Guest Blog - Wendy Sullivan

We just love speaking to and finding out more about the people who inspire us and we guarantee that this month’s blog will not disappoint! 

We first got in touch with Wendy Sullivan via LinkedIn and thought she seemed like a pretty awesome human. Wendy and her company, Maritime Medical Solutions in Australia, certainly share the same outlook as Red Square Medical. Fast forward a couple of years and we’re now collaborating on a project in Australia and the Pacific Islands. What we’ve learnt along the way is simply fascinating and Wendy has kindly agreed to share her story with us…

Here is Wendy’s Guest Blog:

I was born in Canada, grew up in Africa and now call Australia my home. I feel lucky to live in paradise where the weather allows us to be on the water year-round. I had to work hard to gain my Australian citizenship and I credit my work in the marine industry with giving me a pathway to stay in Australia permanently. It took years of hard work and uncertainty to gain my residency and is still one of the achievements I am most proud of. 

I started sailing in Canada and since emigrating to Australia gained my professional and commercial qualifications as a vessel master, marine engine driver, trainer and assessor. I also have a Diploma of Paramedical Science, ship masters medical qualifications, business administration and development and there is still so much more to come. 

I will say that an Irukandji jellyfish played a role in where I am today. I was working as a deckhand on a boat when my skipper was stung by Irukandji and was completely incapacitated. I looked after him and safely navigated the vessel back to port. From that day I knew I wanted to be a skipper. I started studying the very next day and worked and studied my way from galley and deck to master. From there I had my own vessel management business which involved maintenance, detailing, vessel deliveries, private vessel handling and instructing for clients - which led to where I am today with Marine Medical Solutions.


I am a commercial ship master, medic, medical instructor, yacht master, founder and director of two companies. Marine Medical Solutions (MMS) provides specialised medical training, medical equipment and supplies and services to international and domestic commercial and recreational vessels and maritime businesses. MMS is an Australian business specialising in an emerging sector as the Superyacht industry in Australia grows. Our business model is well established overseas, but we are unique in the services we provide for our clients Australia wide.

I have worked on a wide range of vessels including performance racing yachts, sailboats, tall ships, jet boats and powerboats. But there are many more that I still want to experience. You might not be surprised to find out that I was awarded my boat license before my car license! 


I am an entrepreneur at heart, but also a public speaker, moulage technician, educator, sailor, life long learner, a person who loves what I do and appreciates the possibility to make a real difference in many lives through my work and passion. 


My motivation is that I don’t want anyone to go offshore, whether crew or passenger, without the proper skills and equipment to protect and preserve lives at sea. When I strip away everything that I do, it boils down to the impact it has on others. How does the work I do help others in a real and tangible way; not just now, but long into the future. 


I used to work as a pastry chef, and that’s actually how I got my first job working on boats. I enjoy a wide range of vessels and have worked in areas as diverse as a performance yacht crew trainer, ships cook, deck hand, recreational ship masters instructor, operations manager, vessel maintenance, detailing, sail guide, vessel handling instructor, volunteer marine rescue, charter skipper and driving boats for the film industry. 


My days vary wildly. I have a can of burning smell spray on my desk and simulated blood and body parts in my office for scenarios, right next to a rubber blue ringed octopus that I use for a teaching aid. I can be applying moulage to a live role player casualty or teaching an advanced marine first aid course on a vessel, on an airfield, on a superyacht. Maybe designing and developing medical kits, working as a medic, designing bespoke medical courses, debriefing sessions, instructor training, conferences or speaking at events. My patients equally vary depending on whether I’m working in sport, events or at sea. No two days are the same and I love my job because of it.


We work around our client’s operational schedules to reduce their downtime. This means I can be running training sessions from first light to night time courses and everything in between.  My work is more land based now, but I still drive boats for private clients on request. My plan is to make sure I am working at sea much more than I have been recently; it’s my happy place!

When I am completely in the moment with a group of people who are fully engaged in what we are doing and when it’s at its best, you can feel the magic happening in real time. When students who have been on my courses return and tell me how they applied the skills they learnt from my course to save someone’s life – I cannot think of much that compares to being part of such an extraordinary experience. To be part of a life saved and giving the gift of being able to apply those skills is something that I truly cherish. It gets me through bad days. If nothing else, I know beyond any doubt that the work I do truly matters. 


