* * * We are proud of our Volunteers * * *

Well, Dave Johnson is at it again, this time being called away from YYC 2010 after our Monday morning pre-tourney skate.  He took a big hit from Andre Martel on the ice and then received the phone call to go to Chile, another big hit because he would miss the entire tournament.  Hey Dave, we took good care of Donna (glad she didn't have to leave also) and by the way, because of your volunteerism;  co-hosting YVR 2008, serving 5 years on the Rules Committee, and unselfish service to others in time of need, you were named the winner of the 2010 International ATC Hockey Tournament Pierre Marcoux Esprit-de-Corps Individual Award.  Congratulations brother!  (Dave's 2nd from left below) 

Here's his latest adventure:

Chile

March 11:

Final update from Chile.  In disasters things are always changing. My last update I had requested we deploy our hospital to Chile to a specific area of devastation.  Shortly after that the conditions continued to change and what is rare in these situations, it was very positive. The government and military have acted quite fast and with a lot of resources and now are responding really well to all the factors of a disaster including medical needs.  Therefore just 24 hours after asking for the deployment of the hospital down to Chile our team has decided the urgency wasn’t significant enough for our capabilities.

Of course it is tough coming down here for a week and not ending up with a deployment order but that is just what happens sometimes.  All is not lost as we have been touring with the military a lot and providing them with lots of consultation and experience that we have gained from multiple disasters.  The best news is the people here are now receiving all the medical help that they require.

We continue to get rocked and rolled 24/7 and it does wear on you.  Two nights ago I lost count after 6 quakes, some of which were quite significant between the hours of midnight at 8am.  It is quite something to wake up to everything shaking and the bed had wheels that I was on so yes it was rolling back and forth.  My one CMAT partner back in Canada jokes “ride the wave” when this happens but I really have never been a great surfer.  Anyhow, today is Thursday March 11th and we have sent one team member back to North America and the 3 of us hope

to leave tonight at 11pm.  I say hope because if you haven’t heard we were rattled by 3 earthquakes today one after the next at 7.2 magnitude.  The ground shook at 7.2 for approx 15 mins straight and dulled to a 4.0-5.0 magnitude for the next 15 mins so in total 30 mins of shaking.  Women were screaming and crying all around but we are all ok.  There were some tense moments as I lost communication with the 3 others who weren’t around me when it happened and they took much longer to get back to me then planned but all is good.  This happened at noonish local, it is now 5pm and there have been 4-5 more minor shakes.  Minor for here (5.0-6.0) but major anywhere else in the world.  There is a bit of apprehension here as the people seem to think they come in 4’s (something to do with plate alignment) and we have only had 3 big ones today so many believe we will get a real big one in the next few hours.  Call me crazy but I want it to happen before I leave to make certain our assistance isn’t required after.

You can visit our website www.canadianmedicalteams.org to keep updated on all the events and our progress, and of course should you want donate to any disaster, this can be done there as well.

Well it has been another incredible experience, never to forget and here I come home once again.  I arrive in Vancouver at 1pm on Friday,  American from Dallas, so Tower guys, no delays to the gate please!

See you soon,

Dave

March 8:

Hope all is well back in the Normal World.  I am still alive and kicking, fairly exhausted but I think I came down here that way never recouping from Haiti and yes of course Olympic festivities.  There was a brief few seconds last night that the thought “alive and kicking,” would not be used again but all is good and apparently never in any real danger, well real, real danger.  The story is my team and I were in a military HQ last night around 9pm local waiting to meet with a Colonel.  We were sitting down on the ground floor of an old 6 story building, that I had noticed many large cracks earlier in the day, in a waiting area.  It occurred to me to brief them on a quick note that “should the building start to rock we make a dart for that door over there.”  Between 5-10 seconds later there it was, a rock from a 6.0. It always takes a second to try and determine if is this vertigo, old age setting-in or are we having one but right after that initial second I was the first to jump out of my seat followed by 2 other members.  I didn’t get more than 3 steps when I observed a good 30 people all just standing there with quite a few of them gesturing at me to slow down, it’s ok, not to worry.  With ten seconds having passed and the shaking coming to an end I calmly sat down trying to look as casual as possible, I turned to my one teammate who hadn’t moved who happened to be our only member who was a former Chilean local and said I can’t believe all of these people including yourself just sat there!  He said, “We Chileans don’t move unless it’s a 7.5 or greater.”  Somehow they just know the magnitude from the initial shake.  Many got a good laugh at our expense.

