Wedding anniversary bypassed: Dion and Darryl's story

A trip away is usually a fitting anniversary gift. But for Dion and Darryl Temu-Evans, last year's celebration involved a plane, a stretcher, and a medley of medical leads.

Since moving from New Zealand to Alice Springs two years ago for a fresh start after the COVID-19 pandemic, Dion and Darryl threw themselves into community life – choirs, clubs and, for Dion especially, pickleball.

“I started playing and just never stopped,” Dion said.

“I think I’m hooked.”

For the couple, most Saturdays begin with a Heart Foundation walking group, followed by coffee with friends. But in March 2025, something felt very wrong for Dion.

“We were going at a nice, leisurely pace when I started feeling this pain and pressure – like something was squeezing my heart,” he said.

“I started to get concerned. I told Darryl I needed to get to the hospital.”

They went straight to Alice Springs Hospital, where Dion explained his symptoms.

“Suddenly, they started ripping open my shirt and shoving lots of different sticky things on me,” Dion recalled.

“They said, ‘You need to get to Adelaide. The Royal Flying Doctor Service will take you.’”

The cardiologist explained to Darryl that even though Dion was talking, he was “actively having a heart attack”.

“In that moment your mind goes to the worst — what if he dies in hospital? What if he dies on a plane?” Darryl said.

“We’ve been together over 30 years. It was scary, but we had such brilliant people supporting him.”

The Alice Springs Hospital’s Medical Retrieval and Consultation Centre (MRaCC) arranged Dion’s urgent transfer with the RFDS Flight Nurse providing care en route.

The 1,500-kilometre journey took just two hours in the RFDS PC-24 aeromedical jet.

“The RFDS were amazing, and then I realised I actually knew my flight nurse from pickleball. Suddenly we’re talking pickleball in the middle of all these wires," Dion said.

In Adelaide, the angiogram revealed Dion required quadruple bypass surgery – an open-heart procedure that reroutes blood flow around four blocked coronary arteries.

After nine hours in the operating theatre, Dion’s long recovery began.

But his heart attack that week wasn’t the only thing out of the blue.

Then came a surprise: a visit from his estranged father.

“After the surgery, Darryl reached out to my dad, and he drove from NSW to Adelaide. I hadn’t seen him in 20-odd years,” Dion said.

“He revealed he had recently had a quadruple bypass too. I’ve never had that type of relationship, but since I’ve had this heart attack there’s been a lot of doors that have opened.”

After weeks recovering in Adelaide, the couple returned to Alice Springs – and even managed a European holiday months later.

Most importantly for Dion, he’s back on the pickleball court.

“Alice Springs is this melting pot where people become your surrogate family,” he said.

“Everyone rallied around us. We feel embraced by Alice Springs, and by Australia.”

Darryl described every link in the chain of care – from Alice Springs Hospital to the RFDS, SA Ambulance Service, the Royal Adelaide Hospital and the after-care – as “awe-inspiring”.

“For me, the RFDS is actually life-saving,” Darryl said.

“Without them, I don’t believe Dion would be here today.”