But of course every job has downsides and I don’t enjoy seeing the pain in someone when they relive the hurt or death of a family member, which can be brought up by topics in medical training courses. 


Keeping my skills up to date is vital. So, when I’m not teaching, you’ll probably find me on a training course building on my skills and knowledge. Everything and anything from road crash rescue, electrical rescue, HEUT (how to get out of helicopters underwater!), helicopter winching, wound care and closure, confined space rescue, moulage techniques, sports medicine, envenomation, remote area medicine, marine survival techniques, outback bush survival, mental health first aid, search and rescue… the list goes on!


I also read, research and practise skills in the moments I can carve out. I was up at midnight not long ago practising my suturing. It’s not ideal I know, but I love to get it right and as a working parent you have to grab any opportunity you get. I have an insatiable thirst for knowledge and I seek out the best instructors and mentors in our industry to work and learn from. 


I train in these areas so that I can manage and teach how to manage medical situations in pretty much any environment. Probably the most unusual was when a student attending a first aid course I was teaching went into cardiac arrest during the course. We immediately went from teaching CPR to applying CPR for real on the student. Their fellow students' first thought was that it was a realistic scenario! It wasn’t.


We performed immediate CPR and early defibrillation just as we were trained to, and happily the patient regained consciousness moments before the paramedics arrived. It was surreal. That experience changed everyone in that room, and I am so thankful that the patient made a full recovery. It has shaped the instructor that I am today. I still see him occasionally as he lives in my neighbourhood and seeing him always makes my day. Seeing him going about his day is the embodiment of why I do what I do and why I love it so much. 


 

My current focus is to build Marine Medical Solutions and expand our reach and capabilities to provide a world class service to our clients. We are in the process of adding STCW medical courses to our course scope and looking forward to building on our commitment to training and our medical equipment service business. 


We incorporate each vessel’s medical equipment into our courses to make it relevant for our clients. This means that our instructors need to be familiar with a wide range of equipment, particularly from our international vessels that carry different equipment to our Australian domestic vessels. On courses we are always looking for ways to add depth and relevance to what we do and help enhance the learning experience for participants. 


For instance, we use Practi-Amps (practice drug ampoules)in our courses. A lot of our clients are not medically trained, but are authorised to carry certain medications that a non medical person generally doesn’t have access to. So we want them to know what they look like, how to open the vials or ampoules and draw up medications as per the doctor's instructions on the telehealth call. We want them to be familiar with what they are carrying in their med kit, so we use high fidelity airway manikins, water rescue manikins, simulated wounds, sim blood, sim skins, moulage and more. It all depends on the course and the client’s requirements. I regularly put sim body parts through airport scanners when I travel with my equipment, luckily security never bats an eye!


If anyone is interested in this kind of work, be prepared for the impact it will have on yourself and others. One day someone’s life might depend on you and we owe it to that person and to ourselves to do our best on the day. I mean that speaking as a ship master, medic and a medical instructor. 


Every course I teach, every medical kit I create, every ship visit, I am hyper aware that what we do today has the capacity to affect the outcome of a life. I love to have fun, but I take my work very seriously. I know what it is to have a very sick crew member at sea and on that occasion you either have a set of skills you can apply, or you don’t. My job is to equip my students with a specific set of skills and knowledge appropriate to their needs to set them up for success. We owe it not only to them but also the casualty they one day might be caring for. I would encourage anyone to pursue a career at sea, it’s life changing in all the very best ways. 


Consequently, my go-to advice would be to make sure you have a well trained crew and a well stocked medical kit! You literally put your life in your crew’s hands when you go to sea. It sounds dramatic until it gets real and you only have each other to lean on to get through it. I have learnt far more on the hard days at sea than on any glass out day. 


That said, it’s not all work and no play. Soaking in the Australian sunshine and any day on the water is a good day. I have been thinking of taking up gliding lately. I love the idea of just soaring through the sky on a wing and a prayer for clarity and being very much in the moment.


