FOR Mount Gambier couple Craig and Amanda Davis, the Royal Flying Doctor Service is truly their angel in the sky.
If it was not for the expertise of the Flying Doctor, they may not have their precious three-year-old twin boys Nash and Preston.
While these vibrant twin boys are healthy, happy and perhaps at times a bit cheeky, their arrival into the world was tumultuous and unforgettable.
Sitting in the home with RFDS Mount Gambier Support Group president Bill Russon, the couple reflects on what the service means for them.
The couple is retelling their story to highlight the important service the aeromedical service provides across the South East community.
Figures show on average the Flying Doctor lands in the Limestone Coast twice per day.
While for most the iconic aviation medical service is just a plane that flies overhead, for others is conjures up images of how it has saved their life or a loved one.
“Without the RFDS, there is no way our boys would be here – they were lifesaving,” Mr Davis said.
While their experience was an unfolding emergency, Mr Davis said many premature babies were flown by the service to Adelaide to access special care units.
Revealing his tiny twins were born around lunchtime, he said the Flying Doctor’s specialised team arrived at Mount Gambier within hours.
Despite attempts to stall Amanda’s developing labour, the twins were born at 30 weeks’ gestation at Mount Gambier Hospital by emergency caesarean section.
“With their lungs too small to cope, one of the boys was immediately put on a medical ventilator, while the other was manually ventilated for ‘what felt like an hour’,” Mr Davis explained.
Although it was in the height of summer, the Flying Doctor arrived in unseasonably stormy and wet weather conditions.
“It was February 24 and you would think that time of the year would be 40 degrees and crystal blue skies.
“There was a torrential downpour and thunderstorms,” Mr Davis recalled.
“It was that bad the RFDS was contemplating landing in Naracoorte and conveying the boys by road ambulance.”
He revealed his anxiety levels sky-rocketed given his boys’ lives were on a knife-edge.
“I remember standing in the corridor in the hospital and seeing the MedSTAR Kids neonatal retrieval team and thinking ‘oh my God, you are here’,” the relieved father said.
“I just cannot describe the feeling of immense relief that came over us on the arrival of the aeromedical team.
“You’re suddenly completely reassured that all the skilled care and specialist equipment that you need for your very own emergency aeromedical transfer has just come in to the room.”
The two little boys were soon speeding their way to Adelaide by air.
Driving from Mount Gambier to Adelaide takes almost five hours, but the RFDS aircraft covers this ground in just 60 minutes.
On arrival at Flinders Medical Centre, the boys were immediately placed into the hands of neonatal specialists.
Meanwhile, Amanda was stabilised following her surgery and flew the next morning in another RFDS aircraft to be reunited with her newborn sons.
Interestingly, her plane was diverted to another regional town on the way to pick up a man who had been bitten by a snake.
After the boys’ speedy flight and the special care they received in their first hours, days and weeks, the twins are now fit and well.
Three years earlier, the couple suffered the tragedy of losing twin daughters – Lila and Harper – when Amanda was just 20 weeks pregnant.
Sadly, their little lungs could not sustain their first breaths beyond a few heart-breaking minutes.
“I am in no doubt that without the specialist care and the emergency RFDS flight the boys received, we would have lost another two,” Mr Davis said.
“That would have been absolutely devastating.”
