ANZCA Bulletin June 2011 - Australian and New Zealand College of ...

“You never do something for
nothing. All this altruism’s a
load of bull... I did it because
I got something out of it. I did
it because I like doing it.”
Another incident involved a
spectacular crash during the first lap
of Melbourne’s inaugural grand prix in
1996, when Martin Brundle’s car became
airborne, somersaulted over other cars
and crashed into the barrier, breaking up
into smaller and smaller pieces until it
came to a stop.
“We were on the scene within
seconds,” Dr Capps says, recalling
the remnants of the car as resembling
entrails hanging off an animal. “I
thought there’s no way this person can
survive. But the next thing, there was
this driver coming out and he’s running
towards us. He got in our vehicle and he
was cleared and he drove again.”
Dr Capps recounts the incident to
explain how the physics of accidents, the
design of vehicles and safety equipment
fascinates him. “I love it,” he says.
He describes his role as a registered
Australian resuscitation expert in the
chase car as being at the “sharp end”
of medical interventions. He worked
with the Formula One medical delegate,
who was also in the car, to make swift
decisions as to whether an incident
required intervention and the halting
of the race, and then working with
extrication teams and other specialists
to treat the injured driver.
By contrast, the position of chief
medical officer at the Clipsal and
Adelaide Classic Car Rally was more
of an oversight role.
In the case of Ulladulla driver Ashley
Cooper, who was fatally injured when he
crashed heavily into a barrier at the 2008
Clipsal, Dr Capps was in the race control
centre, communicating with those on
the track about what was required and
ensuring everyone was in the loop,
including the Royal Adelaide Hospital,
which was on stand-by.
“A team of people scrambled to be
involved, the patient was extricated
from the vehicle, sent by ambulance to
the hospital, and the timing from the
incident to delivery at the resuscitation
rooms at the Adelaide hospital was 17
minutes,” he says. “When you look at
accidents on tracks, that is about as fast
as you can get to a mainline tertiary
trauma centre.”
Tragically, despite the impressive
intervention effort, Cooper died. “It was
an example of high level intervention
which gave the best chance of survival,”
Dr Capps says.
Dr Capps’ work on the track has
been widely acknowledged. Veteran
motorsport commentator Murray Walker
visited the race control centre to pay
tribute during Dr Capps’ last Clipsal in
March. Walker left a personal message in
a commemorative book signed by all the
drivers and was photographed talking
to Dr Capps.
Dr Capps is clearly chuffed by the
acknowledgement, just one highlight of
an impressive anaesthetic career that
has also seen him serve in military and
disaster relief efforts, including helping
those injured and evacuated after the
Bali bombings, assisting in the 2004
tsunami relief effort in Banda Aceh,
Indonesia, accompanying veterans
returning to Gallipoli and the Western
Front for the 75th anniversary of their
respective campaigns, and medical
service in the Gulf War, Rwanda,
Bougainville and East Timor.
Arriving in Banda Aceh, he hadn’t
even had time to change his clothes
before a Swedish surgical team asked
him to administer a spinal block for
a caesarean section, and then a local
anaesthetic nerve block for a man with
a serious hand injury.
“ I thought there’s no way this
person can survive. But the
next thing, there was this driver
coming out and he’s running
towards us. He got in our
vehicle and he was cleared
and he drove again.”
Being able to work in such austere
environments impresses his friend and
South Australian colleague Dr Thien
LeCong, who jokes he was initially
sceptical that Dr Capps could do a
brachial plexus nerve block without a
nerve stimulator until he saw footage
of him doing just that on television.
“I thought he was just lying to us,
but no,” Dr LeCong quips.
He suggests few anaesthetists would
know how to do such a block without a
nerve stimulator or ultrasound machine,
but Dr Capps had probably done
hundreds, using a short bevel needle,
with its bluntish end, to elicit a tingling
in the nerve before injecting a block.
“Roger is the kind of anaesthetist I
would want to be because you could
just parachute him into the middle of
nowhere and he would be able to do
things – he would be able to thrive
and function as an anaesthetist,”
Dr LeCong says.
“He is a legend ... Everyone knows
the famous Dr Roger Capps in South
Australia.”
For his service, Dr Capps has received
an Order of Australia (AM Military
Division) in 2000, the Centenary Medal
in 2003, and various military medals for
recognition for service in Kuwait, East
Timor, the Gulf War, South East Asia,
Rwanda and Bougainville.
When asked why he gets involved
in such projects, Dr Capps says he is
motivated by a combination of there
being a need, his training, “moral
obligation, challenge and, at the end
of it, some sort of satisfaction”.
“Obviously, I’m a bit of a nutter,”
he concludes. “You never do something
for nothing. All this altruism’s a load
of bull... I did it because I got something
out of it. I did it because I like doing it.”
Above clockwise from top left: Dr Roger Capps
(left) at the Clipsal 500; Dr Capps (left) and
Glen Hanly at the track; Dr Capps (left) chatting
with motorsport commentator Murray Walker
(centre) in race control; in the passenger seat
of the chief medical officer car; Dr Capps
and others attending to Mika Hakkinen at the
1995 Australian Grand Prix in Adelaide. Photos
courtesy of Steve Lam, the Royal Australian Air
Force and Dr Roger Capps.
ANZCA Bulletin June 2011 47