Reply #83: Libya: "Sick People Needed to Get Out, and We Got Them Out" - MSF [View All]

[tabatha]

A few days ago the decision was made to organize a medical evacuation, or Medevac, of patients from Misrata in Libya—where medical facilities have been overwhelmed due to the ongoing violence—to neighboring Tunisia. The hospital in Misrata has been closed for several days due to heavy shelling, while the remaining functioning clinics have been overflowing with severely injured patients and are running desperately short of medical supplies.

We worked out pretty quickly that the best way to do the Medevac would be by boat, so we chartered a fast passenger ferry called the San Pawl. We spent a couple of days preparing the craft, stripping it of most of its seats, laying plastic sheeting down, putting mattresses in and tying ropes up for IV lines. Our idea was that it would be a basic, floating ambulance to get the wounded out as quickly as possible.

From Tunisia, we sailed with two MSF nurses, two MSF doctors, and a small team of Tunisian volunteers. It was a straightforward journey there, until we got within 20 nautical miles of Misrata, where we had to wait for around seven hours before we got the go-ahead. When that came through, we were off.

Before we could load up the patients, we had to offload the cargo. We had with us about six and a half tons of much-needed medical supplies, including 300 surgical kits—enough to perform 1,000 surgical operations—as well as drugs, sterilization materials, and intravenous fluids. We got them unloaded and then started to carry patients in on stretchers from the dock. There were burn victims, people with open fractures, and a variety of other injuries. Time was of the essence here, as we really needed to be back out in international waters before the sun went down.

http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/news/article.cfm?id=5165&cat=voice-from-the-field