HAITI 21 Feb … Derek has responded to a request to join a Singaporean relief team in Port-au Prince Haiti


After travelling from Indonesia via Europe I arrived in Haiti yesterday afternoon and was driven directly to earthquake epicentre Carrefour where I will work alongside Crisis Relief Society and City Care both relief groups from Singapore who have joined with the Light Ministry of Haiti, which is a large Christian Church with outreach in the poorer areas, ( probably all poor here) … 53 % of people in Haiti were on the poverty level before the earthquake struck.

I make up a team with 3 other doctors and already this morning we have seen 130 patients, some still with infected wounds and trauma suffered in the earthquake.

The streets are still full of rubble, palaces, hospitals , schools and thousands upon thousands of homes were all treated equally by the quake mainly either very badly damaged or destroyed outright.

Tent cities made out of plastic sheet scraps and pieces of cardboard occupy every available space, many people are sleeping on the ground outside the house I am sleeping in. I sleep in room with 7 other volunteers on air mattresses.

We were up at 5:15 this morning to prepare ourselves for the day ahead.


Other volunteers are 2 nurses and a pastor from North Carolina, a doctor from Malaysia, a nurse from Singapore and a newly graduated doctor and a GP doctor from Singapore. As well there are 4 other enthusiastic non medical helpers ( one is a pastor from a Singapore church)

Security is a little bit of an unknown quantity here as 4000 prisoners escaped from jail during earthquake...

On this road only 100 metres away stood 2 schools 5 and 6 storeys high with 150 and 200 children and now reduced to roofs sitting on piles of rubble, still with children's inside. It is so tragic that the earthquake happened between 4 and 5 pm when children were still at school.

Will try to write more soon, Derek .





HAITI UPDATE 23 February

Hi roger, working hard days in clinics with helicopters constantly flying overhead. Woken up this morning by an aftershock that made us run outside very quickly but was over in a few seconds.

We have seen over 300 patients at the clinic today including one bullet wound and a wide variety of both trauma and disease.

Every day it is so sad to walk by the two collapsed schools where people have started freeing up the reinforcing steel from the concrete and roofing iron from the roof, taking it apart with hammer and mallet to resell.

Long queues of people outside the clinic from 7:30 am until closing at 5:30 pm.

The CRS team and City Care participants are a happy and enthusiastic bunch as are our American friends from North Carolina. We all work well together. Cheers, Derek


update to 15 February from Indonesia
My time in New Zealand flew by as usual, from meeting Tessa at Wellington airport and then driving the 550 kilometres to Gisborne to work at Te Karaka Special Area Community Health Centre for 6 days, to maintain my NZ medical registration. All went without without a hitch.

As luck would have it my visit coincided with a previously organized family reunion. Unfortunately bad weather in the Bay of Plenty played its part and not all the family were there.

Soon enough it was back to Wellington to talk to the Indonesian Ambassador regarding the pending court case and to express my regret at causing trouble with the Indonesian Authorities. They recommended I contact the Australian Embassy, and they in turn advised me to talk to Canberra, which I did xplaining the situation and the possible six year jail term in Indonesia, so ... the Canberra officials said they would look into it and talk to their seniors.

I also took advantage of my time in Wellington to have a conversation with Dr Nigel Raymond, Infectious Diseases Consultant in Wellington about an interesting case in Indonesia with a lady with possible Herpes Zoster encephalitis.

There was time for a brief talk with Bronwyn from Plimmerton and soon enough it was on the plane to Indonesia for my police report in Padang. My lawyer had stretched the reporting times sufficiently to allow for my NZ Registration clinical time.

As it happened the CIB equivalent of the Indonesian police were unconcerned that almost 4 weeks had elapsed since my last check-in! I recontacted the NZ Consul to Indonesia Graeme McGuire and started heading back to Medan to remeet up with Margaret Reid from Tauranga New Zealand and Melioni.

We checked out scheduled flights to Tello but these are still suspended while the government renegotiates a new subsidy contract to this isolated group of islands. This negotiation process can take up to 2 months. We finally managed to obtain bookoings but then the plane we were booked on, Merpati, had a breakdown at Gunung Sitoli so flights were cancelled for 2 weeks and we enquired about flight across with Riau Airline.
At 10;30 pm at night a Riau representative phoned there were seats available for the morrow.. Yay !!!

