The author of the bestselling Band-Aid for a Broken Leg comes home and discovers that being a doctor in outback Australia is at least as challenging as working for Medecins sans frontieres in Africa.
Damien is convinced that this is the best job anywhere: beautiful skies, red earth, dramatic landings, treating families in remote communities.
At a tiny, isolated hospital in central Australia, a paramedic brings in a joey for babysitting, police bring in two men from a car crash, and a young man with heart failure doesn't want a transplant - he'd rather stay on Country. Damien's other job is with the Royal Flying Doctor Service. Can they reach two badly burnt men in time after a fuel tank explodes on a remote Queensland cattle station? Meanwhile, Damien and his girlfriend Maya, an aid worker living in London, try to maintain a long-distance relationship.
The medical wins are many, but Damien finds the small interventions are more important than dramatic rescues. But during a violent week, Damien's exasperation boils over. The difficult cases keep arriving, and social issues can't be fixed in clinics.
By turns thought-provoking, funny, and deeply moving, Bush Doctor is a testimony to people's resilience in difficult situations, and the joy and hardships of working in one of the most isolated parts of the country.
'Bush Doctor is a superb read, in equal parts entertaining and gut wrenching. Damien captures the wonder and humour of working as a medic in remote Australia without sugar coating the hard realities. I loved this book.' SONIA HENRY, author of Put Your Feet in the Dirt, Girl
'I am grateful to Brown for sharing such raw and grounded reflections about places and experiences I may never witness. His quiet observations speak volumes about the intersect of the ordinary and the sacred in this gem.' SALLY GOULD, author of Frog: The secret diary of a paramedic