Tue 24th May 2011

PATIENT TRANSPORTED IN WHEELBARROW!

Rose Clarke, a nurse from Stevenage, travelled to our Partnership Project in KwaZulu Natal recently.  Here, she reflects on the experience:

My initial impression of the Valley of a Thousand Hills was how beautiful it all looked; the plants, trees with pink and purple flowers and the landscape.  But behind it all in an area called "eMbo" there is the stark reality of grinding poverty, unemployment, illness and suffering.
There are a variety of shacks and mud huts dotted all over eMbo and I accompanied Nurse Joyce on her visits to patients in this area.  Often we would have to park our vehicle by the roadside and walk down or up extremely narrow dirt tracks.  The terrain was challenging especially in the heat of the day!  I needed my hat and flat sandals and a bottle of water.
On many visits to the sick, I was able to give basic analgesia (like paracetamol) and also there was a need for soap and flannel.  My first aid kit had lots of use.  Once, we met a drunk man who had fallen out of a window and cut his head open; I was able to patch him up.
We visited an elderly gentleman, who was diabetic, jaundiced and had difficulty in walking.  Joyce wanted him to attend the clinic for assessment and after much deliberation he agreed to go.  But in order to get him to the truck, we had to put him in a wheelbarrow to get him up the steep hill!!!  We managed it with help from all the family as well, and got him into the back of the vehicle where he could lie down.
One day Pastor Leonard came to fetch me urgently as there had been a mini-bus collision involving two vehicles and there were several casualties.  Reports came through that the brakes had failed on a steep hill with a sharp bend.  No one was wearing seatbelts.  I managed to help by giving first aid to the walking wounded until the paramedics arrived.  Some had neck injuries and whiplash.

Rose hopes to return to eMbo one day.  In the meantime, another team of 12 volunteers are travelling to KwaZulu Natal with MAI's Executive Director in July.

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