Two doctors
and three nurses from Good Samaritan Hospital in Puyallup
will leave Thursday for Sri Lanka to help tsunami survivors.
The mission will most likely take them to the Tamil
area in the northeast, where political strife has prevented
the quick and effective distribution of aid.
In one such area, a 24-year-old medical
student tends to the needs of about 800 refugees.
Dr. Senthil Nadarajah, 39, a critical
care doctor, is organizing the effort. A native of
Sri Lanka, he had friends among the more than 30,000
people killed in that country when the waves struck
Dec. 26.
He thought he might have to go alone
to help his countrymen. So he is grateful his efforts
“now have been magnified 20 times” by
his teammates.
Nadarajah and Dr. Larry Woodard, an
emergency room physician also making the trip, worked
continuously for about a week to organize the effort.
Planning included figuring out how
to transport five people and 7,500 pounds of medical
gear halfway around the world to set up a field hospital
in a disaster zone.
The group, during the two weeks it
expects to be on the ground, will get minimal direction
from the Sri Lankan International Medical Health Organization.
The cargo left Tuesday night and is
scheduled to be waiting for the team when it arrives
in the Sri Lankan capital of Colombo on Saturday.
Once there, the plan is to secure
a truck, load it with the supplies and drive to an
area where the country’s health organization
says the need is greatest.
Woodard, who worked at ground zero
after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and in other
disaster areas, will team up with nurses Sally Haddow
and Lora Pierson. Nadarajah will work with nurse David
York, a veteran of relief efforts in developing countries.
“This is why I became
a nurse,” Pierson said of her participation.
The team might deploy to areas controlled
by the Tamil Tigers, a separatist group fighting the
Sri Lankan government for independence. But a cease-fire
is in effect.
Nadarajah, a Tamil himself, does not
expect problems. But his group’s efforts could
be hampered if it is directed to a government-controlled
area, where the doctor said he might face discrimination.
In terms of personal safety, the team
was told Tuesday in an e-mail from a colleague in
Sri Lanka that “mine fields are well demarcated
and reports of mines uncovered by the tsunami and
floating around seem exaggerated.”
The group is taking two field hospital
tents, amputation gear and other surgical supplies,
a heart defibrillator, a generator and medicines for
lung infections and skin conditions like scabies and
lice.
The team also will have supplies to
treat cholera and other diarrheal diseases caused
by contaminated drinking water. An epidemic poses
the greatest threat to survivors, though none has
been reported so far.
The team’s Sri Lankan colleague
said dysentery, fever, malaria and the effects of
near-drowning – lung problems and trauma “from
getting beat up in the water” – are what
the team is most likely to see.
Post-traumatic stress disorder and
other psychological problems also pose a challenge.
“Many children (suffer) nightmares (and) refuse
to leave camp and go back to the village site or even
look at the ocean,” the colleague wrote.
Good Samaritan management contributed
several thousand dollars to the team’s efforts,
mostly in donated medical supplies and help with airfare,
said spokeswoman Amanda Tobin.
SOURCE:
http://www.thenewstribune.com/news/local/story/
4440659p-4194579c.html
|
