[Sksouth-l] Medevac

[Sarah Kaye]

We just had an exciting day here: an outgoing
winterover developed appendicitis, and apparently he
was looking pretty bad as of Thursday night. We're not
getting a boat visit here until next week, and then it
would be another 5 days back up to Punta Arenas: not
good enough. So our Station Manager called up Rothera,
the British base about 200 miles from here, and asked
for a Twin Otter to fly in. This is a brief window
where a medevac flight is actually possible: the Twin
Otters don't stay at Rothera in the winter, and our
glacier doesn't stay snowed in enough to land planes
in the summer. So our guy picked a relatively "good"
week to get sick! 

The upshot for us was that the combined SAR (Search
and Rescue) teams spent Friday up on the glacier,
getting it ready for the flight. We flagged antenna
posts that are sticking up, we took out the flags
going up the middle (generally there for a walking
route), we put up big orange skiway markers and a
windsock, and staged a Scott tent with some emergency
gear in case the patient had to wait up there. We did
all this in some really lousy weather, low visibility
and moderate wind with blowing snow. So it was a bit
surreal doing all this preparation in conditions that
were totally wrong for flying, but the weather folks
said there was a window coming in and darned if they
weren't right! The wind was abating just as we
finished up, and we could see the bases of the nearby
mountains. Less than an hour after we got it together
the Brits landed their cheerful orange Twin Otter. We
zoomed back up with the patient (who prefers not to be
named) on a sled behind a skidoo, loaded him up along
with the outgoing Doc for company, shook hands all
round, and poof they were gone. The glacier is sloped
of course: they landed uphill, took off downhill. It
was amazingly smooth and fast.

Here are some of the things that made the whole thing
an exceptional experience: by Thursday morning we knew
that our guy was doing better, still had to get out
but not in immediate danger. We had a heap of work to
do to get the skiway ready but not so much that we
were stressed for time. The weather was bad enough to
make the work more strenuous but not so bad that it
was punishing (I won't promise that there wasn't any
cussing on the tent team). We knew that it was an
unusual event: it was only the 3d time the station has
had planes land in the last 10 years. Everybody was
working together well, proving the benefit of all the
training and drills we've done. People knew where to
find items like the skiway markers and the windsock -
not items of everyday use. One of our guys had the
bright idea of doing a dry run with a "dummy" patient
in the sled: we discovered a couple of awkward corners
and rearranged the weight distribution, so when we
actually went up with the patient everything went
smoothly. We got to see some of the international
cooperation that still makes Antarctica special.

We're all used to thinking of Palmer as isolated,
remote at the end of a long transportation chain that
includes a 4-5 day boat trip. Getting our guy out
approximately 27 hours after he first walked into the
clinic with abdominal pain was absolutely amazing.
Working together on tasks that we're not familiar
with, achieving an end result that happens here less
often than a blue moon, that was a big deal. We miss
our two winterovers (patient and Doc), but they
would've both been on the next boat out anyway. We
have the word that the patient has had surgery and is
recovering, so that's about the best outcome possible.
We get a nice pat on the back from the NSF and now
it's back to work: the boat that's coming next week
has the combined science groups and cargo from 2
regular trips, since it had to go up to drydock to fix
that wee main shaft leak. I am making many trips to
and from the science labs here trying to make sure
that all the computer equipment is as ready as I can
possibly make it. That's how it goes! I expect that my
next message will be all about science. We've been
having a nice time here but it's time to get on with
what it's all about.

I've got a few pictures up at
www.murkworks.net/~sarah.


Best to all,


-Sarah



		
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