One Surgeon's Story - Banda Aceh
BY ROB ATKINSON

On Monday 27 December 2004 I had a phone call from my good friend Col Peter Sharwood, Military Orthopaedic Surgeon from Brisbane. He felt that the early press on the tsunami was ominous and was considering putting together a surgical team and did I know any Military General Surgeons. I put him in contact with Lt Col Justin Bessell.

Later that day I had a phone call from Lt Col John Crozier who had been asked by John Horvath, the Chief Medical Officer of the Nation, to work out a way of identifying surgeons who could be potentially available. As an aside, John Crozier, under the auspices of the Royal Australian College of Surgeons, had just run a major disaster workshop in Melbourne where John Horvath was a presenter. I suspected John Crozier’s phone number was stuck in his mobile phone.

To that end I contacted Peter Woodruff, the Vice President of the College of Surgeons, after tracking him through a few others, as he is the Senior Surgeon in the College in Australia, bearing in mind that Anne Kolbe is the president but is a New Zealander. We elected to work through the Chairman of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons State Committee as well as the Chair of the Trauma Committees, to set in motion the compiling of a list of surgeons with their skills, availability, passports, immunisation, fitness and language skills being factors.

This in fact had been discussed over the previous six months and the College was in the process of developing a data base accordingly. I in fact filled out my form the following day. A good idea but a little bit late for this. As circumstances would have it, I was having a barbecue at my place on the Tuesday afternoon with John Crozier, Bruce French, Paul Dolan and others, together with their families.

That evening John Crozier rang again to say that he was probably going back to Sydney due to activation by the military. In fact 20 military personnel were being identified and because of sensibilities in Indonesia a cap of 20 was made. This then moved towards the potential of civilian teams.

The following morning John Crozier rang to say he was in Sydney but his wife and children would still be coming to the barbecue. At this stage I indicated he would be better being like Sir Francis Drake and continuing to play bowls until he saw the whites of their eyes.

After that Brendon Kearney, Chief Medical Officer of the State, telephoned to ascertain whether I was prepared to go and could I find a General Surgeon. Justin Bessell was not available at this point and Frank Bridgewater, General Surgeon, was prepared to look at his book and came back to me within half and hour, indicating he was prepared to go. Brendon Kearney was informed, and all this was occurring at our barbecue with families and friends watching events unfold. I was obliged to make lists of orthopaedic equipment, which I duly did Tuesday night and presented to Judith Berry at the Royal Adelaide Hospital at nine o’clock the following morning.

At this stage it was not certain whether this was a military or a civilian push, but at twelve o’clock that day I was advised by Brendon Kearney that it was civilian and the aircraft was leaving at 1620. Up to this point I had maintained...

FEATURED
One Surgeon's Story
- Bandah Aceh

LATEST NEWS
Bali Program:
Volunteers

Solomon Island
visits begin

Volunteer nurses
database

Bali Training
Program

Stryker Outreach
Travelling Award

UPCOMING EVENTS
TBA

NEW MEMBERS
New office bearers
for 2008