On THe Road

One experience was quite traumatic during my weeks on the road. We were travelling between towns, and came across a man and his mates, who had come off his motorbike. It looked like the front tyre had blown out. And he hadn’t been wearing a helmet. The gravel road had caused much damage, and as much as I tried not to look, the man’s face had been severely injured and deformed. Being a UN vehicle, the policy is we do NOT take passengers, or stop for people. But my driver and I decided to stop, it’s a deserted road, you can’t just leave the scene, and we could help. Not to be mentioned to HQ. So we put the man in the tray of the ute (so lucky we had this vehicle and not the new Landcruisers) and started back to town – fortunately I knew the Polyclinic, I had worked there previously. His mates on motorbikes were going to escort us, but we had to keep stopping because the man was trying to jump off the ute. I was sad to see that the friends sped off, we were left with this man we didn’t know in a critical condition.

We slowly made our way back to town. The ambulance was not an option because there is rarely fuel for its use, and regardless, we were at the scene.  We were fortunate in that my driver had made one friend come in the tray with the victim, as he needed constant care and placation, I’m sure there were head injuries/shock involved. The friend must have been a ‘strong man’ and my driver also had to keep an eye on him in the mirror for fear of him jumping out. I tried not to look at the man, it was a pretty horrific sight. I don’t know how they did it, I won’t go into details, but inside the car we were so quiet and tense, despite the 40 degree temperature I was so cold.

We got back into town and as we drove into the clinic, all his mates arrived for support and help. It was such a good thing to see. I met the district health director and she assured his care, telling me that the doctor was in today. This was much relief, as you never know the treatment you are going to get in the health facilities here. We left him with half the town supporting him. They thanked us, and got the vehicle washed, it was covered in blood. My driver asked me about HIV, which I thought was so great; It’s not an easy thing to discuss here. We talked about the health facilities here, the community support and about meditation.

It was a surreal experience, one I have not had much experience with before. I thought of dad and Uncle Bob doing this with the rescue helicopter at home, seeing things like this several times per day, I was affected just by one incident. Despite being queasy with some gore, I was fine, and my driver commended me for not being scared of blood! I told my driver about our helicopter services, reliable ambulances, and healthcare. We have all that, and Ghana doesn’t, but I was so incredibly comforted and moved by the community spirit, support and kindness of this town. I could leave knowing that in some way, he will be ok.