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Katie spoke with NCCTRC Award Recipients Rhiannon Winter and Rob Crowell · 360 with Katie Woolf

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  Speaker 1: You are listening to three sixty. It is just after
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  Speaker 1: ten thirty.
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  Speaker 2: Now.
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  Speaker 1: Last night, some incredible Territorians were recognized at a ceremony
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  Speaker 1: at the National Critical Care and Trauma Response Center. They
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  Speaker 1: are among a group of Australians who were presented Humanitarian
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  Speaker 1: Overseas Service Medals, a medal which honors Australians for emergency
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  Speaker 1: humanitarian service overseas in hazardous circumstances. The Territorians recognized are
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  Speaker 1: oz MATT members who were deployed to the Philippines in
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  Speaker 1: twenty thirteen and Vanuatu in twenty fifteen. Now two of
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  Speaker 1: these incredible people joined me in the studio this morning.
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  Speaker 1: I have got Rob Krow, Good morning to your Rob, Katie,
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  Speaker 1: and I've got Rhianna and Winter Good morning to you.
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  Speaker 2: Rihanna, Morning Katie, Thank you both so very.
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  Speaker 1: Much for your time. Now, Rihanna and you are the
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  Speaker 1: acting Manager of Strategic Planning with the National Critical Care
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  Speaker 1: and Trauma Response Center and prior to this you were
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  Speaker 1: the Trauma Coordinator, as I understand it, leading Royal Darwin
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  Speaker 1: Hospital's trauma service, which is obviously based at the Critical
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  Speaker 1: Care Trauma Response Center. Now you were deployed as part
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  Speaker 1: of the Australian medical team to the Philippines after Typhoon
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  Speaker 1: high Ar in twenty thirteen and indeed Vanuatu in twenty
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  Speaker 1: fifteen for tropical Cyclone Pam tell us a little bit
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  Speaker 1: more because I know that Typhoon high Arn was one
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  Speaker 1: of the most devastating cyclones ever recorded. More than six
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  Speaker 1: thousand lives were lost. It must have been a very
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  Speaker 1: difficult thing to walk into.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, Katie, it was. It's been probably one of the
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  Speaker 2: most challenging I think events of my professional career, most
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  Speaker 2: rewarding as well. Look, we flew over on wrap aircraft
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  Speaker 2: on a big C seventeen Globe Master and then into
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  Speaker 2: Manila and then was quickly sort of pushed on to
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  Speaker 2: a not so flash option of the C one thirty,
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  Speaker 2: you know, I think old sort of mash style aircraft,
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  Speaker 2: and we arrived into tac Cleban Airport, which was quite
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  Speaker 2: near the epicenter. So there was extreme damage and devastation
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  Speaker 2: just everywhere you looked. You know, there's no check encounters,
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  Speaker 2: that's all been blown away. You're literally walking off, you know,
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  Speaker 2: out of the back of one of these big military
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  Speaker 2: aircraft with backlifts off and into scenes of devastation. There's
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  Speaker 2: there's a lot of different aid agencies set up right,
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  Speaker 2: you know, fifty meters from where you're disembarking off the aircraft,
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  Speaker 2: our field hospital. So both Rob and I deployed as
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  Speaker 2: part of the second team into so our Team Alpha
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  Speaker 2: was already there that set up the field hospital, and
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  Speaker 2: they were doing, you know, the great initial work that
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  Speaker 2: you see the really traumatic post typhoon injuries. They're on
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  Speaker 2: a cement's lab our. Field hospital for your listeners is
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  Speaker 2: best described as pop up tents. It's very large footprint.
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  Speaker 2: The logisticians would get angry at me for calling it
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  Speaker 2: tents because it's referred to as shelters. But in that
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  Speaker 2: field hospital, we have impatient facilities. We also have two
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  Speaker 2: surgical beds that we were able to provide surgical capability
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  Speaker 2: and response. So we walked into that and you know,
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  Speaker 2: there were still body bags and things lining the roads.
