Meeting Needs in Venezuela
By Mike Duehrssen
January, 2005

My wife, Susan, and I along with our two girls, Adrianna, 7, and Madeline, 5, came to Maurak, Venezuela on January 19th with a definite mission to accomplish: to coordinate the first overseas site for Union College's "International Rescue and Relief" students. The first group of students will arrive in January 2006 for hands-on training in public health, emergency medicine, jungle ocean shoreline survival and scuba rescue. As we are here working with Adventist Medical Aviation (AMA) to set things up, I have offered to go with AMA's mission pilot, Bob Norton, on any emergency calls that arise. One of the first such opportunities since we arrived in
"La Gran Sabana" in Southern Venezuela typifies AMA's daily ministry and
future learning opportunities for Union College's students.

An emergency call came in by ham radio for a sick elderly lady who couldn't
walk out to the nearest air strip to be flown to the hospital. Bob asked me if I wanted to go and hike in to the patient. I jumped at the opportunity. My last 12 years of practicing emergency medicine has prepared me for most emergencies. I scrambled to put together some medical supplies into backpacks while Susan and our girls rushed to pack food for me to take and we were ready to roll!

Flying over the Grand Sabana is a breathtaking experience. The thick jungles are mixed with the rolling savanna plains. Numerous 2,000-4,000 foot bluffs rise up from the jungle floor. Waterfalls cascade down their cliffs and disappear into thick green undergrowth. After an hour flight we landed on a rough dirt strip lined with mud and thatched-roof houses. Hopping out of the plane with my gear we were met by multiple Indians eager to hike into the village where the elderly Indian lady was sick. I said good-bye to Bob and Lynn Wallington, AMA's newest volunteer pilot, and we were off to the races!

I am not sure what I was thinking - a leisurely hike along a jungle trail perhaps. Wrong! I had two heavy backpacks loaded with a variety of medical gear, uncertain what condition I would find the patient in. The Indians had offered to carry both, but wanting to appear the man that I am, I graciously declined and carried one of the packs. After an hour of hiking I was regretting my decision to show off. The native Indians of the Gran Sabana have a brisk walk and incredible endurance. Though short in stature compared to Americans they can really move and I had to walk and run to keep up with them!

We eventually came to a river that we had to cross. I figured we could wade across, but quickly discovered the water level was over my head. One of the Indians stripped down and dove into the river swimming to the other side and soon came back in a dugout canoe. In several trips we loaded up and paddled across, very tipsy and only an inch above the water.

After approximately five miles of hiking we were there. The homes and lifestyle that greeted us were very primitive with only a few signs of modern influence. I was escorted to the home of the sick woman. The home was small about 20x12 feet with mud walls and a thatched roof. There were no lights or running water and hanging from the walls were gourds for hauling water. It seemed that a large family lived here. There was a hanging cradle carved out of a tree trunk and a fire on the floor in the corner for cooking which made the house very smoky. It took me about ten minutes to get used to the dark and smoke.

I found a thin elderly woman who had been suffering from nausea and vomiting
lying in a hammock. She was ill but not as critical as I thought I might find her. She was holding down some fluids and walking a short distance to the outhouse. I examined her as best as I could with the hammock as my examining table, then started an IV to re-hydrate her. I considered placing her on oxygen but her lungs were clear and she appeared in no respiratory distress.

I now had a decision to make, whether to carry her out in a hammock for five miles across plains, jungles and rivers or make a run way for Bob to land. With hand signals and a few Spanish words, although most spoke dialect, I was able to communicate to the villagers that we should build a runway. Fortunately they had an old runway that had not been used for years that could be operable again with some work. For the next four hours we knocked down large ant hills filled in washed out areas and finally had an area of approximately 800 feet that would have been considered by most pilots a nice patch for a helicopter, but not a fixed wing aircraft.

About an hour after finishing the run way I could here Bob and Lynn flying in the distance. I was grateful for the GPS and hand held ham radio I had to vector the plane in with. After multiple fly-bys they decided to attempt a landing on the crude strip. They landed, but taking off again was the bigger challenge. It took three trips to the nearest village with an adequate run way to fly out the 8 people and gear. We flew the sick elderly woman and her daughter and grandson back to Maurak where she was transported by ambulance to the hospital for further work up.

My heart cries out for these people. In the first 10 days we were here two infants died before getting to an air strip to be flown out by AMA. Another woman lost her child when she had a complication during delivery despite AMA's attempt to get her to the hospital in time. We have flown out a patient with malaria, another with a shot gun wound to the leg, one with head trauma resulting from a falling tree, and a patient with sepsis.

We are eager for the International Rescue and Relief students to begin their semester here! Unquestionably the experiences they will share with AMA's ministry will have a life-changing influence as they serve Jesus helping His less-fortunate children.