We seem to be breaking a few rules as we don’t usually go into buildings unless life depends on it in these quake areas and yet I will now be spending my second night in a apartment/hotel type of building as it’s just the best choice for us.  It certainly isn’t luxury as there is no running water, TV or cooking capability.  That’s right, no shower, no toilet and no water for dishes or washing food.  As I am sitting here we have had 4 minor shakes in the past hour.  This really keeps you on your toes and dictates to sleep with one eye open.

We toured the area today with a Colonel as once again we have lucked into some great cooperation from the military.  So much that he said he would arrange for a Hercules (big 4 engine transport plane) to go and pick-up our first medical team when they arrive in Santiago and bring them to me.  As of a few hours ago we have made the decision to deploy our field hospital and a 10 member team from Canada to the disaster area to provide medical aid.  They will be arriving Thursday morning.  At that time I have decided I will leave with one other member for home.  Although we would normally stay longer the combination of Haiti and Chile has made getting any more time off work impossible.  I hope to be home late Friday night.

We were told an amazing story today by the Colonel.  He said that when the quake struck most everyone really believed it was the end of the world!  He described they immediately got the full effect of the 8.2 quake instead of a build-up in strength.  “Bang, right at 8.2 for almost a full minute and that (amazingly) the ground continued to shake at strength 6.5 for 45 minutes (yes 45), imagine that ride, they really believed the world was ending.  If that wasn’t enough the Tsunami that hit where I am came 20 hours after the quake, they had no idea after so much time had passed that they were in danger.

We are setting up our hospital and camp where the Tsunami hit with a water level of 30 feet.  There are miles of destruction or just debris (cars, washing machines, fridges, basically anything inside your home) filling the streets 10 feet high.  The water is gone but the mud is incredible along with fish everywhere you look and smell.

So tomorrow I start planning the actual base set-up and location so look for another update before I head home.  I did an interview today with CBC both radio and TV so look/listen for me.

Everyone take care and once again look forward to coming home,

Dave

March 5: 

10 pm Vancouver.....3am Chile Time
 
We have visited the Chilean Air Force Base who said they are ready to fly us anywhere as long as we get a paper faxed to them authorizing the flights.  Well that isn't so easy in a disaster zone.
 
We were met at the airport by a large family one of whom is the mother of one of my team members.  Because we arrived late, 7
pm and logistics can be a slow process in disaster areas, we have travelled back to this Chilean family's home where we have had wonderful food and a bit to drink.  All has not been just a vacation though, what started as a slow go of schmoozing and making contacts has once again turned into...well a shake your head experience.  After putting some feelers out there, e-mail and phone calls I have had to leave the dinner table on a few occasions to field a couple of calls from the Minister of Health in Chile as well as the Political Councillor of the Canadian Embassy (#2 to the ambassador) regarding our deployment within the country.

We have decided tomorrow we will rent a Truck/Van and drive 8 hours (after we stock up as we are warned by all to be very self-sufficient) to a place south of Concepcion along the coast and see what we can find.  The embassy tells me that they tried to head to that region today to find many missing Canadians but the roads are impassable.  We are trying to locate the best 4x4 we can find to do some off-roading and are hoping the military will be of some assistance as well.

Well it is late so I want all to know back home I'm thinking of you and slightly wishing I was enjoying the comforts of home but oh so happy and grateful I am embarking on another great experience.  I am receiving e-mails so far so thanks for your support and love to all (you tend to get a little more emotional when you're in these places).

Hope to chat soon,

Dave
 
Hi Dave,
As promessed. We are now connected by email. Have left messages for you and spread your number around. good luck. have sent official email to Onemi and ministry of foreign affairs requesting authorization for you. best of luck.
 
The Health Ministry has apparently requested PAHO/WHO’s support in coordinating technical aspects related to mobile field hospitals; deployment of structural engineers (and most likely architects) to assess health infrastructure; communications and information management in the affected areas, including preparation of a short-term strategy and plan of action; technical support in the area of management of bodies; and coordination of international health aid arriving from other countries. You might want to get in touch with PAHO. Am told PAHO is holding daily meetings with the Ministry of Health and is in regular contact with ONEMI. PAHO/WHO is supporting the government of Chile by contacting Member States in the Americas to determine the availability of field hospitals and generators and helping to coordinate their deployment into Chile
 
be careful:
Approximately 10,000 troops from the Chilean Armed Forces continue to operate in Maule and BioBío regions to maintain order and ensure distribution of food and water to affected individuals. The Government of Chile continues to enforce a nightly curfew, between 2100 hours and 0600 hours local time, in seven cities, including Curico, Molina, Sagrada Familia, Concepcion, Talca, Cauquenes, and Constitucion.

