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Edhlund
reports from Southeast Asia: "I have never seen such suffering"
Because of landing gear
malfunctions, the Guam Flying Medical Mission has had to ground air
operations. Despite that, local veterinarian Dr. Joseph Edhlund, Mike
Wendt and mechanic Victor Reyes have teamed up with the Indonesian company
Air Susi to assist in relief efforts in Sumatra and Banda Aceh.
Recently Dr. Edhlund made contact with physicians on island to
give an update on his trip. Following is his correspondence to KUAM
News:
We saved many lives today. Our team of myself, Mike,
Victor, Brahm and Iti hit the ground in Medan last night after an
overflight of Meulaboh Airport. We are a very unique entity there are
many militaries and NGOs here and the airport would rival O'Hare in
frequency of flights.
But there are no private parties operating
here that we have seen. As a result, we are being given tremendous
cooperation by the authorities.
Almost all the personnel at the
hospital had been killed but there are numerous foreign doctors
volunteering. They do have a shortage of nurses. We can get them to
Meulaboh if they get to Medan, we will get them to Meulaboh. We would
like to operate four flights a day at a cost of about $6,000 per day. I
cannot afford this for very long. We are seriously doing a lot of good
already and will be able to continue this only if we have funding.
For those doubters, let me say we have saved many lives in the
24 hours we have been on the ground.
We will hopefully lend our
can do abilities to an operation that despite huge effort and energy by
a lot of people, often gets bogged down by details. In addition to
providing that can do ability to get things done in delivering medicine
and personnel, we also were able to report to the authorities that
Meulaboh Airport is useable to small fixed wing aircraft. Hopefully this
will open the floodgates for aid getting into the city of [now] 30,000,
most of whom have nothing.
I have never seen such suffering in my
life.
Best regards, Joseph Edhlund
The
Guam Medical Society is working to send volunteer physicians and nurses
from Guam to South Asia's tsunami-devastated countries. The Ayuda
Foundation has also bee working to get large shiploads of medicines and
supplies to assist local medical teams. GMS president Dr. Vince Akimoto
says epidemics of infectious disease are anticipated to begin crippling
relief efforts over the months to come.
Efforts are also underway
to get the Guam Legislature's assistance to fund the medical mission.
Additionally chief mechanic Reyes is working to take the aircraft to
Singapore, where the aircraft will be inspected and cleared for flight
safety.
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