The next day we duly flew to Nias, reconnected with the ambulance. I was then contacted by the Crisis Relief Society Singapore. The medical teams they have in Haiti , are stressed, seeing up to 400 patients per day, suffering with trauma, infections, malnutrition and exposure. They wanted doctor volunteers so naturally I agreed to assist even after such a long time since the devastating earthquake.
The next CRS team flys from Singapore on 17th February, so unfortunately, there was no time to reconnect with Pulau Tello, other than by phone. Margaret Reid has offered to look after Melioni while I assist in Haiti.

If the police agree I should be gone for at least two weeks


Update January 23-Feb 6th 2010
Once back in New Zealand , Margaret parted ways with Melioni and me at Christchurch airport, as we flew to Wellington on Sunday morning to drive to with Tessa to Napier in the afternoon and on to Gisborne to be at Te Karaka Practice on Monday morning for a week long stint to fulfil requirements for New Zealand medical registration.
Thank you for the hospitality of Roger and Jen Long (Gisborne) and then on to a visit to some of my siblings in Whangamata where a family reunion was attempted.
After many more kilometers in Tessas car on Tuesday I visited the Indonesian Embassy in Wellington with stalwart supporter Marie from Masterton to see if we could further progress on my upcoming criminal trial for saving the life of Darren Longbottom by flying him to North Sumatera.
I also visited New Zealand Dept. of Foreign Affairs  who informed there are only two avenues of assistance they could offer me, one was to give me a list of approved lawyers in Jakarta from which I could choose my defence counsel and the second offer would be to visit me in prison in Indonesia if I end up there.!!!
Contact was made with Dr Nigel Raymond, an Infectious Diseases consultant at Wellington Hospital to discuss the case of Nellie in Tello. She has what appears to be a Herpes Zoster encephalitis and I was seeking some information regarding pain management of her possible post herpes strong head and neck pain.
Brief contact was made with Bronwyn, (Plimmerton ) and Bronwyn (Gore) before departing once more via Christchurch, Singapore and Medan to Pedang



continue January Update;
Once back in Tello, ,it was back to work as usual, with a man
asking for us to do a house call at the Moslem end of Tello village.
There is always the unknown information about a house call, and the
day prior to this one, I was called to a place, that is at the
opposite end of Tello village, about 5 kilometres away, where I had
previously seen a seriously sick man with severe repiratory disease,
in the middle of the night, while he was on oxygen, bought from R.S.
Pulau Tello. In that instance we were able to control his respiratory
symptoms of severe asthma as well as smoking related lung damage. This
time, they called me urgently to see the same man who wanted a repeat
of his medicines and a neighbour who had stable heart failure.These
people were both walking and not seriously unwell so I asked them both
to see me at the Beng Hong clinic.
Today however, the house call in the Moslem quarter was to a 29 year
old woman who had been sick for 2 weeks apparently, with a rash under
her jaw she had scratched, and now she had pustular lesions on the
right side of her face, swelling over the right side of her fsce, so
much so that she couldn’t open her right eye, she had a very painful
and stiff neck and head and was unable to walk.
Over the next 2 weeks of 2-3 times daily house calls, treating her
with major antibiotics, it came clear as she slowly improved that the
rash was turning into a post herpes rash and she is likely to be
suffering from Herpes encephalitis.
The next day after first seeing this woman, we were asked to see an
older lady who also was bedridden for some weeks and here again we
started therapy for both heart failure and asthma that was causing her
interminable night time cough, and we started mobilizing her under
basic anticoagulation as she is overweight and her risk of venous
thrombosis is very high.
The day after we met this older lady, we were asked to visit next
door, a 32 year old lady who had delivered a stillbirth some 2 weeks
prior and because of severe pain in her lower back and hips , she had
been lying on the floor of the house, unable to move.

These three major patients sick through different mechanisms, kept us
busy as well as carrying out village clinics and doing clinic work for
those people that walked in.

