Gerringong local Amanda Harding regularly travels abroad with her husband but has never needed to use her paramedic skills until heading to Vietnam in July - on multiple occasions.
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The first instance came only five hours into their Jetstar flight to Ho Chi Minh City, when flight attendants called for any medically trained passengers on board.
A number of people came forward, including Ms Harding, to assist with a man who had gone into cardiac arrest.
"I got in there and I jumped on the chest straight away ... then had the drugs pretty much thrown at me to be in charge of the adrenaline to give the patient," she said.
The man, who had been battling existing health issues, was travelling with his daughter to visit to his homeland but sadly was unable to be revived.
While it was a sad beginning to Ms Harding's holiday, she said helping people was the most rewarding job in the world.
"You know that you've got the training under your belt, no-body would be in the job that we do if they didn't like helping people ... I might be the only thing they've got so 'let's go'," she said.
Other incidences on the trip included assisting a distraught woman who had locked herself inside a toilet at the resort she was staying at, while another time an elderly man had a medical episode and collapsed in front of her.
However, the most rewarding call to duty was on a round boat basket ride cooking class, Ms Harding said.
She was able to help a five-year-old girl suffered a third degree burn - the event inspiring the paramedic to return to Vietnam in the future to help educate people about first aid.
Ms Harding and her husband had sat down to eat pancakes they had cooked while another group - including the girl and her family - stepped up to the hot plate.
"All we heard was a bang and a scream ... and she kept screaming," she said.
Because of the severity of the burn, putting it under running water risked stripping the skin off the damaged finger, which prompted Mrs Harding to assist.
She acted quickly to cool the burn in a bowl of ice water and stopped it from continuing to the bone.
She also spoke with the class teacher who was "beside themselves", and educated him about burns and what to do if a situation ever arose again.
"It might've only have been a finger, but I was able to help her," Ms Harding said.
"It didn't interfere with my holiday, it's part of the adventure ... and it's part of a paramedics life. As soon as you walk out the door - once a paramedic always a paramedic, in uniform and out of uniform."