From left, Jess Anderson, Dan Klapaukh, and Ryan Bothma will put their medical training into practice in Nepal in November.
KRIS DANDO/FAIRFAX NZ
Two paramedic students and a local firefighter are heading to Nepal in November to help teach local medics how to respond when disaster hits.
Jess Anderson, Dan Klapaukh, and Ryan Bothma will teach basic first aid, emergency medicine, and urban search and rescue to medics in the Ramechhap region.
Klapaukh and Anderson are studying together at Whitireia in Porirua to become paramedics, and Bothma is a professional firefighter working in both Johnsonville and Porirua.
The trio is going with Life Support Nepal, an organisation which focuses on training people rather than simply providing equipment.
Anderson says they will be working at Tamakoshi Co-operative Hospital.
“Tamakoshi is the only official set hospital for people to go to in the region, and has two ambulances to cover the whole area,” she says.
“Before that, people had to walk for about four days to get to an actual hospital, which is really sad.”
Ramechhap was one of Nepal’s worst-affected areas following the earthquake, Anderson says.
“I think 75 per cent of the region was affected. It is around 20 kilometres away from the epicentre of the 6.3.”
Many of the medics in Nepal are ill-equipped, she says.
“Heaps of organisations have given money and equipment but nobody has been taught how to use it.”
The training Anderson and Klapaukh have had on the Whitireia course and guidance from Wellington Free Ambulance has prepared them for situations with limited resources, Anderson says.
“They’re really big here in Wellington on learning how to treat people without our fancy equipment so we’ll be able to identify what we’re looking for without needing machines to help us.”
One of the biggest downfalls in medical care in Nepal is dealing with mass casualty situations, she says.
“[Medics] would often just go to the first person that they saw, but there’s also 30 other people there that may need their help more desperately.”
Anderson says living in Christchurch when the earthquakes hit inspired her to take her skill set to Nepal.
“I realised that a country like Nepal can’t just bounce back like we have. They don’t have the resources to do that.”
Klapaukh agrees, saying he feels a real sense of duty to be useful.
“Growing up in Wellington, people often told me a big earthquake was going to hit any day, and then it hit in Christchurch – it was tough not being able to help those people out.”
Bothma, the firefighter, says he will be rebuilding classrooms as well as helping with basic first aid and disaster management.
They will leave on November 14 and return on December 10.
FUNDRAISING EFFORTS:
*The group are screening Everest at Light House Cinema Pauatahanui on Sunday, October 11. Paekakariki Hill Rd, Pauatahanui, Porirua, 7.30pm, call XXXXXXXXXX for tickets, $20.
*The trio has fundraised more than $1600 to help cover expenses on their Givealittle page, which can be found by searching ’emergency medicine in Nepal’ on the website.
MEGAN GATTEY
CHECK ITS ALRIGHT