after the accident last month and the numerous pictures about the wreck and salvaging trip, maybe it would be nice and more cheerful to show a bit of the regular work.
No matter what the useless local newspapers wrote, Flying Medical Service is a non religious organisation, not a missionary one, otherwise I wouldn’t be flying for them. The confusion comes from the fact that my boss is a priest but more importantly a pilot. But he is quite good at keeping things separate.
So we operate 2 Cessna 206’s, well normally that is, to about 30 airstrips and 3 hospitals for our regular clinics where we provide medical treatments, vaccinations and sometimes an evacuation back to the hospital. Emergencies, medical or other NGO staff transfer are on our programs too.
We have the splendid privilege to fly the real bush in odd conditions, see the most stunning landscapes in northern Tanzania. And Flying Medical Service airstrips are of the special type. We’ve had an ex Marine pilot here who once was asked why he did fly for us. His answer should be framed: “I wanted to do some real flying…”. Even if he was half joking, I still feel good about that!
here is a nurse attending a pregnant Masai woman. She’ll receive folic acid and iron pills, her blood pressure and weight will be checked, given a tetanus shot…part of what we call ANC, ante natal care. Family planning is also available and becomes more and more popular. It’s about time: Masai women still have at least 6 kids in average.
A doctor will set the ‘practice' wherever he/she can, under the main tree, under the aircraft wing or sometimes in a hut. All we need are 2 or 3 boxes of medicines for the most common diseases, malaria, tuberculosis, pneumonia, various infections…for the difficult cases, pregnancies usually, we fly the patient back to the hospital of the day. It’s really amazing what a doctor in those conditions can achieve.
people will walk form far away to meet us. The audience can be quite colorful!
in case the bush hospitals can’t help, the patient is flown to a better location. These are old pictures from 1999 when ambulances were still quite non existent, we’d use our own little jeeps. This boy didn’t make it. It will always stays a weird feeling to fly somebody, hoping the patient will make it and then we hear the bad news. Strangely enough, we’ve seen the most spectacular cases on board and the survival rate is incredibly high. We’re talking about bullet, lion, leopard, buffalo, snake, hyena gory wounds, and the list goes on with various diseases, arrow and spear in the head or through the torso, a face chewed up by a hyena, a skull split open, car crash victims, or aircraft lately…
it never gets boring, I can tell you that much!
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