At this time I was making enquiries to visit Pulau (Island) Bais
that is about 6 hours boat travel away on the eastern side of Tanah
Masah The island is quite densely populated with no medical service and I was told
quite severe diseases among the population.
The husband of the lady with herpes encephalitis, knowing the
expensive nature of the journey, 1.5 million rupiah, then offered for
us to go in a boat he had organized for free.
I jumped at the chance to visit this far away island of poor people
that received no medical care to see if Tropodoc could help.
Soon we were on a boat that was dodging between the many coral reefs
between Pulau Tello and Pulau Bais and after a 4 hour trip we were
landed on Bais for an overnight visit. Unfortunately in the last 45
minutes the boat we were on had developed a gearbox problem and we
were told that maybe it would be fixed overnight and maybe it would be ready in the
morning !!
A busy clinic was undertaken and one lady was carried in unable to
walk and for 3 days had been very sick with a fever and unable to eat.
She was likely to be suffering from malaria and so treatment was
started and she was taken home.
Twice later that night and in the early hours of the morning, we
were called to attend to her as her sickness had progresed and her
family thought she was going to die.
Fortunately we were able to control her symptoms of vomiting and
breathing difficulty while the oral anti malaria treatment kicked in.
In the morning, the boat was still not fixed, and i was catching the
ferry to Teluk Dalam the next day on the journey back (with Margaret
Reid and Melioni) to fulfill my ongoing NZ Dr Registration
requirements in New Zealand. Fortunately we were able to hire another boat and
550,000 rupiah later we were back in Tello with the woman with
cerebral malaria, who we were able to look after in the Catholic
Mission clinic.
As it was for the next 2 days the ferry did not run to Teluk Dalam,
and my anxiety levels started to rise as the one day safety time I had
allowed to catch the plane from Singapore to New Zealand, was already
used up.
Patients continued to be seen of course and then one lady with a
long term cough, for a year, 25 years old and 30 kg, Josephine came to
us. Clearly on examination, she has Tuberculosis, but the national
laws of Indonesia state that Tb treatment cannot be given unless a
positive diagnosis with 2 positive sputums out of 3, or maybe a
positive chest X-ray can prove the diagnosis.
Unfortunately the x-ray in R.S.Pulau tello had closed down, and the
microscope at the government Puskesnas (health post) was not working,
and unfortunately the woman is too weak to cough or has no sputum to
cough up. Finally we hear that the Puskesmas has no medicines to treat
Tuberculosis for the past 7 months !!! Aaarrgh !!
There was no more spare time to catch the plane from Singapore to
New Zealand, so we needed an X-ray diagnosis for this woman from Pulau
Marit, so her husband and her agreed to come to Nias Island with us
for an X-ray in Teluk Dalam the next day.
All was going smoothly until we arrived at Teluk Dalam, the X-ray
there had also closed so we neeeded to take her to G.Siotoli hospital
for a chest X-ray and get her into the National Tb treatment system.
Immediately after delivering her safely to the hospital, a 3 hour
drive from Teluk Dalam, we were on the next plane to Medan, the next
plane to Batam, I ran to make a booking for Margaret Reid, Melioni and
I on the ferry to Singapore and again I ran from the taxi to the
check-in counter, while Margaret stayed and collected the luggage and
paid the taxi driver in both instances, while we all just managed to
get seats.


January
We have managed to fit a trip in to Tello with Angelina, Sally, and Margaret Reid.
Soon after arrival I was called to do a house visit not far from
Benghok house where we were staying. I found a 35 yr woman in her 9th month of pregnancy who had been bleeding for 2 days.
Her husband’s brother had called me because she had bled out 3
litres of blood in this time.
Immediately I asked that she be transferred to the Catholic Mission
Hospital (as the family were too frightened to transfer her to to
Runah Sakit Pulau Tello) Here I found out that over the past 2 days
the Sisters there had infused this lady at home with 5 bags of iv
fluids (and sadly hadn’t informed me or consulted with me).
Given and I raced to R.S. Pulau Tello to see if we could arrange
for a blood crossmatch and possibly a transfusion, and yes a
crossmatch was possible, but the Sisters refused to let us give a
transfusion to this hypotensive woman with a rapid pulse, and even the
lab tech didn’t want to transfuse because of the possible risk to the
unborn child..
Unfortunately there was no indication that the baby inside was alive,
and I was more concerned about the high risk of a further vaginal
bleed from this woman and her death.
The woman was likely to have placenta previa where the placenta is
situated over the exit passage from the uterus and if contractions are
allowed to continue, without surgical intervention the woman is most
likely to die.
By then, it was 3 pm in the afternoon. I advised the husband that
the only way to save his wifes life was her urgent immediate evacuation with me as a medical escort to Gunung Sitoli, 6 hours by boat and then 3 hours by car.