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  Speaker 2: It was torrential rain, it was hot. There probably wasn't
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  Speaker 2: enough of us for the workload we were receiving. The
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  Speaker 2: rest of the field hospitals, you know, were spread out
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  Speaker 2: quite you know, in a big distance with him from
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  Speaker 2: where we were. So we and we were one of
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  Speaker 2: the biggest ones theres so we were taking a lot
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  Speaker 2: of what was coming in the infrastructure and tackleban. The
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  Speaker 2: existing hospitals and things were essentially wiped out. So it
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  Speaker 2: was really it was really confronting.
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  Speaker 1: And for the type of role that you're in, what's
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  Speaker 1: it like then in terms of your day, you know,
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  Speaker 1: what does your day consist of when you are responding
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  Speaker 1: to such a traumatic event like that.
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  Speaker 2: Yep, So it depends where you are in our facility
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  Speaker 2: for the day, so you know, you may be we
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  Speaker 2: had a pediatric area, we obviously had the surgical shelter
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  Speaker 2: as well, and then we had you know, two inpatient wads,
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  Speaker 2: a high dependency unit as well as an outpatient emergency
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  Speaker 2: tentat the front. So it just depends where you were.
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  Speaker 2: But obviously intake of all manner of different kind of injuries.
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  Speaker 2: There was also illness presentations. People had lost their medications,
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  Speaker 2: so we had some very very sick people presenting, you know,
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  Speaker 2: almost at the end point that it was too far
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  Speaker 2: to help them. But yeah, so look, you know, any
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  Speaker 2: every day was different. So we were at the I
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  Speaker 2: was on the final two week rotation, so we were
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  Speaker 2: packing up on the second last night and a military
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  Speaker 2: helicopter crashed into a mountain and so unannounced in the
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  Speaker 2: middle of the night while we're trying to pack up
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  Speaker 2: and demobilize. We received six patients. The first thing we
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  Speaker 2: heard was sirens. So every day is different. Every night
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  Speaker 2: it's different.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, and I think it's quite unbelievable, it would be.
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  Speaker 1: It is so hard, I think for a lot of
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  Speaker 1: us here in the Northern Territory to even wrap our
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  Speaker 1: heads around the kind of work that you're both undertaking.
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  Speaker 1: Because when you talk about something like a typhoon, or
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  Speaker 1: when you talk about something like a cyclone, for us
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  Speaker 1: here in the territory, the way that we you know,
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  Speaker 1: the way that we deal with a cyclone, but then
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  Speaker 1: also the way that our buildings are built and our
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  Speaker 1: responses are obviously quite different. In addition to that, our
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  Speaker 1: medical response and and what we've got here in the
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  Speaker 1: territory is quite different, you know, to what you'd see
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  Speaker 1: in those in those other countries, and then when you
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  Speaker 1: take into account the devastation that they've they've been subjected to.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's right, that's right. You know, things are built
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  Speaker 2: to different standards here, you know, we're built to our
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  Speaker 2: Cat five standard. A lot of the places that we
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  Speaker 2: respond to, you know, third world places on places that
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  Speaker 2: are you know, sort of capability building you know, into
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  Speaker 2: where we are now. So the damage is always going
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  Speaker 2: to be a lot more ye and with that goes injuries.
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  Speaker 2: So a lot of the injuries out of Tackleban were
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  Speaker 2: to the storm search that followed the actual typhoon, and
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  Speaker 2: so there was no word I think, rob was there.
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  Speaker 2: There was no word in language for what a storm
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  Speaker 2: surge was, so they couldn't warn the population. Yeah. Yeah,
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  Speaker 2: so that's where the most amount of lives were lost. Yep.
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  Speaker 2: So we saw a lot of small children and babies
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  Speaker 2: being brought in that had drowned, and it was just
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  Speaker 2: that was just really, you know, really difficult to see
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  Speaker 2: and then hear the stories of the family and see
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  Speaker 2: what they've been through. So it's definitely it's definitely something
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  Speaker 2: that wasn't easy. It was challenging, but I'm very humbled
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  Speaker 2: by it and in the way that what we did
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  Speaker 2: there was so so much appreciated by the population.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, I bet, I bet it was. You would have
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  Speaker 1: been like, you know, a pack of angels arriving to them. Really, now, Robert,
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  Speaker 1: when we think of these incidents, we think of the
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  Speaker 1: National Critical Care We often think of medical professionals, but
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  Speaker 1: what some people may not realize is that people like
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  Speaker 1: yourself logisticians are a really integral part of any emergency situation.
