The second week of the mission trip was planned quickly and added to our itinerary in order to help some of the victims of Super Typhoon Hayian. As most people know this typhoon hit last November 8th, killing over 6,000 people and affecting over 14 million. Those numbers are staggering to me when you think about the geography of the Philippines. It consists of over 7,000 islands, but only a few are able to accommodate any number in the millions of people.
Even though our group has shrunk to 21, we packed lightly because we had lots of supplies and meds to carry.
The enormous Manila Ninoy Aquino International Airport won my heart over when they had hundreds of televisions inside, all playing U.S. NBA basketball. Whaaaaa? I quickly figured out that during the rest of the trip when I needed to communicate with a local or even a child, all I had to do was start talking about basketball. I even caught a couple of Thunder games!
 We board, and we are all sitting together at the back.
Here
is one of my "take-off" pictures. I can't help it. I shoot pictures
out the window of planes everywhere I go. Until I am interrupted by
this... an announcement. "We need a doctor! Is there a doctor on
board?" I am sitting near about 5 or 6 doctors, and they all look at each other
like, "are you going to go?" "I don't know." "Do you want to go?"
Dr. Sharma (yellow and white)
receives the hero award, because he gets up first, and heads to the
front of the plane where the small commotion is occurring. Yvonne and
Christine follow. Everyone is quiet. We can't see the patient or any
action, other than people talking. The cute gray headed lady is a
well-renowned dermatologist who is with our group, and she was the first
to get there. I guess she was sitting closer, and we didn't see what
was happening. It turned out that a child was experiencing a febrile
seizure. This sometimes happens in children who are younger and have a
high temperature. Usually non-life threatening or unlikely to cause
permanent damage, they are treated with acetaminophen and the child is
kept safe and slightly restrained so they don't hurt themselves. This
type of seizure lasts a few minutes or less. Upon arriving in Cebu, we
were all escorted off the back of the plane, so that emergency personnel
could come quickly in the front. Later, Christine and Yvonne made the
comment that, "doesn't this happen nearly every time we get on a plane?"
All I could think of was, well, I want to be sure and be on a plane
with a bunch of doctors if I am going to have some kind of medical
emergency mid-air. I haven't even started talking about Cebu and our
experience there. It was a wild day just getting there. More to come. |
Mission - 2nd Stop - Cebu
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