Finally, I guess that I love my work because the most profound experiences I’ve had, and many of my lifelong friends have been made at sea. The ocean is a place of both pure joy and sheer terror and yet we keep seeking it out for the lessons that we learn about ourselves and the world when we venture offshore. I count myself as truly blessed to have experienced what I have, and my life’s work is dedicated to living my best life in the service of others by sharing my skills and knowledge.

The Recovery Position - an STCW refresh

by Rachel Smith • 18 December 2024
Welcome to our December blog, which is all about the recovery position and how to manage an unconscious casualty who is breathing normally. Unconsciousness is a medical emergency as the person is very vulnerable and may not be able to manage their own airway effectively. We also need to think about the cause of unconsciousness. Is it a simple fainting episode due to illness? Is it a massive hemorrhage causing hypovolemic shock? Or is it due to some kind of external factor or injury? This blog looks at how to manage an unconscious casualty. So, if we have a casualty who is unconscious, but who is breathing normally for themselves, and we’re not suspecting a serious injury, the recovery position is the best position to use while monitoring them. The recovery position keeps their airway open and makes sure that vomit or liquid won’t cause them to choke.

Revisiting our guest blogs

by Rachel Smith • 11 December 2024
All the guest blogs! When we started adding blogs to our website back in early 2021, we did a little feature on each of our instructors of the time. They’re quite a fascinating bunch and the series proved quite popular amongst our followers. In addition to our amazing instructors, we work with some utterly incredible human beings all over the world, and the idea of sharing their stories grew and developed into what eventually became a monthly guest blog. It’s been interesting to find out more about how medical care at sea or in remote locations features in their work, and to discover a few fun facts along the way. This month, we thought that it might be a fun idea to give you a chance to go back into the archives and review all the guest blogs over the last few years! Maybe even let us know which your favourite one is?

Cayman Maritime Report 2023

by Rachel Smith • 27 November 2024
We’ve taken a look at the 2023 Casualty Summary Report from the Maritime Authority of the Cayman Islands (MACI) to see what kind of incidents and trends their data shows us, even with relatively small data sets, and how this may be able to transfer to our own risk assessments and actual practice. You can find the report here: Cayman Maritime Report 2023 The first thing we noted was the authors note that the data is split out into incidents. This means that one incident may include a number of events. So a collision and any resulting injury is one incident, but is reported as two events, or more, if more than one person is injured. It made us wonder whether this method of reporting by an authority represents how incidents are reported onboard and whether it should be a consideration? Of course, for any set of statistics presented at the moment, we also have to consider the COVID-19 pandemic and the impact this has on trends including that period. While essential shipping continued, the cruise and superyacht sectors reduced activity and staffing, often to a skeleton crew while anchored somewhere. So this will be reflected in the historic data sets that we analyse from 2019 to 2021 and may not accurately reflect increases and decreases during and since then. In some situations, we may need to look further back for accurate data. We also need to consider whether increases in incidents and events is also down to increased reporting - suggesting an improvement in the awareness of reporting requirements and greater engagement from the industry and individual sectors - this can only be a good development. Since 2020, the type of injury has been recorded in 8 different categories, with hand and foot injuries topping the leaderboard, closely followed by head, body, and back injuries. So if you were looking to run drills, or practise medical skills, these would be the key areas to cover. Only one death was an occupational accident, and is being investigated here: MAIB Investigations (search for case #9229607). It relates to a fall down a ventilation shaft on a bulk carrier in a Greek shipyard. The full report was still pending at the time of writing. Merchant ships are heavily regulated by a number of authorities, and the requirements for personal protective equipment and safe systems of work are enforced and applied to reduce accidents and incidents onboard. This has led to a lower reporting of incidents than in the commercial yacht sector. Could there be room for improvement here in this area? We certainly think so. Many of the hand and foot injuries reported can be career ending or life changing, but are preventable. Follow up has shown that there is a link here with injuries being sustained when inappropriate or no PPE was used. The supply and use of appropriate PPE is mandatory on vessels subject to the MLC and it’s worth remembering that some PPE can be produced in styles and designs compatible with the aesthetics of a yacht if required! On a much wider scale, a lack of transparency and standardisation globally can affect the collection of data and the issue of under reporting. While the MACI figures may be accurate, we need other accurate figures to compare them to, in order to build a bigger picture across the world as we have in aviation. From December 2024, the Maritime Labour Convention (MLC) will be enforcing an amendment so that seafarer deaths will be recorded and reported annually. The MACI and Cayman Islands Shipping Registry produces a number of safety flyers that are publicly available HERE that may be useful. In summary, analysing data can sometimes result in more questions than answers. But even this can lead to interesting and important developments that result in improved safety and reduced incidents and accidents onboard. Key points to take from this report are: Use the correct PPE for the task. Employ approved systems of work and risk assessments for the task. Reporting is key for safety in the future of our industry. Enjoy a night ashore, but don’t over do the cocktails! As always, if you’d like any input on medical training onboard or ashore, or drills that you can run yourselves, please just get in touch. References: https://www.lloydslist.com/LL1145359/Increase-in-incidents-of-deaths-at-sea

