in some greenish fluid, and cranked it over again.  Turtles are surfacing around us, and he asks me to "jump in and grab one"  I decline, and he rolls his steel eyes.  The engine kicks to life and we are 30 mins from home but 25 mins from dark.and we are on our way throught 2 m seas, Darnley Island clearly on our horizon

The race is on.  Waves or light.  Flip a coin!!

Waves won, ...although shaken to the bone, and wet through from the spray, the Sun beat us to the horizon and we arrives 10 mins after sundown.  The patient has been treated.  A Medevac has been avoided.  $20000 of helicopter has been avioded, and I am safe home in my unit with Jo and the Kids.  It has been a Hay and a half.   This Bacardi has never tasted so good!!!

I love my wife for covering the oncall phone for me.  Awesome experiences...that is the Torres!!!