November 16, 2005

As a second Quito-based medical team from HCJB World Radio heads to Pakistan this week, its leader described the Ecuadorian staff's zeal to help SIM International with relief efforts in the country's earthquake zone as "incredibly encouraging."

"We've been inundated with colleagues coming and saying, 'I want to go. Can I help?'" the team's leader said, even as media coverage of the devastating Oct. 8 quake wanes. "Our colleagues are taking time out of their work; they're taking time away from their families, and they just want to be there and share their skills and be able to reach out to the people of Pakistan at this very difficult time for them."

Three doctors (which include a plastic surgeon), an anesthesiologist and two nurses (one of them the November team leader) make up the second international team sent by the agency's Healthcare Division in the past three weeks. "We're from four different countries, and I think our common language will be Spanish," she said. SIM serves as the group's sponsoring institution in Pakistan.

Toting suitcases full of medical supplies to treat patients and children's clothing to distribute, the group left on Tuesday, Nov. 15, just days after the return of the first HCJB World Radiomedical team (including an Ecuadorian surgeon) that left Quito on Wednesday, Oct. 26, and spent about two weeks in Pakistan.

Working in three areas of the country, the first team treated up to 100 people a day in evacuation camps, said the leader of the October team, a Hospital Vozandes-Quito (HVQ) family physician originally from the U.S.

While in Pakistan, he told a U.S journalist via cellular phone that many cases consisted of poorly healed fractures needing surgical correction, plus "other injuries that are now severely infected."

The October team leader's daily satellite phone contacts updated the Quito-based nurse who is heading the November team. Pakistan's healthcare infrastructure has been strained by the deadly earthquake which left hospitals in ruin. The U.N. reported that 1,000 medical facilities were destroyed. For people's common illnesses, "these field hospitals where we're working are their only resources for healthcare on through the winter," the October team leader said.

An HVQ physician on the October team told of the horrors he faced while in Pakistan. "[I treated an] open fracture with rotting bone, burn patient acute," he wrote in his journal. That same day he saw a boy whose skull was fractured when struck by a car. He also wrote that the team's surgeon "operated on a large infected hematoma [swelling filled with blood] around a femur fracture in a little girl." The journal account said his wife "hit the ground running with kids and patients, singing, coloring, praying. Great help to all of us."

A day later the same physician wrote, "Saw a dehydrated kid this afternoon. Quite a task with our Indian translators to get across the instructions for oral rehydration." But the October medical team overcame barriers of language and nationalities as recounted by the team's leader. He wrote, "In fact, tears were shed as we hugged and said goodbye. Whether the language was English, Spanish, Urdu, Pashto or Ukrainian, God's love was freely flowing through our team to the people around us."

In the past, HCJB World Radio and SIM have shared broadcasting ventures, but the Pakistani outreach marks the two agencies' first joint medical endeavor. As to further involvement of HCJB World Radio's medical staff in regional or global efforts, "There's a richness in sharing ministry among missionaries and national staff," said the leader of the November team. "As more well-prepared nationals emerge, we'll ensure that the best people are placed in key positions, whether missionaries or nationals."

Four HVQ staffers traveled last March to Nias Island, Indonesia, for tsunami relief work, but also responded with immediate earthquake relief by returning to the island when an 8.7-strength quake struck the island just hours after they'd left.

While aftershocks may be the most obvious physical threat to such disaster relief teams, there are other dangers too. In mid-October Pakistan's military reported the crash of one of its helicopters on an aid mission in Kashmir, killing all six people on board. An adviser for the U.N. told of helicopters "landing on knife edges" in the effort to reach people who still haven't received any relief.

"I really believe that the safest place on the planet is the center of God's will," the November team leader said. "This is something God would have us to do."

She called the current Pakistan trip a "wonderful opportunity to go and shine, and show something of God's love in very practical ways," then added, "And I wouldn't want to be anywhere else!"

The quake's death toll in Pakistan reached 73,000 by Nov. 16 with another 69,000 injured and an estimated 3 million homeless, reported the BBC. Another 1,400 have died in the sector of Kashmir administered by India. (HCJB World Radio)