James Griffiths - Guest Blog

by Rachel Smith • 6 November 2024
Welcome to our latest guest blog where we’ve been chatting to James Griffiths, General Manager of Ocean Operations for Scenic Group and finding out more about what happens behind the scenes in order to keep a fleet of luxury expedition ships running. Here’s what James told us… As General Manager of Ocean Operations, I’m responsible for the operations of our fleet which includes four ships in service with around 850 colleagues. I currently live in Mumbles, near Swansea in the UK, but due to the nature of my work I spend a significant amount of time living in Croatia. Prior to this role, I spent many years working at sea and worked up through the ranks to Captain and over the last 15 years, my main focus has been on polar expedition travel. I hold a master mariner certificate of competency in addition to a degree in engineering and a post graduate diploma in law. Part of my job is to work with our medical service provider (Red Square Medical) to ensure that our ships are offering medical services that are appropriate for their deployment, and this can often be to some of the most extreme and remote locations around the world. It’s extremely varied, though during the COVID-19 pandemic, I came ashore when our operations paused for a significant period of time. I was fortunate enough to be given the opportunity to lead the restart of our Ocean Operations, which included setting up everything from a company to manage the ships, to selecting our crewing, medical, helicopter and submarine partners and providers, amongst many other things. Our areas of operation, and the nature of our cruises (expedition), plus having aircraft and submersibles onboard some, do mean additional elements involved in the management of these ships. You could say that this current position is more of a happy coincidence than one that I actually planned for! In some ways this is a great positive - I do think it’s possible to plan a little too much and then be disappointed if things don’t go quite the way you had imagined. But there’s no danger of that here!

Paramedic on tour - Simon Lawton heads to Mexico

by Rachel Smith • 3 October 2024
Back in February 2022, we brought you one of our very first guest blogs from Simon Lawton, a Paramedic who has swapped out his ambulance for a Superyacht! You can read the original blog here: https://www.redsquaremedical.com/superyacht-paramedic-a-guest-blog-from-simon-lawton Over the last 2+ years, we’ve followed Simon’s career, and some of you may even recognise him as he does put a Red Square Medical instructor hat on from time to time. But, as for all healthcare professionals, Simon has to keep his skills up to date. So, we asked him to tell us a bit more about how he juggles this along with a rota onboard. Here’s what he told us… I’m originally from Stoke-on-Trent in the UK and trained as a HCPC registered Paramedic. I’ve spent almost 5 years working at sea now, with almost continuous employment on three different vessels, after leaving the ambulance service in 2019. My first role was as a Paramedic/Deck hand on Superyachts, and I now work as a Medical Officer on a maritime vessel. Even before I applied to become a Paramedic, I intended to complete my studies to help find employment in a remote or offshore environment. I had always been attracted to the idea of being able to travel the world while earning a salary. Working at sea has meant that I have travelled extensively, earnt a higher salary, and have a better work/rest balance than would be possible in a role on land. Note: At the time of writing, a qualified Paramedic’s starting pay in the UK was £28,407 and Simon’s old rota was 2 days, 2 nights (all 12 hours) and 4 days off with very inflexible annual leave. This year I decided to carry out some continual professional development (CPD) at a hospital in Mexico, to keep my skills up to date. I was interested in travelling to find out more about how healthcare services are provided outside the UK and Europe. The CPD activity in Mexico allowed me to do exactly that, while caring for and treating a wide variety of patients who had either self-presented in the emergency department, or been conveyed to hospital by ambulance.

