A cowboy, a builder, and a paramedic. Three careers that don’t seem like a natural fit, but for Steve “Puds” Pudney, it’s his journey.
Growing up on a farm in South Canterbury, Steve loved outdoor adventures.
“I had a boy’s adventure book; it was my favourite book. It had all these stories of cowboys and hunting in all these cool countries and things like that. It’s all I wanted to do.”
Steve left school at 16 to work for a rabbiting contractor before moving to Cardrona to lead horse treks. That’s when his cowboy career kicked off.
“I moved to Western Australia. I’d do a season mustering there and then head to the United States for work as a hunting guide. I did the rodeo circuit here and in Australia and did a couple of seasons horse trekking in Tekapo. I was just cruising around on horseback – it was great.”
But after 12 years, Steve said he was broke and thought he needed to “grow up and get a stable career”.
Steve completed an adult building apprenticeship. He was working as a builder in Tekapo when he joined the volunteer fire brigade.
“We’d go to a lot of car accidents and the ambulances would turn up. I was always interested in what a paramedic was as I didn’t have a clue. I did a bit of research and thought that sounded pretty cool.
“My mum encouraged me to follow the paramedic pathway, telling me she knew I was smart enough to do it.”
But Steve said, at the time, there were limited spaces in the paramedic industry training courses, and he struggled to get in.
“I think they thought I was a bit of a fly-by-nighter – you know, an old thing that had just come out of the bush and wasn’t up to being a paramedic.”
But Steve’s not one to give up. He moved to Christchurch and started volunteering for St John, eventually becoming an ambulance officer.
“I’ve always been taught if you’re going to do a job, do it to the best of your ability. I thought if I’m going to be a paramedic I’m going to prove everyone wrong and be the best version of a paramedic, so I set my sights on becoming a critical care paramedic.”
Steve completed a paramedicine degree and a post-graduate qualification in critical care medicine, all while working full time.
“It was a long road. There’s probably about 15 years of frontline ambulance work while doing various aspects of study and assessment.
“It was tough. I had left school with no qualifications, so I had to learn how to study, how to write academically. It was a big challenge, but I wanted it, so I worked hard for it.”
Just over two years ago, Steve took a job on the Westpac Rescue Helicopter; it was the “best decision ever”.
“I love my job. The thing about being on a helicopter is that you have to operate as a team. There are no individuals, no egos. There’s a real synergy here.
“We get a lot of problems thrown at us and I like that, the challenge of problem-solving and the technical elements of the job. It’s my kind of thing.”
Steve was certainly thrown in the deep end. His first helicopter mission was to a motorcyclist who had crashed, leaving him with a traumatic brain injury.
“It was a multi-system trauma, and we had to place holes in his chest to relieve pressure and keep him alive for the trip to hospital. It was certainly a memorable first day on the job,” Steve says.
Steve has enough experience on the helicopter now to know that this summer, they’ll be busy.
“In the holidays there are more people out there and a lot more risks being taken; there’s alcohol-related stuff that leads to poor decision making, a lot more traffic, a lot more people in the water, more people out in the hills.”
Steve says they prepare themselves to be busy when they come to shift. In terms of preparing for what they will see and do, he says they’re always prepared for that.
“What we see might be bloody horrific for some people but for us, it’s a normal day. We come across some very emotive scenes, and we might seem so relaxed, but that’s why we’re doing it, you know? It’s no good us getting uptight and upset, because if we’re doing that, we’re not focussing on what needs to be done. We have to go about our job in the most clinical and professional way.
After a tough mission, Steve says the crew will debrief as a team, take learnings from the job and make sure everyone’s OK before they leave.
“The day that I can’t handle a situation or the emotions get the better of me, that will probably be the day I’ll have to stop doing it. But right now, I love my job and I love the kind of crazy way I got here.”
Steve’s first mission on the Westpac Rescue Helicopter was to Brendan Daly, who was critically ill after a motorcycle crash. Read Brendan’s story here: Brendan’s family – Canterbury West Coast Air Rescue