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  Speaker 1: And well, as I understand it, you're actually by trade,
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  Speaker 1: you were an automative or you're a diesel fitter as
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  Speaker 1: I understand. And then in two thousand and three you
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  Speaker 1: became a firefighter with the Northern Territory Fire and Rescue
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  Speaker 1: Service before joining the National Critical Care and Trauma Response Center. Firstly,
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  Speaker 1: what made you sort of, you know, make that move
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  Speaker 1: across to the National Critical Care and Trauma Response Center.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, thanks Katie. Well, I'm still a career firefighter, but
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  Speaker 3: always in the piece. I've always helped out where I
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  Speaker 3: can do what I can. I think I've picked that
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  Speaker 3: up my father, he was a police officer, and I
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  Speaker 3: think the opportunity was there twy and nine or ten
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  Speaker 3: with a trauma center to do what I can in
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  Speaker 3: a big scale, really quite formalized, and it just took
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  Speaker 3: off from there.
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  Speaker 1: Now, for those out there listening who maybe don't know
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  Speaker 1: a huge amount about what a logistician does, what do
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  Speaker 1: you do like in these times of crisis talk us
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  Speaker 1: through us.
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  Speaker 3: Well, for us, it's the preparation and the building of
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  Speaker 3: the facility. So the asset is what we will build
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  Speaker 3: and maintain and pick up and lift, put it down.
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  Speaker 3: And like I was saying, build the whole show. And
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  Speaker 3: really we just need to keep the place running. There's power, shelter,
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  Speaker 3: there's sewage, There's a lot of things that come into it.
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  Speaker 3: We just want to make sure that the medical staff
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  Speaker 3: just can keep doing their job. And it's a bit
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  Speaker 3: like glamping for them really, So that's what they that's
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  Speaker 3: what they describe to us, and we just run, We
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  Speaker 3: run around behind the scenes and just make sure that
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  Speaker 3: they can just do their job.
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  Speaker 2: It is hot. It is.
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  Speaker 3: As we did go to Venda and tack Labanda. It's
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  Speaker 3: it's very hot. It rains insanely harder than it does here.
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  Speaker 3: It's the extreme, but we are pretty used to it.
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  Speaker 3: But we're just going to make sure that we can
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  Speaker 3: keep the place running well.
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  Speaker 1: And how difficult is that because you are actually talking about,
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  Speaker 1: you know, getting into somewhere which has been totally devastated,
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  Speaker 1: and Rhiannon had spoken about that storm surge and you
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  Speaker 1: know water coming through and then you're trying to make
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  Speaker 1: sure that they've the medical staff have got everything that
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  Speaker 1: they need to be able to do their jobs in
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  Speaker 1: a safe manner and without any hazards.
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  Speaker 3: How tough is that it's coming to a place it's
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  Speaker 3: been devastated. The place where we went. It's on a peninsula,
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  Speaker 3: so it's just been white gack completely. They don't have
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  Speaker 3: the hard structures that we have and having a cyclone
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  Speaker 3: hit like that just absolutely annihilates the whole place. It's
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  Speaker 3: just like me and they said, there's bodies and people
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  Speaker 3: wandering around as well, just lost. So we have to
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  Speaker 3: build everything from the start. Our own power generation water
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  Speaker 3: is one of the big ones to produce six to
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  Speaker 3: eight thousand liters per day for the facility, and security
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  Speaker 3: on that is another big one as well, so our food,
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  Speaker 3: everything is brought in. We can't run on the ground
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  Speaker 3: without the right people. So it's a group. It's a
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  Speaker 3: concerted effort and there's everyone around us to make sure
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  Speaker 3: everything's safe. The ADF plays a big role as well
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  Speaker 3: with us.
