One Surgeon's Story - Banda Aceh
BY ROB ATKINSON

reasonable although I am sure our air conditioner was on reverse cycle, heating rather than cooling, and proceeded to spray Roger Capps all night long. We just got to sleep when Hugh Grantham, the Team Leader, woke me and said somebody has been shot and needs a tetanus injection, and I was awake enough to indicate that this did not compute, and as it turns out one TNI soldier had been shot in the head and did not require our attention. The other one had a gunshot wound to the calf with varying other penetrations in both thighs which required an extensive amount of surgery in an operating theatre which was extremely hot and with which none of us were familiar.

Nonetheless, Heather Dodd and Joy Booth demonstrated enormous fortitude in finding equipment and enabling this case to be done. We never really discovered why he came to us, nor background of the incident, and the patient was taken to the Indonesian Army Hospital immediately post-operative. There were numerous soldiers around, all fully armed and looking as though they knew what they were doing.

Cool and sticky on one’s feet is OK but warm and sticky is not, so I quickly changed into boots, which became the order of the day in the operating theatre although sandals were much cooler. Given this was a civilian mission and not military, there were wonderful opportunities to be more comfortable, and there is no doubt the discipline of patient care is much higher than military discipline in my view. Some air conditioners worked and Frank Bridgewater confided that he had had eleven hours sleep, which was extremely lucky.

Peter Riddell, who speaks Bahasa, set the pace. He was in his element and we had a list on Sunday afternoon. He kicked off with the surgery, driving all of us relentlessly. Hugh, our Team Leader (the first amongst equals), played the politics masterfully, organising WHO; and Brett Richie, our Clinical Microbiologist, wrote the protocols for the management of tetanus. The x-ray Department was opened a little forcefully, a Radiographer was found, and we had x-rays. The laboratories were opened as well and three IMVS professionals turned up, so in fact within a few days we had the best functioning structure in the region. We had anti-tetanus toxin, which nobody else had, and whatever anybody wanted we gave freely. Two operating theatres of 15 cases a day proceeded under the relentless pressure of Peter Riddell.

In fact leadership was interesting as I believe that almost anybody in the team could have taken over if required. It was in fact probably the best mission I have ever been on because of the quality of the people and their enormous commitment to the people of Banda Aceh. In fact it was a privilege to work with such people and an inspiration in many ways. We managed to get a couple of hours to look at the tsunami damage, given that was the reason we were there, although we were not able to get out and about very much due to the pressure of work. Nonetheless, what we could see was staggering in its immensity.

If the earth shook and your house fell down and you survived, you ran outside and a great wave washed you away. It does not come any worse than that; and you multiply that by a thousand times around the region and this is the greatest human disaster that we are likely to see in our lifetime. One night we had a large earthquake, which prompted the comment..

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One Surgeon's Story
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