CS25168 AUGUST19 ADV2019
Starshipis morethana children'shospitalin Auckland.TheStarshipNational
AirAmbulanceis NewZealand'sonlypaediatricintensivecareunitin theskyA li
T
he Starship National Air
Ambulance Service responds
to children facing a range of
life-threatening situations,
from serious complications arising
from normal childhood illnesses and
accidents to heart conditions, seizures,
and severe infections. No matter where
they are in New Zealand, these kids all
deserve the best possible chance, but it
costs $1.5 million a year to keep this
vital service running. Without donations
it could not continue.
Here we hear from Senior Clinical
Nurse Di Fuller about the role she plays
in retrieving sick Kiwi kids, and share
the story of young New Zealander
Ethan Zakeri, who was critically injured
in Fiji but successfully stabilised and
transferred to Starship hospital in
Auckland – his life literally saved by
Starship’s expert care.Di Fuller
SENIOR CLINICAL NURSE AND
SPECIALIST IN TRANSPORT
Di Fuller, a Senior Clinical Nurse in
the PICU team (Paediatric Intensive
Care Unit), is also a Nurse Specialist in
Transport, leading the PICU transport
team. If she’s rostered on for transports
and not imminently going out, her shift
always starts with safety checks of all
the transport equipment.
“A referral can come in at any time
during the day or night,” she explains.
“This can take from four hours for a
short trip to 12-16 hours if the child is
critical and needs a lot of stabilisation,
or for longer-distance trips – which are
not too uncommon. It depends where
in New Zealand we need to go and
how sick the child is.”
Di and her team love the challenge
of doing retrievals. “We become aDonate now at starship.org.nz/foundation or buy a
mobile paediatric intensive care service
so it is about manintaining a very high
standard of specialised care in what
can be challenging circumstances –
there are many things that we need to
consider in the air that don’t need to
be thought about on the ground. This
requires a lot of advanced planning
and discussion of management
strategies so we can proactively
manage events that may arise,
especially once we’re on the move with
our patient, in very con ned spaces.”
Di is constantly amazed by the
incredible resilence of the sick infants
and children she treats. “When they’re
critically ill they endure a phenomenal
amount. If we can make it more
tolerable and less frightening for them
(and their family), and can keep them
safe and help them get better, then we
have done our jobs.”Di Fuller, Senior Clinical
Nurse and Nurse Specialist
in Transport, helps bring
very sick children safely
to Starship hospital.
OPPOSITE: Ethan Zakeri,
retrieved from Fiji.