By Jacqueline Easby, guest blogger
Lynn Henderson is a nurse and Red Cross volunteer who spent a month amidst the devastation of Nepal after the major earthquake of April 25 – here is a story about her experiences there:
With 20 other highly-trained Red Cross delegates, plus a mobile field hospital and operating theatre, Lynn flew into Nepal’s capital, Kathmandu shortly after the first earthquake.
Within a few days, assisted by the hard work of the village youth club, an entire Basic Health Care facility with water purification system had taken shape near the remote village of Khokundole. The night they finished, Lynn pulled on her toque and climbed into a sleeping bag, knowing her real work would start the next day.
“In the morning, 50 people waited in the shelter of the triage area,” she said, pictured left. “Most had chronic complaints, such as gastritis, but we saw many expectant mothers and newborns.” At the end of the first day, the first baby was born in the clinic and named Leilyn in Lynn’s honour.
In the days to follow, mothers and newborns were assessed, and ailments were treated. Child health information was delivered through interpreters and Lynn settled into a satisfying, daily routine, despite the worry of continuous small aftershocks.
On May 12, the
second earthquake struck. They were, unluckily, very close to its epicentre. “The violent shaking activated people’s recent traumas and experiences. And afterwards, a massive cloud of choking dust rolled in.”
Everyone was taken inside the clinic and the tents were zippered shut. “A
baby was born that night,” Lynn said, “While huge boulders rumbled down the mountainsides. We feared for everyone’s safety, but we also worried about our families’ reactions.”
Safe in the light of morning, the Red Cross was notified and it informed the team’s families just as news of the second quake broke in Canada. Work began again, treating the injured, re-purifying the water supply, and sweeping off the tents. But a damage assessment soon revealed that the field hospital was sitting on fissures that had opened in the valley. Within 24 hours, the team (and a patient) was evacuated by Chinese helicopter back to Kathmandu.
”The Red Cross is very careful about the safety of its delegates,” said Lynn, “Which is one reason why, as a mother, I choose to volunteer with them.”
Lynn then went to the larger town of Dhunche, northwest of Kathmandu near the epicentre of the first earthquake. Its population had exploded as people from remote regions came in for help. Its medical facilities were overloaded, and its hospital severely damaged. Lynn joined a full Red Cross field hospital and operating room that was already in place. The team slept in tents on the hospital grounds near a Hindu temple where, every time a prayer was said, day or night, a bell rang.
In addition to her regular duties as an obstetric nurse, Lynn was able to teach local nurses and pass on best practices which they readily implemented. Two or three times a week, she would team up with a doctor and interpreter, and visit outlying communities to hold mobile Red Cross clinics.
And so her month in Nepal passed. Finally, dusty, dirty, and tired, she returned to her supportive family in Bridgetown on May 31.
Lynn is a very special individual. The Red Cross could not deliver its disaster assistance programs, abroad and at home, without her dedication and that of people like her.
Read more stories about Red Cross efforts in Nepal.