Fortunately the ferries both have GPS navigation systems, new in the
last 6 months. Both boats were in Teluk dalam but one was on its way
back on a scheduled service and we needed to wait until the boat was
in phone range to hear if the captain/owner would be prepared to do a
night crossing to Teluk Dalam to assist in saving this mothers life.

Finally we got news that the captain was agreeable, the family paid
around 8 million rupiah, and at 8 pm we set off in the black of night
with this lady (Henrietta) on the sitting deck with an iv infusion and
medicines running through the infusuion to stop her contractions,
Sally and Angelina closely monitoring the rate of medicine infusion
and her condition, pulse and BP.

6 hours later over a calm sea, we arrived at Teluk Dalam wharf,
where the other boats moved out from the wharf to allow the ferry to
berth alongside. I disappeared to the R.S. Stella Maris ,where I store
the ambulance,

Back at the wharf, we found that one tyre was half inflated and
as we started to change the tyre, we found the spare completely flat ,
and it is 3 am at this time.
Fortunately we had invited Given to come along and he knew of a tyre
repair store 13 km away on the road to Gunung Sitoli that would be open by
the time we got there, so a gentle 13 km drive to get the tyres
inflated not repaired and off we went to G. Sitoli.

Without any further untoward incidents we arrived at the hospital at
7 am woke up the Dr on call and immediately had her admitted, to this
hospital with 15 doctors.

Then it was time for Margaret Reid and me to travel to Medan to try
and get medicines held at Customs released, and after this return
to Padang for my police check-ins.
Before we departed G.Sitoli, we found out that an emergency
operation had been carried out on henrietta, which found the baby had
died but they were able to save the mother’s life, Yay !!!
Then on the next plane to Medan and 2 days were spent talking and
waiting on Customs officials which finally resulted in all the
medicines being released back to us and we were able to fly away with
them to Padang.

After the police report in ,I was told I had 2 weeks freedom from
reporting (this was directly after my 2nd interrogation with the
police). We then hired a van and Angelina, Sally, Margaret and I
headed up to Sibolga to find the daytime ferry was broken so we waited
for the night time overnight 10 hour ferry to G.Sitoli, raced off the
boat at 6 am to pick up the ambulance and drove quickly to catch the
ferry to Tello.
One flat tyre later, we still made it to the ferry and soon we were
returned to the remote Tello Island.


Derek from Padang January 6th 2010

The work of helping destitute Indonesian families living in villages continues. The world may have moved on but the aftermath of the Padang earthquake is going to be with these people for many years

Clinics in outlying villages and morning clinics on the beach below Rick
and Jane's house in Padang have been held as time has permitted since my last journal back in November

The routine has been seeing the people in most need in Padang and giving free medicine, before going
downtown to the Governor's office that had been converted to a disaster relief
coordination centre. Here we can organize free transport using the IOM trucks to the hills east
of Pariaman where the earthquake damage was worse for residential houses.

Thanks to the speedy generosity of the people of North Sydney Australia we
were able to buy and distribute hundreds of tool kits so that families could start the
process of demolition and repair and rebuilding that is certainly required for tens of thousands of homes.

The work has involved long hours on the road as there are patients at Pantai Air, Manis and many people to see in Pariaman.

Volunteer Lauren Marcell from New York via Auckland New Zealand joined me in mid November and
soon Lauren, Melioni and I with Candidate Yobana were travelling to various parts of the Pariaman area, carrying out free clinics for some of the many people suffering as a result of the earthquake and with no other access to medical help.

