Its a quarter past three on my last shift after a bit over three months in the Solomon Islands so I thought I should give you all out there a bit of a wrap up.
In the last short while I've done a couple more aeromedical evacuations, and on both occasions forgotten to take my camera to work that day! The first one was down to Rennel island, an hours flight due south of Guadalcanal by helicopter. We got to fly over Guadalcanal which was great becuase the mountains go to about 6000ft and the cloud was at 5000ft so we had to fly up valleys to get through. Again the 4km deep sea was an amazing sight. I don't think it could get much darker. On this occasion it was absolutely still on the water which made it hard to see where the surface. We dropped down to 1000ft because the pilot said there was an annoying vibration at higher altitude he wanted to minimise. To be honest I thought any vibration in a helicopter wasn't much annoying as potentially life threatening, but that's just me.
Ourpatient was a small child with a possible case of cerebral malaria and her very concerned mum. On these outer islands even Pidjin is limited so explaining what is happening to parents is very difficult.
The other AME occurred yesterday right in the middle of a big 35 patient mass casualty exercise. With all the staff in and soldiers with mock wounds lying in rows doing a very enthusiastic impression of extreme pain and suffering we got the call for a woman in eclampsia at Kirakira on Makira (also known as San Cristobal) 1 hour to the SE. For those interested her observations on arrival were BP 195/145, GCS 12 (occasional seizure activity), RR 38. We successfully lowered her massively elevated blood pressure but I don't hold strong hopes for her 22 week foetus. At least we saved mum who would have certainly died. Sometimes its a little hard to find a positive in a situation.
I've made good friends with one of the local ambulance drivers in particular. Mathew invited Rachael and me to his home to meet his family which was a real treat. The first time we were shceduled to go it got called off at the last moment. I think it was partly because his wife was a bit embarresed about the size of their house and her poor english. But Mathew talked her around and we drove up for lunch. They live in Naha area which is a suburb up in the hills behind Honiara. Their house is a tiny weatherboard building up on stilts with an immaculate little garden around it. Neighbours are packed in around them in similar accomodation, but the trees and bishes everywhere combined with the fact that noone owns cars means it was very quiet. (at first I wondered what looked different about these areas and then I realised noone has driveways or garages. Because of this houses are perched up on hills behind other houses in a way that would be impossible to reach for the family stationwagon)
We met Mathew's wife, 5 year old son and two year old daughter as well as his Grandmother and their babysitter. It turned out that we were the first white visitors they had ever entertained and I think almost the first in the neighbourhood. Several other people lurked in the house and nearby which we weren't introduced to. We brought christmas presents for the kids, a soccer ball and a bucket and spade, and 10kg of rice for Mathew (which is a standard present - rice is a staple and 10kg costs about 15 hours work at Mathew's quite good rate of pay).
Little Tia quickly adopted Rachael's lap and whispered little pidjin things in her ear. Rachael couldn't quite make out what Tia wanted. She kept pointing and asking the same thing. Finally I cottoned on and asked Tia "would you like a ride in the car", "YES" was the immediate reply. I think that may have been a first too. I havent been able to put up pictures of this visit but if you have a look again soon I hope to have some pics of Mathew's family.
So thats about the end of our stay and the end of my stories. We've had a great time, seen a lot and met a lot of really great people. My friend Dave will be especially pleased I had no need to account matters of a foecal nature, infact other than a lot of insect bites we have been very well. If we know you we will see you soon, if we don't know you, well that's a bit weird and I wonder why you are living vicariously through the experiences of strangers. Maybe I'm still coming to terms with the whole blog thing.
Hope you've enjoyed what we've been able to relay to you and have a great christmas
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