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  Speaker 1: What is it like for both of you sort of
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  Speaker 1: and Rihanna and you touched on it before, but what
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  Speaker 1: is it like for you guys coming home after you've
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  Speaker 1: seen such devastation and going back to your normal lives
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  Speaker 1: after seeing what can only be described, I'm sure as
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  Speaker 1: human tragedy for other people.
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  Speaker 3: Well, for the loggies, it's we're still working when we
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  Speaker 3: come home with all our equipment has to be clear
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  Speaker 3: through customs and it's clean before we come home. But
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  Speaker 3: we've still got to bring everything back to one in
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  Speaker 3: one piece if we can, and work out what we
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  Speaker 3: can use again and pretty much back to work for
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  Speaker 3: me straight aways a fire flight as well, so similar
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  Speaker 3: role but not quite. But the biggest thing is coming
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  Speaker 3: home actually to your family. So the adjustment isn't too
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  Speaker 3: bad for me. And I'm back and forth with the
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  Speaker 3: trauma set as well. Like I said, refurbishing all the equipment,
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  Speaker 3: it's a big one and we just have to keep
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  Speaker 3: doing it because anything could happen at any time.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, and Rihanna, and you know what about for you,
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  Speaker 1: I know you've got little kids. It must be tough
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  Speaker 1: when you see that kind of devastation and you're trying
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  Speaker 1: to help people in such a desperate time and then
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  Speaker 1: coming home to your little ones.
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  Speaker 2: It is Katie, I found it quite challenging when I
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  Speaker 2: came home post tackle ban, because you've been in such
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  Speaker 2: an intense environment. You're coming home to a family that
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  Speaker 2: don't know where you know, they haven't been there. You
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  Speaker 2: can tell them stories. Unless you've been there, you can
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  Speaker 2: never really understand exactly what it is you've done for
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  Speaker 2: the last two weeks. So you come from sort of
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  Speaker 2: a heightened environment and back to your loving family and
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  Speaker 2: it takes a few days to adjust and just get
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  Speaker 2: back into the normality of life. You do feel a
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  Speaker 2: bit lost. We have so prior to deployment we go
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  Speaker 2: through a quite bigger psychological testing. We have psychological support
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  Speaker 2: available to us at every stage whilst we're deployed, and
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  Speaker 2: then we have follow up when we're home as well.
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  Speaker 2: So anybody that does really struggle, there's always that there
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  Speaker 2: and we take that very seriously. For me, it's a
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  Speaker 2: couple of days and then I'm well adjusted. You know.
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  Speaker 2: I was speaking to somebody yesterday and they said, but
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  Speaker 2: they would picture it as you know, you get home
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  Speaker 2: and your husband throws the kids at you and says,
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  Speaker 2: you've been away for two weeks. Your turn. Yeah, and
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  Speaker 2: it kind of can be a bit like that. Yeah,
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  Speaker 2: you know, balances out.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, well, I'll tell you what, I think you guys
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  Speaker 1: are totally incredible. That goes without saying, but last night
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  Speaker 1: I am seeing that event where you both, along with
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  Speaker 1: seventeen others, were presented your Humanitarian Overseas Service Medals. I've
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  Speaker 1: got to tell you, I felt really proud to be
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  Speaker 1: in that room as a territory and knowing that we've
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  Speaker 1: got people like you guys that are there and the
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  Speaker 1: OZMAT team, and what the National Critical Care and Trauma
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  Speaker 1: Response Center does, I just think is absolutely phenomenal. And
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  Speaker 1: the fact that it's based here in the Northern Territory
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  Speaker 1: and is there you guys ready to deploy at any moment.
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  Speaker 1: It's something that all territory and should be incredibly proud of.
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  Speaker 1: I really appreciate you both coming in today and a
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  Speaker 1: big congratulations on those medals, but I know that neither
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  Speaker 1: of you do it for that and I think that
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  Speaker 1: that's the wonderful part as well. So thanks so much
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  Speaker 1: for your time today. Thanks Katie, Thanks Katie, Thank you