Community & Business
5 August, 2021
Unsung hero calls time on rewarding career
AN UNSUNG LOCAL hero who dedicated her own life to saving those of others has closed the door and let the siren sound for the final time on an incredibly giving and rewarding career.
AN UNSUNG LOCAL hero who dedicated her own life to saving those of others has closed the door and let the siren sound for the final time on an incredibly giving and rewarding career.
For nearly three decades Emergency trauma transport Nurse Julie Wyburn was tasked with treating patients on the run who required urgent and immediate care.
That included ensuring she stabilized a patient’s condition during a regularly rushed commute from Atherton to Cairns Base Hospital’s emergency department.
Incredibly, the tireless, selfless and now former employee spent 20 of her 28 years in the role on call 24-7 – an incredible act of commitment, reliability and durability from a woman who estimates she travelled roughly 3.3 million kilometres inside the back of ambulances during her nearly 30 years on the job.
“I will miss the Ambulance drivers that I worked with,” Ms Wyburn said, who clocked up nearly 60 years of service as a practicing nurse.
“They are such a great bunch of people or as I like to think of them caring, cooperative problem solvers.”
“Some of those trips were really scary medically, but we would work it out together.
“Atherton Hospital accident and emergency staff are wonderful. I could always count on them.”
Prior to moving to Atherton in 1993 Ms Wyburn was a midwife at a few Sydney hospitals.
“I knew I wanted to be a nurse from the age of 10,” she said.
“One day I caught the train to Sydney Hospital and asked the matron if I could be a nurse, she said, ‘come back when you’re 16’, So I did and I’ve been nursing since I graduated in 1967.”
The veteran nurse said she now plans to enjoy more time in the garden, join Yungaburra CWA and improve her bridge game.