Early in December I needed to leave the country for a visa update, with the courts permission of course

The journal has been a little bit quiet since November as this has been a very busy time.

I am shortly to stand trial (accused in a criminal trial) for a rescue mission carried out in May 20 2008
to save the life of a badly injured surfer Darren Longbottom.

I am being charged with flying illegally in Indonesia while undertaking this mercy flight.

I now have a guarantor in Indonesia, who has kindly signed a statement saying that he is responsible for my appearance at the upcoming criminal trial.

Unfortunately if I am found guilty there is a maximum penalty of 6 years in prison and a 60 million
rupiah fine !!!

So over this time in November and December, as well as offering free medical service for the poor and damaged people of Indonesia, I needed to report to Padang police CIB, Criminal Investigation Bureau two times a week.

The helicopter is impounded by the airforce and police as evidence in the upcoming trial and I am spending long hours on the road.getting to various clinics and then back to Padang for the reporting times

Thank you to Tessa for flying Melioni over to Indonesia and assisting with the relief work.

Thank you very much to Lauren who helped immensely in clinics and with the numerous accomodation shifts and with the ongoing care of Melioni in the travel, at clinics, while I reported to the police

We also travelled together to Batam so my visa update in early December was the least traumatic for Melioni.

Thank you also to Meagan, medical student from Wellington and Gareth, expert plumber from Norway / NZ who has installed another school tank with Meagan's help and also installed a shower in the Troppodoc wing of Benghok's house in Pulau tello.

The help from these volunteers is immeasurable and these are people who make big sacrifices in time and finance to help the poor.

Lydia from Singapore and Margaret Reid from Tauranga , New Zealand joined me in mid December Both provided invaluable help with clinics.

Margaret went with me to Jakarta to meet with the Director General of Air Communications re the upcoming trial. His office embraces civil aviation.

We also visited the New Zealand consul and the Indonesian Health Department to try and obtain the release of donated medicines that were seized by officials at Polonia Airport, Medan !!


December:
Since my last journal report life in Padang for a lot of the poorer people remains a daily struggle. For those in outlying villages where devastation has in some cases been total the return to normality albeit at a subsistence level is going to take years. Clinics have continued and for me reporting to Padang police also continues.
As soon as Margaret Reid a New Zealander with experience in running her own aviation business arrived in Indonesia in early December, we went to Jakarta to the office of the Director General of Air Communication (equivalent to New Zealand Civil Aviation). We waited a full day in the DG’s waiting room, yes a full day while we were told he was in the building. Finally we were able to meet with him and discuss the importance of getting a letter from him highlighting that under the ICAO Standards and Recommended
Practices, (to which both Indonesia and New Zealand are signatories) Annex 6 Part 3 states as follows ;
“..where an emergency necessitates the urgent transportation of
persons or medical supplies for the protection of life or property,
the pilot-in command of the aircraft or the operator of the aircraft
may breach the provisions of this act or of regulations or rules made
under this Act.”
After kindly talking to us for an hour the Director General promised to get back in contact with us, and so we await this contact..
While in Jakarta, we also went to the Health Dept to get approval for bringing in the 4 boxes of medicine that had been confiscated from Margaret on her arrival and which were impounded in Medan.
Also while in Jakarta I visited the NZ Consul to Indonesia Graeme McGuire. Unfortunately the Consul cannot meddle with the process of Indonesian law so apart from giving me a list of preferred lawyers, there was little else he could do !!

And so it was back to Padang for my weekly police check, and to meet up with volunteers Gareth and Megan who were mid way through putting in 2 new rainwater tanks at two schools.
It seems that concrete bases are the best choices for tank support as some with wooden bases are showing signs of rotting in the high rainfall and humidity

Unfortunately Megan and Gareth were unable to carry out education programmes
for the children in these schools as it is presently holiday time.

There were 4 unexpected deaths in our area while we were there, a 3 week old twin
from probable malaria, a 51 year old diabetic woman from kidney failure and a 49 year
old woman from recurrent tuberculosis as well as a 47 year old man from probable
tuberculosis




13 December 2009 written by Roger in Gisborne New Zealand

Ongoing medical assistance for Padang earthquake victims has obviously been of the highest priority since the last journal update. Troppodoc is also enduring a few disasters of its own.