Chilean authorities have installed eight field hospitals in the affected areas, including two field hospitals in Talca Commune in Maule Region. Chilean military and medical personnel are preparing four additional hospitals for deployment to affected areas.
 
Best of luck
 
Marianick Tremblay
Political Counsellor

March 4:

Hello Gang!
 
Well I can't believe it but here I go again!  Barely recovered from Haiti and then wouldn't you know it, another disaster.  I am departing early this afternoon as a team of 4 at the request of the Chilean Government to go and assess the damage and necessity for our organization to deploy to Chili.  I am taking 3 others with me (see attachment) to Chili via Beunos Aires. Well actually Toronto then direct Beunos Aires then Mendoza and then either a 4 hour drive to Santiago or we'll see what I can muster up for a flight there.  The airports in Chili are all closed so it is hard to get in but rumour has it they will open soon.
 
We have also been told the Chilean Air Force is waiting for us to arrive in Santiago and then they will fly us wherever I want to go throughout Chile.  What shall I choose?  Actually our plan is to go to Concepion, Chili to have a look first.  They also are stating they will provide us with security on the ground from the Chilean Army.
 
The plan is to be on the ground for a week and determine if we can deploy our field hospitals to the region.  While there we will be conducting Search and Rescue operations and assessing the overall situation of the country.
 
We have our tents packed, food and water purification plus all the standard stuff, you know.  We have press conferences to attend in Vancouver and Toronto as well always lots of press at the disaster so look for my ughly mug on a screen near you.  Texting and emails may work so send what you like and hopefully I'll get them, may not respond if it's too expensive down there.
 
As always I'm in a rush and will keep you posted as I can.
 
The best to everyone,
 
Dave

Haiti

On Friday, Jan 15, I received a text from Dave Johnson, Vancouver Tower.  You may know Dave from the Rules Committee and as the co-chair of the Vancouver 2008 tournament.  Dave told me he and five other volunteers from the Canadian Medical Assistance Teams were on their way to Haiti as an advanced team for their organization and needed help to charter a plane out of Miami.  (Dave's wife Donna, an orthopedic surgeon and ice hockey player, also flew to Haiti with the main CMAT group.)  I called some of our hockey pals in Florida; Tony Llabres, Dan Neubecker, Mike Vitti, and a non-hockey buddy of mine, Keith Bernard, to get the ball rolling.  Long story short, these guys got on it and Dave ended up with a Lear 55 they found...the only thing they couldn't do was get a release time that day (and it wasn't from lack of trying).  The MIA guys also helped in another big way as you'll see in the stories below.  I'm not surprised and I'm very proud of our group, air trafficcontrollers and ice hockey players!  Yeah, we're loud, obnoxious, and sometimes a bit drunk and smelly, but we usually come through when needed.  Read the entire account below:

Andy McGowan

From Dave, Jan 28:

Hello to All

This e-mail comes to you high in the sky. Yes we are on our way home onboard a Canadian Forces C17 (big 4 engine jet transport plane).

I had wanted to write so many times since my last but my days were long, incredibly long and there just wasn’t the time to write. On average I have had about 2 hours sleep each night for the past 14 nights. However I now have a few hours on board an aircraft where there is no in-flight service, in fact some passengers are just lying on the floor as there are no seats.

Where did I leave off, let’s see; Well I last wrote a week and a half ago on Monday and now 11 days have passed...it would be impossible to chronicle all 11 days without writing a book so in brief.

After my 4 days conducting Search and Rescue in Port-Au-Prince I took one member of my medical team and went on a reconnaissance mission to outlying areas to find a location where my entire team who arrived just the night before would set-up our large field/mobile hospital. We decided on a town called Leogane a city of 130,000 who until the moment we arrived had not seen a single aid group since the earthquake. Now that I am safely returning I can tell you that got quite dicey upon our arrival! We were traveling with a driver in a private vehicle and a press crew of two (it was hard to go anywhere without numerous requests from press to travel/embed with us). When we arrived and got out of the vehicle to have a look at a field a large mob of people encircled our vehicle, the camera crew, and my teammate. I was on the outside of the mob and determined this wasn’t a good situation and had to push my way back to the car get everyone inside and just back the car away with people banging on the car and screaming and yelling. They were understandably upset that it had taken so long for help to arrive and we were just the first people they could express that to. Undaunted by this, strangely enough, I decided that this field was a great location for our field hospital and we returned the next day in force and constructed our unit there without incident.