Inequalities in CPR on Women

by Rachel Smith • 25 September 2024
Welcome to our September blog, and as we all start (in the UK at least!) to think about adding a few layers for warmth, we’d like to talk about getting naked! Well, to be more specific, getting bra’s off. Fact: Women are dying because bystanders are less likely to carry out CPR on women than men. Research shows that women are 27% less likely to receive CPR than men and if a defibrillator is used, their chance of survival is affected by bra’s being left on. Most of us have never had the chance to train using a female manikin. The #BraOffDefibOn campaign aims to address the inequality in CPR for women and we’re supporting it.

Dr. Will Duffin - Joint Medical Director WEM

by Rachel Smith • 4 September 2024
In August, we brought you a Guest Blog from Mark Hannaford, the founder of World Extreme Medicine. This month, it’s the turn of another of the key WEM faculty members… introducing Dr Will Duffin. Hello everyone, I’m Dr Will Duffin and I’m a GP in Devon in the UK. I’m the Joint Medical Director of World Extreme Medicine (WEM) and the Lead Medic for the US CBS TV show ‘Survivor’ - for Seasons 43, 44, 46 and 48, which is also through WEM. Extreme Medicine is healthcare that is delivered across the full spectrum of remote, austere and challenging environments. This includes high mountains, deep oceans, jungles, deserts, polar, low earth orbit and refugee camps… the list is endless. Being a part of the wider Extreme Medicine community through WEM has been a portal into new worlds of possibility and opportunity in my medical career as an NHS GP. It’s a huge privilege to treat patients in a remote setting. You get to do proper ‘hands on’ medicine that truly tests your clinical skills, risk management and decision making. Even basic techniques and principles done well can transform patient outcomes. That’s the big reward. I graduated from Bristol Medical School in 2008 and completed my GP Training in Cornwall, UK in 2016. In between, I spent 18 months in Australia to gain as much emergency department experience as I could, whilst doing Wilderness Medicine Courses. I landed my first expedition gig 12 years ago when I was post-FY2 (Foundation Years follow on after qualifying as a doctor). I covered a Kilimanjaro Trek after another doctor dropped out at the last minute. Once I had this under my belt, I was able to leverage this experience to get the next trip. So, I soon found myself providing regular medical cover for various commercial and charity sector expeditions. These expeditions have taken me all over the world: Kilimanjaro, the Peruvian Andes, the Himalayas, Northern China, Eastern Europe, Myanmar and Madagascar. One highlight was working as the private doctor for a Luxury Trans-Siberian Train! Though I became frustrated having to constantly wrangle annual leave to go away, so I made the switch to being a freelance (locum) GP, which has given me the flexibility I need. I joined WEM in 2018 after responding to a Facebook Ad for the ‘Survivor’ job. I was invited to a selection weekend in the Peak District, which is when I first met Mark Hannaford WEM founder and CEO and Dr Joe Rowles, WEM’s other Medical Director, and it all went on from there. Early on, I was given the opportunity to lead on the content for the annual World Extreme Medicine Conference and our various podcasts and webinars. Through doing this, I have met a colourful cast of characters; other extreme medics who are as audacious as they are inspirational! We have a lot of fun at the conference every year, learning from one another. https://worldextrememedicine.com/registration/wem-conference-2024 (Note from the RSM team – the conference is highly recommended and well worth a visit!)

