We had no power but we knew that blood would be desperately needed during a disaster.
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I was on the 7th floor of Royal Newcastle Hospital halfway between sitting and standing when I heard a loud boom and the whole building swayed.
Our boss evacuated us but our regular fire escape was blocked. We all ended up outside the hospital. This was before official meeting spots so there is a mixture of haematology, pathology, anaesthetics and patients in this picture.
We thought there had been a solvent explosion. It wasn’t until a colleague, who had been buying a birthday cake at David Jones, got back to the hospital that we knew it was an earthquake.
We commandeered the blood bank bus because if we kept the engine running, we would have power to provide blood to the injured.
We just kept working as a team. The work in 1989 was based on people whereas now it is more machine driven.
There is more evacuation training now and WH&S has become much stricter.
Because I was so young, I don’t think it changed me. It was pretty depressing for a while in Newcastle.
I am now a stay at home mum but many of the people in the photo now work at John Hunter Hospital.
Alex Doyle
Then 23 year old Pathology Technical Officer, Newcastle