From chewing fibrous plants in Uganda to treating indigenous communities in the mountains of Peru, RFDS Senior Dentist Dr Vaibhav Garg has experienced his fair share of oral health adventures during his career. But it is the time 'Dr Vai' has spent in some of Australia's most remote and isolated communities that he credits most, for inspiring him to make remote oral health care his life's work. And it was a tiny, WA wheat belt town called Wongan Hills, that became a pivotal sliding doors moment for a young dentist simply wanting to 'make a difference'. Having recently been named the Rural Health Pros' Rural/ Remote Health Professional of the Year, Dr Vai has big plans for the future of outback oral health care.

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Thanks so much for listening to this episode of the Flying Doctor Podcast. It is lovely to have you along on the journey with us. There has been some wonderful feedback from listeners about our podcast and the incredible people we have interviewed. Word of mouth is always the best promotion for a podcast – so if you enjoy this podcast, or a specific story, please share with family and friends.

Reviews and ratings help our podcast to be found by others, so if you can take the time to do that it would be appreciated.  You can also send feedback, questions or comments through to [email protected]. We'd also love you to become part of the Flying Doctor Podcast Facebook group, where passionate listeners and incredible outback communities come together.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is the extraordinary tale of how an American born IT sales rep. from Melbourne suddenly found himself making international headlines from the Australian outback! When Edward McKinney headed to Uluru with his wife and baby daughter in early 2022, he was looking forward to enjoying the ‘ultimate NT Aussie adventure’. But after stepping on a brown snake in his hotel hallway, Eddie soon found himself strapped onto an RFDS plane and headed to Alice Springs hospital. And all for the sake of a little baby brown snake!

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Thanks so much for listening to this episode of the Flying Doctor Podcast. It is lovely to have you along on the journey with us. There has been some wonderful feedback from listeners about our podcast and the incredible people we have interviewed. Word of mouth is always the best promotion for a podcast – so if you enjoy this podcast, or a specific story, please share with family and friends.

Reviews and ratings help our podcast to be found by others, so if you can take the time to do that it would be appreciated.  You can also send feedback, questions or comments through to [email protected]. 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It's the ultimate Australian outback legend. In July 1917, a young stockman named Jimmy Darcy was critically injured by a horse accident. In a desperate bid to save his life, his brothers transported Jimmy to the remote community of WA's Halls Creek, via a 12 hour cart ride. What followed was an extraordinary tale of courage, survival and incredible outback ingenuity. Jimmy Darcy would become the first patient to undergo an 'Operation by Telegraph'.  And on August 2nd, 1917, all the wartime wires in WA would fall silent - as the Halls Creek Postmaster and a Perth based Doctor used morse code to try and save a stockman's life. This is the story of Dr JJ Holland, Fred Trickett and Jimmy Darcy...

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Thanks so much for listening to this episode of the Flying Doctor Podcast. It is lovely to have you along on the journey with us. There has been some wonderful feedback from listeners about our podcast and the incredible people we have interviewed. Word of mouth is always the best promotion for a podcast – so if you enjoy this podcast, or a specific story, please share with family and friends.

Reviews and ratings help our podcast to be found by others, so if you can take the time to do that it would be appreciated.  You can also send feedback, questions or comments through to [email protected]. 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Many of us dread the thought of having needles - let alone having to inject a needle into ourselves! But when 44-year-old remote nurse Ryan Franks suddenly suffered a heart attack in the isolated community of WA's Coral Bay, taking his own bloods was just the first, daunting step in an extraordinary and terrifying bid to safe his own life. As the only professional medical practitioner on duty that night, Ryan would need to draw on all his remote medical training and sheer will power, to connect himself with an emergency tele-health doctor, attach his own ECG, insert his own canula and then talk his volunteer paramedic colleagues through his own (potential) resuscitation. 

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Thanks so much for listening to this episode of the Flying Doctor Podcast. It is lovely to have you along on the journey with us. There has been some wonderful feedback from listeners about our podcast and the incredible people we have interviewed. Word of mouth is always the best promotion for a podcast – so if you enjoy this podcast, or a specific story, please share with family and friends.

Reviews and ratings help our podcast to be found by others, so if you can take the time to do that it would be appreciated.  You can also send feedback, questions or comments through to [email protected]. 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

When Mick Oates woke up in his campervan, completely unable to move, he couldn't even recall how he'd ended up there. As anyone who has had the opportunity to travel outback Australia already knows, taking 'the road less travelled' doesn't always go exactly to plan! But for Mick, a series of unfortunate events had finally caught up with former police officer's spine. Mick had officially 'done his back' on the Birdsville track! This is also the story of how Mick and his mates found themselves returning for a third, Big Red Bash experience in Birdsville this year - carefully hiking down a sand dune in full 'Priscilla, Queen of the Desert' costume in the famous RFDS fundraising Drag Race. Seriously!

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Thanks so much for listening to this episode of the Flying Doctor Podcast. It is lovely to have you along on the journey with us. To find out more about Birdsville's Big Red Bash, you can head to Home - Big Red Bash There has been some wonderful feedback from listeners about our podcast and the incredible people we have interviewed. Word of mouth is always the best promotion for a podcast – so if you enjoy this podcast, or a specific story, please share with family and friends.

