Too Many Caskets...

Our recent posts on trips to the game park, the zoo, and the Indian Ocean have shown the more enjoyable aspects of being here in southern Africa. But unfortunately daily life in Lesotho can be a bit more depressing.

The past few days was a little tough on the MAF team. On Friday afternoon (March 28) the MAF hangar received 8 "Code-1" calls. These are emergency medical calls that come in by radio or cell phone (when available) from the mountain clinics and typically require a patient be flown from the mountains to Maseru so they can be admitted into the hospital. The situations can vary from sickness to pregnancy complications to severe injuries. Code-1 calls take priority over all other flights on the schedule.

Friday was a mix of medical emergencies including a 2 year old boy who was severely malnourished and sick. He was accompanied on the flight by a Baylor doctor (Baylor Medical School is working in the Lesotho mountains). Despite the doctor's efforts this little one passed away during the flight.

He was the first of four patients who have died since Friday's flights. Half of the patients from just that day's worth of Code-1 calls have not survived. Two of them were very young children.

When a patient is flown to Maseru for medical treatment and they pass away, MAF flies the casket back to the village for the funeral and burial. Seeing a casket in the hangar is usually not too alarming, but seeing the little ones for babies and children is tough to ignore. There just shouldn't be caskets that small...

I just got off the phone with Danny Hulls, one of our pilots who flew another Code-1 patient this afternoon (Wednesday, April 2). This call came in late today - after 4:00 PM - from the clinic in Manamaneng. A 19-year old male with stab wounds. Danny was alone on the return flight (no nurses chose to accompany the patient) when the young man died a few minutes after take off. Danny described to me how he put on gloves and tried to hold up this guy's head while he was throwing up and choking. How he saw him stop breathing and die alone in the back of the plane. How he attempted to do chest compressions with one hand (...while flying...) but with over 30 minutes to go in the flight there was little hope.

It was the second time in just a few days that a patient has died in Danny's plane - he was flying Friday afternoon when the little boy passed away. Danny has 2 little ones of his own. I cannot imagine how hard these flights are on him and our other pilots. It is tough enough for me to hear about the losses but these guys are right there behind the controls, praying for just a little more time so they can get the plane back on the ground and the patient into the ambulance.

We know there are many people back home praying for our family and the technical work I have come here to do. Please add to your prayers our pilots and their families as they deal with a growing number of emergency flights and the death they are seeing almost daily.

8 caskets this week and counting...

God Bless you and your families back home, please don't take your time together for granted.

Traig and Laura Friedrich