’Propeller vs forearm, croc vs leg’: The incredible job of a remote bush doctor

Specialist rural doctor, Damien Brown on dramatic rescues, slow interventions and the cases that moved him, including attending to two badly burnt men after a fuel tank exploded on a remote Queensland cattle station.

As a young boy in South Africa, Damien Brown was always interested in science and medicine.

His neighbour, the local veterinarian, would let him observe surgery in the workshop, so it was predictable that Damien would end up as a medical doctor.

After his parents moved the family to Australia, the call to help others drew Damien back to the very things his parents had tried to shield him from — civil war, crime, absolute poverty and inequity.

Damien joined Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders) as soon as they would take him as a junior doctor.

He worked in Angola, Mozambique and South Sudan. 

When he returned to Australia, working for the Royal Flying Doctor Service in remote communities in Central Australia and Far North Queensland, he found challenges that were more similar to his previous experience in Africa than he expected.

Further information

Bush Doctor: A memoir from the beautiful, rugged heart of outback Australia is published by Allen & Unwin.

This episode was produced by Rebecca McLaren. The Executive Producer is Eliza Kirsch.

This episode touches on remote Indigenous communities, rural doctor, Royal Flying Doctor Service, South Africa, Angola, South Sudan, civil war, gunfight, safe room, grab bag, remote work. 

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