Mission Debrief: May 18 Sindupalchowk
Organization: JRM Foundation
Date: May 18, 2015
Squad: Gokul Thapa, Prabin Khanal, Amrit Sharma.
Transport: Charted Helicopter
Village #1: Pangthang, Ward #2
Description: Remote village high up in the mountains, with dozens of small landslides nearby, but not threatening the village. They had a yellow “H” made from plastic sheets marking the Helipad. 18 houses here. 6 families have fled to Kathmandu. Dr. Talha Rehman was leading a Health Clinic here for 2 days. Dr. Rehman told me that a lot of patients have high blood pressure. The normal BP is 120 over 80. But patients here had 190–120.
Relief Supplies: 3 bags of rice. 1 box of oil. 10 kgs of sugar. 1 box of tea. 5 boxes of biscuits. 6 boxes of noodles.
Village #2: Botang, Ward #5
Description: Small village along the stream at the bottom of valley. Helipad was on a slight slope, which was peppered with cow poop everywhere. Normally I’d say “yuck”, but I’m glad the cows survived the earthquake. A lot of villages have lost all their farm animals.
Relief Supplies: 3 bags of rice. 1 box of oil. 10 kgs of sugar. 1 box of tea. 5 boxes of biscuits. 6 boxes of noodles.
Village #3: Shermathang, Ward #7
Description: This isn’t a village. This was a town, in relatively good shape. There was a group of 13–16 ex-military tactics and medics from Team Rubicon. They’re fantastic. You can read more about Team Rubicon on my earlier blog post.
Relief Supplies: No supplies delivered. We were here for a med evac. 58 year old woman with burn wounds over half her body. More details on that in another blog post that I’ll write tonight.
Summary: No aftershocks. Today was a good day.
Fun story:
I met Dr. Talha Rehman at Pangthang, the first village today, and introduced myself. As soon as I said, “I’m Amrit”, he replied, “So you are Amrit.” I was surprised and said, “Am I infamous here as well?”. Apparently Dr. Fahim Rahim of JRM Foundation had mentioned me to Dr. Rehman.
How can I help?
I’m glad you asked. Donate to JRM Foundation’s Nepal Earthquake relief efforts. I can’t speak highly enough about their team and their effectiveness on the ground. And you can read my blog post on other ways to help Nepal.