Paramedic headed into disaster zone

The 39-year-old Canberran is one of two Australian paramedics about to fly head-first into the death and devastation of post-typhoon Philippines.

He will be working with the Australian team already on the ground who have set up an emergency and surgical field hospital to help those affected by the disaster.

Mr Keene, an intensive care paramedic with the ACT Ambulance Service, will be conducting field medical work and triage and serve as part of emergency medical teams while providing support to nursing staff, logistics and planning and administration.

''We're really sort of jacks of all trades,'' he said. ''We fill in the gaps and are able to support a number of others because we've got skill sets in a number of areas.

''I am a bit nervous … I think it's only natural to be a bit nervous. But I'm looking forward to it; it's a tremendous opportunity and an enormous honour to be asked to go.''

The paramedic has worked in Bougainville and helped out during the 2009 Victorian bushfires and the 2003 Canberra bushfires.

It is the kind of work Mr Keene signed up to do with the ACT Ambulance Service. ''It's a tremendous opportunity to help people who are in a less fortunate situation than us. That's what I joined the job for, to help people.''

When he flies out on Monday for his pre-deployment activities in Darwin, Mr Keene will leave behind his team at the Ambulance Service and his wife and two children.

''It's the people who you leave behind who have to shoulder the workload - my team here who have to pick up work while I'm gone, my wife who becomes a single mother for the next three weeks with two kids,'' he said.

Mr Keene will be in the Philippines for two weeks, although that could change.

He expects to be gone for roughly three weeks, accounting for pre-deployment stages and his flights to and from the country.