Mark Hannaford - Founder and CEO of World Extreme Medicine

by Rachel Smith • 5 August 2024
Last year, the Red Square Medical team descended on the World Extreme Medicine (WEM) conference for the very first time. We’d been aware of this unique organisation for many years, but just not had the chance to get involved. Liz was involved in a panel discussion and spoke at the conference, and we came away literally buzzing with enthusiasm - our first impressions were that WEM is a place with no ego’s, where everyone wants to learn, and is willing to share. We met some of the most fascinating people ever and can’t wait to go back this year. But what about the person who started it all… We spoke to Mark Hannaford, founder of World Extreme Medicine and its far reaching impact. Here’s what he had to say. I’ve been involved in expeditions, working in low resource environments and extreme medicine for the past three decades! My family was made up of generations of seafarers from Cornwall although I was brought up variously in Devon, Antigua in the Caribbean and the Middle East; reflecting my father’s job as a Master Mariner. My father was at one time the youngest captain aboard the UK’s largest registered vessel, and my grandfather was Harbour Master for Malta and the first in that role in Plymouth at the start of Queen Elizabeth’s reign. I wear a number of hats but primarily I am the founder and CEO of World Extreme Medicine, and the annual WEM Conference. I also founded the MSc in Extreme Medicine at the University of Exeter and Graduate Certificate program at Bouvré College of Health Sciences, Northeastern University, Boston.

Women's Health

by Rachel Smith • 3 July 2024
Women’s health is a huge topic, while it’s true that in the maritime sector women make up just 2% of seafarers at sea, up to 34% of the shore based staff are female. Looking at the bigger picture, women’s health directly affects just under half of our population globally, and indirectly (whether you like it or not!) the other half, we thought it was worth a blog about some of the issues, and the taboo’s, that could be affecting our maritime workforce and the women in our lives. It's common knowledge that women experience huge hormonal changes at puberty and menopause, both of which can have significant physical and mental health impacts. In the UK, there is a growing discussion and openness about peri-menopause (the years before periods stop altogether) and how for some women, this has devastating effects across all aspects of their lives, including work. Of course men experience changes at puberty, but their later life changes are less significant and generally don’t affect their ability to work. In December 2023 the World Health Organisation (WHO) issued a statement to advise that every year, at least 40 million women are likely to experience a long term health problem caused by childbirth. So there’s a good chance that we all know one or more women affected, or if you are female… this could be you. As part of a special series on maternal health, the study showed a high burden of postnatal conditions that persist in the months and years after giving birth. These issues include more than a third of women experiencing pain during intercourse, urinary incontinence (8-31%), anal incontinence (19%), anxiety (9-24%), depression (11-17%), perineal pain (11%), a fear of childbirth (6-15%) and secondary infertility (11%). All in all it doesn’t paint a great picture of life after childbirth for some women. If any of your workers experience these issues, either on or off shore, it could have a significant impact on areas of their working life and it’s something they may be reluctant to open up about. Even before childbirth, we may take it for granted that contraception is available, certainly in the developed world. But in developing countries where sexual violence is not uncommon, contraception is considered lifesaving due to the high level of unsafe abortions carried out. Around 13 million women (and girls) under 20 give birth annually and complications in the pregnancy and birth is a leading cause of death. Consequently abortion is an option, but this carries its own huge risks.

Safety of Lives at Sea

by Rachel Smith • 17 June 2024
Working at sea can be one of the most rewarding and fulfilling careers. But you can’t gloss over the fact that it can be dangerous. Whether you’re working on a tanker, ploughing up and down the oceans, a Superyacht enjoying a busy season of charters, or any vessel in between; our love/hate relationship buddy Neptune takes no prisoners! The Safety of Lives at Sea (SOLAS) Convention in its successive forms is generally regarded as the most important of all international treaties concerning the safety of merchant and other vessels. The first version was adopted in 1914, in response to the Titanic disaster, and went through several iterations up to 1974. The Convention in force today is generally referred to as SOLAS 1974, as amended. SOLAS regulations cover all areas of safety at sea, including construction, fire prevention and detection, life saving equipment, cargo carriage, navigation, communications and a host of other areas. Regulation 33 of the SOLAS Convention applies to all ships, and places an obligation on Masters to respond to distress calls at sea and proceed ‘with all speed’ to their assistance. Anyone working in the maritime sector, hopes that they are never on the receiving end of this regulation, but we’ve experienced two quite different instances, where the ships we work with have responded and our Medical teams have played an important part in rendering aid.
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