We have spent the last 9 days at this hospital seeing on average 250 patients a day. It has been quite overwhelming for our team of 16. Donna performed 10-12 surgeries a day amputating dozens of limbs. We had 3 babies born at our hospital in those 9 days including one where we almost lost both mother and child due to complications but in the end both survived. There are many heart breaking stories but the great thing is that we did treat/help over 2000 patients in just 9 days! It is so strange, Donna would drill rods, screws in broken legs too many to count and 15 minutes after the operation we would be placing the patient on a motorcycle with 1-2 sometimes three other persons on the same bike so that they could go home by their only means available. We couldn’t hold on to patients over night so no matter how serious the surgery was, they would be heading home (a tent) within minutes. They are incredibly resilient people.

The deployment was incredible for me and my organization partly because we worked so close with and had an incredible amount of support from the military. Normally we go off and do our own thing but somehow I fluked into a great relationship with a Lieutenant Colonel and it just grew. Within a day of our hospital’s operation we had 50 sailors join us each day off the Athabaska from 0800-1600hrs. They gave me total rein to put them hard to work with anything we needed which enabled us to focus more on the Haitian people. We were visited by three different Generals, the Canadian Ambassador to Haiti and all kinds of other dignitaries. In the end there were 6 other field hospitals in the area but all who visited said the Canadians were the most organized and professional operation in all of Haiti.

At the end of each day section of Vandoo’s (Canada’s most elite soldiers) would relieve the Navy and be our security for the evening. Again now that we are safely returning I can tell you the reason for the Vandoo’s. Our first evening of operation the Navy was with us until 4pm when they had to return to their ship. The Colonel had promised me he would have some army guys provide security for the night or he would return himself to camp with us. At 6pm dusk fell upon us and no Army in sight. Then right next to us about 200 meters away a large crowd formed at the edge of our field and became very angry over the lack of food distribution. The crowd turned to a riot, it was very loud and despite my (blind faith) assurances to my team we would be OK the riot got worse. Over the next 2 hours I made four or five Satellite phone calls back to the Athabaska requesting assistance. They were of course in no position to help even though I reported that there were shots fired and one of my members had been hit by the downward fall of pellets from a shotgun blast into the air. At 2100hrs I sent one member of my team in a private vehicle to a United Nations base just 3 kms away to get assistance and after another slightly tense hour the UN cavalry arrived with huge armoured troop carriers and lots of firepower. They quickly secured the area and parked 100 feet from our tents. With the excitement over we went to sleep and awoke the next morning with the UN gone and the Canadian Army in its place. Apparently I had slept through the entire transfer of security handover. Needless to say not another moment was ever spent without 20-30 armed to the teeth guards all around our compound.

A lot of my time during the past week has been spent doing PR, dealing with the press and unbelievable as it is, passing out requests (kinda orders) to all the different levels of military that have been helping us. While doing all of that I would be consulting with medical staff and directing what bed or stretcher patients should go to. I speak with visiting doctors from all over the world each day just trying to keep up with the medical lingo like I am some type of doctor myself but we all know that’s the furthest thing from reality! Yesterday I had three different interviews where I walked 10 feet left to the next camera for the next interview and so on and so on. The media is everywhere and sometimes I find I must escort them off the compound when they have overstayed their welcome.

We had to medivac a few patients out during the 9 days which I take care of all of the arrangements when this occurs. We had a very emotional day this past Tuesday when we had to medivac out one of our team members to the Athabasca for failing health. It was our friend Kate who is an anaesthetist and Donna and I had asked her to join us in Haiti. After 2 days on the ship she was flown back this morning to our compound in time for five of us to get on a SAR Griffon helicopter for the ride from Leogane to Porto-au-Prince for our flight home. What an incredible ride, I got to hang out over the edge of the helicopter as it had no doors and cruised a couple of hundred feet above the ground. It was a great rush.

I wanted to thanks those that have helped us along during this deployment. Some great friends came together to help me find jets to charter out of Miami when we needed it and those that jumped to help load and coordinate the delivery of an X-ray machine. On Monday I made a frantic plea for help to load an airplane near Vancouver with an X-Ray machine we needed desperately in Leogane as there wasn’t one in the entire city and through everyone’s help and again military helicopters moving it once it arrived in Haiti we saw it arrive Wednesday eve at our hospital. Outstanding and thanks to everyone.

It was a great experience and as always we are really, glad and fortunate to have participated in a worthwhile project but we are really looking forward to home once again.

We are now heading to Montreal where Donna and I have decided to spend a couple of days to regroup and recover. We plan to be back Sunday afternoon in time for work Monday and look forward to seeing some comforting faces.

Our best to all,

Dave and Donna

You can see more updates & pics at www.canadianmedicalteams.org.

From Miami Center, Jan 20:  

From Donna, Jan 20:

From Dave, Jan 15/16: