De buurman

Het is interessant wat de buurman - Niels van der Lindern - meemaakt. Ik nodig eenieder uit om de link hiernaast - missie in Kenia - aan te klikken, maar hierbij vast een teaser:

Just another day not in the office
It was around 7 a.m. that I woke up sweating all over. It didn’t take long to find out why I was sweating. It was because my electric fan was not working. I already had a clue what the problem was, but just to be sure I switched on the light. Indeed, no light neither, so Lodwar had a power-failure again. It was too hot to stay in bed without a fan running, so I decided to go and get some breakfast.
I wanted to go to the office to work todat, but I needed internet for my work and since there was no electricity in Lodwar, I couldn’t use the internet… So I just stayed home and read a book…
At 11:50 suddenly my fan started again! Finally I could go to work… But now I had to wait for Ali to come with the car to pick me up. After 30 minutes he arrived. But he asked me to stay, because there might be an emergency to Eldoret, so I had to pack my stuff for an overnight in Eldoret. We only had to wait for a confirmation.
We waited for one hour for the phone call which never came and at 13:30 I was fed up and left for the office. But, off course, just after I’ve started my computer (and found out that somehow I was unable to connect to the internet), Ali send me an sms:”Come get your stuff and get your ass up to the plane. You’re flying to Eldoret.”
When I arrived at our house, Ali came walking to me. “Change of plans: you’re going to Nairobi.”That was good. The plane has some small problems, which are too complicated to fix in Lodwar, but which are not big enough to fly to Nairobi to fix it. But now I could combine the flight to fix the plane with the medevac. The only thing is: we don’t go to Nairobi for a medevac unless the patient is really dying, so I was a bit curious what kind of patient I would be carrying today…
When I arrived at the hangar, it was already busy there. My guard was already fuelling the plane, the patient and his armed escort (later I heard he was the father of a Member of Parliament, so he needs an escort) already arrived as well as Richard. Richard is a flight nurse, but he is the best flightnurse I’ve flown with so far. While other flight nurses just get sick in the plane and just watch how I help a patient in the plane, Richard is always ahead of me, at least regarding the patient, and he is really helping during an emergency. And he keeps on helping the patient during the flight, instead of vomiting, which is a big plus for a flight nurse. Richard was giving the patient some injections and I walked up to him for a briefing.
“Richard, how are you? Tell me a story about this guy.”“Well, he’s not doing well, but I’ve given him some medicines which will probably keep him alive for a few hours and hopefully they can help him further in Nairobi.” “So I have to behave during the flight?”Richard smiled: “Yes, you better behave; he’s very weak, so no loops or rolls. He will need the stretcher. Don’t put the stretcher flat, but don’t raise the backrest too much neither. He has difficulty breathing but he doesn’t need oxygen. O, and by the way, I’m not flying with you. You’ll get some fresh meat…”“That’s just great. A dying patient and a brand new flight nurse on a flight of more than two and a half hour. You’re really making my day here. Who is it and where is he or she?”
Richard introduced me to the lady who would be the flight nurse.“So, you’re going to fly with me to Nairobi?”, I asked.She appeared to be a bit nervous, which made me nervous as well. I looked a bit desperate to Richard and started my interrogation:“Have you ever flown before?”“No.”“Do you easily get sick?”A hesitating “No”“Have you seen the patient already?”“No.”“You know what Richard has done to that patient now?”“No.”I was starting to become a bit annoyed…“Do you even know what you’ll have to do as a flight nurse?” Richard pinched me.“O.k., I have to prepare the plane. I suggest you use the time to see the patient and think about how to keep this guy alive, because if this man dies during the flight, we will spend the Saturday evening in a police station in Nairobi, explaining why that guy died during the flight. And I know those bloodhounds at Wilson airport, if they can screw you, they will and it will take a lot of bribes or a very big mouth before we can leave that police station… Last time a patient died in my plane, they even wanted to start a criminal investigation against me. Now, make sure an ambulance will be arranged to wait for us. I expect to arrive in Nairobi at 18:00.”
I checked the plane, loaded the patient and the relative and walked up to the flight nurse who was given the last instructions by Richard.“We can go now. Do you know what to do now during the flight?”“Yes.”“Good, did you order an ambulance?”“Yes.”“Are you sure?” (usually people here say “yes”, even when they mean “no”, so I usually ask a question 3 to 4 times and take the average answer)“Yes.”“So when we arrive in Nairobi, an ambulance will be waiting for us?”“Yes.”
That was a score of 100%, so the chance was quite high that she really called an ambulance. Besides, we really needed to go if we wanted to reach Nairobi in time, so I had no time to ask more questions. I strapped in the flight nurse beside the patient and off we went.
During the flight everyone behaved according to their role in the flight: the relative just enjoyed the scenery, sometimes looking back to see if his uncle was still alive, the flight nurse was attending the patient and the patient was really looking like he could die any moment. But Richard insured me that the patient would survive the flight, so I just focused on flying the plane.
At 17:58 I touched down in Nairobi and I taxied to the apron just to find out there was no ambulance waiting for us…
It was last year that a patient died on me while we were waiting for an ambulance and that feels even worse than when a patient dies during the flight. So I didn’t want to let that happen. Time to ask the flight nurse some more questions.“I thought you called an ambulance? Now, where is the ambulance?”No answer, just a shy (and maybe embarrassed) nurse looking at the ground.“And your patient is dying now, while we’re waiting for an ambulance. I want to know what you’re going to do now…”“I don’t know. Let me call the ambulance.”“No, you take care of that patient now. I didn’t fly 600 km’s with him just to let him die here. I’ll let the relative call an ambulance.”
The relative called the ambulance:”They are coming.”“That is not good enough. Where are they and how long will it take before they are here?”The relative started calling again…
Meanwhile a custom-rat came walking to me.“Welcome to Nairobi. I come to collect the landing and navigation fees.”“First of all: I’m busy at this moment. Second: I pay the fees as soon as I file my flightplan back to Lodwar, as I always do.”“That is not the procedure.”“I’m sure it’s not, but that’s how I always do it and that’s also how I’m going to do it this time. Now if you excuse me, I have work to do.”
The relative came back to me: “They are in a traffic jam.”“How long before they are here?”And the relative started calling the ambulance again. And at the same time Ali called me:
“Niels, how are you? Did you arrive in Nairobi safely? Is the patient still alive?”“Yep, the patient is still alive, but there is no ambulance here.”“Well, that’s not your problem now, is it? Why are you still waiting with them?”“No, it is not my problem, but the patient is still using my stretcher and if I would just kick him out of the plane and let him lie on the apron, I might get a guilty conscious in later life… And I don’t want to risk getting a guilty conscious…”Ali laughed: “Good luck then. I’ll call you later.”
And again the relative came back to me: ”They don’t know when they will arrive. It is a big traffic jam.”“O.k., I’m getting sick of this. That guy is dying and I’m getting hungry, let me call the tower for an ambulance. It will cost you 2000 shilling extra, but that will be your problem. You can sort it out with the flight nurse.”
I called the tower and 3 minutes later an ambulance arrived at my plane. And with the ambulance, the custom-rat came back as well. I ignored the rat and helped loading the patient and the passengers in the ambulance.
“To which hospital does this patient need to go?”, the driver asked me.“I don’t know. Ask the flight nurse or the relative.”“They don’t know neither…” the driver replied.
The rat overheard the conversation and apparently he smelled blood. He started to raise his voice to me.“So you’re transporting a patient while you don’t know where he needs to go to?”“No, I'm not. He needed to go to Nairobi and here we are.”“It doesn’t work that way.”“O.k., in that case, can you show me the regulation stating that a pilot should know the final destination of every passenger he is carrying?”“You know there is no such regulation. But this patient is your responsibility.”“My responsibility over this patient has ended when we closed the doors of that ambulance up there. He is not my problem anymore and to tell you the truth, I don’t care where he is going to. Now are we going to create a problem over here or can I go? I’m really hungry now.”
The rat hesitated a moment and then he walked away. Finally I could go and eat and prepare for a few days spending in Nairobi…