I n April, 10 months after a fatal bus crash in Vanuatu, two people who were critically injured in the collision walked into the Medical Rescue office to offer their personal thanks. Without the Medical Rescue system and capabilities in place, there was no way they would have survived. It took just seven hours for the Gold Coast-based business to get paramedics on the ground on the Pacific Island nation to bring the patients home for treatment. The cruise ship tour bus had collided with a local bus and three people were killed, 12 injured. Some were treated in Vanuatu, but some had to be flown back to Brisbane. “That is my most memorable moment of the past five or six years,” says Medical Rescue Director Michael Smith, an intensive care paramedic. “To have them walk through our door was a true mark of our success.” As Managing Director and founder, Dr Glenn McKay, explains, the question asked first in all reviews is, “did we do everything we could in the best interest of the patient?” “If we did, then we can hold our hands over our hearts and say that we are doing a good job and we should keep doing what we are doing.” What Medical Rescue does is send planes and helicopters to rescue sick and injured people in locations such as the Pacific Island nations, South East Asia, oil rigs that are hundreds of kilometres out to sea, and to cruise ships in the Pacific and Indian oceans. As businesses expand their range to remote areas, and more and more people explore far-flung destinations, it is the service provided by Medical Rescue that is an insurance policy for the health of workers and tourists. Dr McKay founded the business in 2003, but it has been in the past five to seven years, after he and Michael began their partnership, that Medical Rescue stepped up the pace of growth. When Michael came on board, he and Glenn would fly the rescue missions themselves. While they have maintained their medical registrations, both men have now stepped back into management roles to guide the business as it has diversified and grown to employ 100 staff. In addition to medical rescues, the business operates field hospitals at four ski fields in Queenstown, where 45 staff treat around 3,000 patients over a three-month snow season each year; it transports injured soldiers for the Australian Defence Force; it designs and manufactures medical equipment; and it runs training in disciplines such as driving and underwater helicopter escape. “I am really proud of what the team has achieved,” says Dr McKay. “Everybody has worked so hard over the past several years to see this kind of growth and there is no hint of slowing. It is an exciting time.” When disaster strikes at remote work sites and at distant holiday destinations, Medical Rescue flies into action to connect the injured with life-saving treatment. But there is much more to this fast-growing Gold Coast-based business than rescues. TO THE RESCUE WORDS James Perkins PHOTOGRAPHY Lincoln Williams D R I V E R BEHIND THE WHEEL 11 10