Reviews and ratings help our podcast to be found by others, so if you can take the time to do that it would be appreciated.  You can also send feedback, questions or comments through to [email protected]. 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Everyone knows that Mums know best...So when baby Selene's mum first noticed her one-year-old was 'just not herself', she took her straight to the local hospital. But in the Christmas holiday chaos of long waiting times and staff shortages, Hayley's feverish daughter was sent home with a diagnosis of 'viral tonsilitis'. Three days later, Selene was being airlifted by the RFDS to Townsville hospital, as she struggled to breath from the pressure of a large abscess pressing into her windpipe. 

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Thanks so much for listening to this episode of the Flying Doctor Podcast. It is lovely to have you along on the journey with us. There has been some wonderful feedback from listeners about our podcast and the incredible people we have interviewed. Word of mouth is always the best promotion for a podcast – so if you enjoy this podcast, or a specific story, please share with family and friends.

Reviews and ratings help our podcast to be found by others, so if you can take the time to do that it would be appreciated.  You can also send feedback, questions or comments through to [email protected]. 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

When Jaimen Hudson became a quadriplegic at the age of 17, after crashing onto his head from a dirt bike, he refused to let his disability define him. Now a world-famous photographer and filmmaker, a husband and father and the owner of a successful eco-adventure business in the stunning Esperance region of WA, Jaimen attributes much of his life's success to his positive attitude. And it was this same positive mindset that the now 33-year-old had to draw heavily upon when, on Easter Monday 2024, he was thrown from his all-terrain wheelchair and broke his neck a second time. 

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Thanks so much for listening to this episode of the Flying Doctor Podcast. It is lovely to have you along on the journey with us. You can find out more about Jaimen's extraordinary drone photography and eco-adventures at Print Store | Speaking Engagements | Photography – Jaimen Hudson

There has been some wonderful feedback from listeners about our podcast and the incredible people we have interviewed. Word of mouth is always the best promotion for a podcast – so if you enjoy this podcast, or a specific story, please share with family and friends.

Reviews and ratings help our podcast to be found by others, so if you can take the time to do that it would be appreciated.  You can also send feedback, questions or comments through to [email protected]. 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Annabelle (Annie) Barr enjoys an adventure. 'Today is the first day of the rest of your life' is one of her favourite sayings. But when this former country newspaper columnist, rural mum and massage therapist suddenly found herself in a tiny country pub in the remote Flinders Ranges region of South Australia, choking on a piece of goat meat, she was stumped as to what to do. Annie had a goat in her throat - and it wasn't going anywhere! The single mum and her 12-year-old son found themselves surrounded by strangers, unexpectedly stranded and many miles from home.

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Thanks so much for listening to this episode of the Flying Doctor Podcast. It is lovely to have you along on the journey with us. There has been some wonderful feedback from listeners about our podcast and the incredible people we have interviewed. Word of mouth is always the best promotion for a podcast – so if you enjoy this podcast, or a specific story, please share with family and friends.

Reviews and ratings help our podcast to be found by others, so if you can take the time to do that it would be appreciated.  You can also send feedback, questions or comments through to [email protected]. 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We all have plenty of theories on what makes a happy marriage, a fulfilling career and a life of adventure and fun. But if anyone comes close to achieving the trifecta, it would probably be former RFDS base manager, Alison Fox and her husband (and current RFDS pilot) Bruce Carroll. In this amusing, inspiring and highly entertaining trip down memory lane, Alison and Bruce share the true stories - and tall tales - of their respective time spent working at the Meekatharra RFDS base in WA....and the incredible patients, community members and RFDS staff who shared their adventures. 

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Thanks so much for listening to this episode of the Flying Doctor Podcast. It is lovely to have you along on the journey with us. There has been some wonderful feedback from listeners about our podcast and the incredible people we have interviewed. Word of mouth is always the best promotion for a podcast – so if you enjoy this podcast, or a specific story, please share with family and friends.

Reviews and ratings help our podcast to be found by others, so if you can take the time to do that it would be appreciated.  You can also send feedback, questions or comments through to [email protected]. 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Whether you love them or loathe them, there's no denying that snakes are an inevitable part of life in regional Australia - particularly if you live in or around our beautiful bushlands. But what would YOU do if you - or someone you were with - were to suffer a suspected snake bite? And what happens if you're hundreds of kilometers from help or emergency advice?

Over a one-year period (as part of a larger, three-year study) the RFDS (Western Operations) found that 85 people from regional, rural, remote and very remote Western Australia were flown by Royal Flying Doctor Service to hospital for suspected or confirmed snake bites. While only five of these patients (6%) ultimately received a toxicologist’s diagnosis of envenomation, the research showed just how challenging a remote or regional 'suspected snake bite' scenario can be. Dr Hamish Bradley is an adjunct Lecturer, Anaesthetist and Aeromedical Retrieval Specialist and he's pretty passionate about keeping us all just a little bit safer this snake season!

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thanks so much for listening to this episode of the Flying Doctor Podcast. It is lovely to have you along on the journey with us. There has been some wonderful feedback from listeners about our podcast and the incredible people we have interviewed. Word of mouth is always the best promotion for a podcast – so if you enjoy this podcast, or a specific story, please share with family and friends.

Reviews and ratings help our podcast to be found by others, so if you can take the time to do that it would be appreciated.  You can also send feedback, questions or comments through to [email protected]. 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.