Communication with Derek in Padang and surrounds varies but typically is restricted to text messaging, hence, this journal message is a collection of edited messages and recaps events with consequences still to be resolved

Firstly Dr Derek Allen is facing going to trial in an Indonesian Court.

To recap briefly this action follows the mercy helicopter mission flown by Derek to rescue a badly injured Australian surfer some two years ago.. As no other help was available Derek responded to a call for help and flew from Tello to the injured surfer in the Mentawis.

The surfer was assessed and the decision was made that his best chance of survival was to be hospitalised as soon as possible. He was strapped to a broken surfboard and then into Dereks Robinson R22 for the flight across open water to Sumatra and hospital in Padang.

In failing light the flight had to be terminated short of Padang and the surfer was transferred to ambulance to complete the journey. He was subsequently medivaced to hospital in Singapore and when sufficiently recovered to Australia. He is now unfortunately a quadriplegic as a result of the injury.

There are ongoing consequences for Derekas well.. Derek had been trying for some time to obtain permission from the Indonesian authorities to use the helicopter for humanitarian work as it would cut down travel time to remote islands and villages. At the time of the mercy flight this permission had not been granted..

The authorities it seems are now more concerned that their rules were broken than a life saved. .

The question is what would any doctor do in a similar situation. Derek was placed in a situation not of his own making and he responded as the trained medical professional he is


From the time of the incident the helicopter has been impounded by the Indonesian authorities. Derek has been in and out of Indonesia several times since the incident

When he returned from New Zealand to Indonesia to give assistance following the Pedang earthquake he was informed that the authorities wanted to interview him over the incident of two years before.

As at the 13th December Derek is still reporting twice weekly to Pedang police. He has been advised that a court case will be held. We understand that if found guilty he could face a term of imprisonment although the exact charge is not known at this stage!

Troppodoc supporters are urged to communicate their concerns at the appalling lack of natural justice being shown by Indonesian authorities.

You are urged to bring this situation to the attention of any influential persons who may be able to lend weight to persuading the Indonesian authorities to review their stance .

There is clearly a monetary cost to the employment of an Indonesian lawyer. Some money has already been advanced but more needs to be found. If you are in a position to help donations can be made to the troppodoc bank account details of which can be found on the website


Pedang Earthquake Relief

12 December text from Derek
Busy day yesterday seeing 70 patients in Parlaman with Lauren Lydia and Meagan.
This has been the pattern of the last few weeks. There are still many traumatised villagers and country people who have suffered grave losses of family friends and possessions. Many of these people had little enough to live on before the quake.It is going to take a long time for them to recover the things they can back to the subsistence level they had before the quake struck. For the losses of family and friends the trauma will remain for a long long time and for their lifetimes in many cases




Website problems
You may also be aware that we are encountering problems with our website. It is back up after being down for several weeks and now it appears the web address has to be suffixed with dot com from a google search. This is annoying and frustrating and we are still trying to resolve the situation back to the status quo prior to this unsolicited change . we will keep you posted.



2nd November 2009 Padang West Sumatra – Earthquake aftermath

Its Sunday morning in Padang and I
am the first one up but there are already a number of
local people standing outside waiting for a medical consultation and medicine!

Lunchtime
Cases this morning were malaria, post viral joint pains and hypertension
a post traumatis stress syndrome and many with anxiety symptoms.

After breakfast Jane and I did our usual daily check of 4
patients at the bottom of the hill who cannot make the walk up here.

There is a 25 year male with two and a half months of diarrhoea and vomiting and
consequent severe malnutrition now. Probably secondary to Typhoid
fever, which has now been treated, but we are checking on him
regularly as any small infection now will certainly kill him.

There is a 66 year woman with a three week history of being unable to get out of bed
since the big earthquake, and was also suffering diarrhoea and
vomiting as well as usual osteoarthritis joint pains. She is better
physically and now we are trying to mobilize her.

A 27 year old woman who I have treated long term, 2 years for severe
infection of her breast and 10 days ago removed a golf ball size
infected fibrous nodule from her breast. Unfortunately one night there
was a large aftershock, she was terrified and jumped out of bed to run
out of her house for safety and started the new wound bleeding. We are
now treating the consequence of this.

And then there is a 53 year woman who had her 22 year old son die more than 10 years ago
from a fever, possibly Dengue or Malaria and has withdrawn into
herself since and when first seen she was crawling on the concrete outside
her house and calling out for her son. She has a caring husband and after getting
her history it seemed she had a possible depressive psychosis, so we
are treating her and already her sleep is less disturbed, she is
quieter in the daytime and spontaneously appropriately moving and
trying speech, so progress here is an ongoing thing.

The damage to buildings has to be seen to be believed. Many are severely damaged but nevertheless are still standing but they will have to be demolished as a lot are in imminent danger of collapse

Two days ago we got some donated medicines from the Padang Dinas
Kesehatan (severely cracked government health department buildings, in
which people are still working at their desks !!!

CAN YOU HELP ???
The present relief work has highlighted a problem with our Troppodoc communications ! Following are messages extracted from various emails and texts Derek has sent as he has been able to find communication sites that work (mainly through borrowed time on friends laptops). To do his work in the field and stay in touch Derek is in urgent need of an up grade of his existing communications equipment (laptop and cellphone) . It doesn’t have to be top of the range equipment but it does need peripherals to work in a range of countries and most importantly be robust and lightweight . If any one would like to donate funds or the equipment itself please contact roger@troppodoc.com so that we can plan a cost effective upgrade. Yes a satellite phone would be fantastic but the operational costs would be prohibitive ..but all suggestions are welcome



10/10/09
We are in Padang and visiting villages devastated by the earthquake, some villages are 60 % flattened. There are so many people shattered by the shake and of course the medical system here is very sparse, especially at this time.

17/10/09
Hi Roger, just a short update as e mail access is limited; The team
of Tony, Winsome, Jan, John and Derek are travelling every 2 days into
the mountains where the worst earthquake damage is to residential
houses. We are sleeping under a tarpaulin and seeing many people with
disease secondary to the earthquake with infected cuts and abrasions,
fear, anxiety, insomnia depression. These are people who have lost
family, and houses and of course no insurance and no savings or
resources to rebuild. Psychological healing of survivors is going to be slow especially in areas where
hundreds of people are missing under landslides and are likely never
to have their bodies recovered.
The area with greatest damage is 3.5 hours drive from Padang, food
and clean water is scarce and there are so many cracks in the ground,
that when the rain comes, the fear of further enormous landslides
increases exponentially. Hundreds, maybe thousands, of
houses are destroyed and so many are in a very unsafe position with
people sitting under them, for shelter at night or in daytime rains.
Derek


18/10/09
Message to Derek and team
Our thoughts are with the Troppodoc team and all the people of Padang and affected outlying areas
Derek replies
we are seeing up to 120 earthquake victims per day with free medicine in badly hit areas in
the hills to the east of Pariaman. Thank you for your support, Derek

19/10/09
Hi Roger, thanks for copying me on update to Sabidee. How is the troppodoc webpage progressing ??? Thanks for letter to Raymond. Just back from long clinic on edge of landslide that claimed numerous lives; 110 people seen and treated returned to Padang for meeting and then back up there. More people waiting to be seen and treated. Cheers, Derek



NEWSFLASH SUNDAY 4 OCTOBER

Derek only just back in New Zealand from Bolivia left on Saturday 3 October for Indonesia in response to the earthquake disaster in Padang Sumatra. He has a team with him including another doctor, a nurse, a builder and a health specialist. There is also another recently graduated Singaporean doctor looking to join the New Zealand Troppodoc team on the ground in Pedang sometime tomorrow Monday

Our thoughts are with the Troppodoc team and all the people of Padang and affected outlying areas .

---

UPDATE FROM BOLIVIA: August 27-31

Published: Monday, 31 August 2009

Monday 1st Sept.
The big challenge today was to get an extension on our visa.......

 

Read More.....