Preparing for Disaster

I was looking back over the past several weeks and I think the best way to summarize what I’ve been doing is simply that I’ve been preparing for a disaster.  I knew coming to Tenwek that part of my job responsibility would be to use the tools and lessons I learned while completing my master’s degree in Emergency Management/Disaster Preparedness to assist staff in responding to the possibility of various disasters.  But I certainly wasn’t expecting so many projects to collide simultaneously.

Upon my arrival to Tenwek I was quickly appointed as a member of the disaster preparedness committee.  From that point on, our primary focus was the development of an up-to-date disaster preparedness manual for the hospital.  A few years ago, there was a tragic bus accident that occurred nearby and many of the victims died.  I wasn’t here at the time, but others have told me that they wish things could have been handled differently.  I’ve done some assessments of the hospital along with what the most likely incidents that we may have could be.  Large scale traumas still rank #1 so that is the focus of our first draft of the manual.  Over the past month or two, committee members have gone to various cadres within the hospital to give overviews of responsibility in the setting of a mass casualty incident (MCI).  For the past two weeks, we have gone to various departments and have run table top drills to allow staff the opportunity to practice using the protocols we established.  Thus far, we have visited four departments and we have five more to go.  Basically, we go to the various departments and present a scenario.  We then have them work through the steps they would use to create bed space, care for new and existing patients, and to communicate within and between departments.  It has been an interesting task as no drills like this have ever been conducted here before.  Our future goal (next month!) is to run a large-scale live drill with live, simulated patients.  I’m honestly not sure how we will pull this off but we are gonna do our best.  It is our hope and prayer that if/when a large-scale disaster does occur, that we will be able to provide the best possible care to as many patients as possible.

Another potential disaster we are preparing for is Ebola.  As many of you know, myself and a colleague recently participated in a CDC training course in the U.S.  The purpose of the trip was partly to attend the course and partly to purchase some of the necessary equipment we would need in such a response (many supplies are getting impossible to find anywhere).  On our return, we identified several aspects of our previous plan that could be enhanced and since then, our task force members have been giving lectures/demonstrations to inform staff members about Ebola and our step-wise approach for dealing with it (or other similar viruses).  We have recruited around 50 volunteers thus far who are willing to work either within our treatment unit or assist with various aspects of our response.  Starting next month we will begin the hands on training to ensure that everyone knows how to appropriately use equipment.  We plan to have these sessions continue until the need no longer exists.

I won’t say that the next preparation is necessarily for a disaster but anyone in the medical profession knows what July 1st is all about…it is when new interns/residents begin their training.  It is a stressful time for trainees and for trainers as well as we quickly try to get new trainees on there feet medically.  Well, Tenwek is having our July 1st.  We had to work pretty hard to get our new clinical officer interns here as there was a problem that has delayed posting until next month.  Thankfully we were able to work out a deal to allow them to report on the previously expected date.  We have a great group of young people and thus far they have all done well.  When I started my internship, I had a small pocket guide that outlined basic workups for various diseases.  There was a similar type of manual that had been partially developed over the years for Tenwek.  For the past several weeks, I have been going cross-eyed at my computer revising and updating and as of today, we have a newly printed 100 page guide to medical care at Tenwek.  We hope that it will serve as a guide to interns and visiting staff who care for our patients at Tenwek.

Thankfully there have been no recent disasters to prepare for on the home front.  Nana and pappy had a great visit and have since returned to the states safely.  The boys had a blast with stories being read, games being played, and with lots of goofiness.  We celebrated Thanksgiving with our Tenwek family and we later had a little early Christmas celebration which of course was a hit.

Joshua continues to grow like crazy and the boys never grow tired of loving on him.  It’s fun to watch them with a baby again.  It makes me wonder what life would be like if we had our 2 year old princess with us as well.  I’m sure she would be a second momma to Joshua.  The boys continue to miss her like crazy.  Every night, they still give thanks for the time we had with sissy and they ask God to give her hugs and kisses from us.  It is so sweet to see how much they love Hannah.  I’m sure they will enjoy telling Joshua all about his big sister.

While I have been busy preparing for various disasters, we have also been preparing for Christmas (the anti-disaster).  We are so thankful for the birth, life and sacrifice of Jesus on our behalf.  We are thankful that even here, we can openly celebrate this special day.  We pray that as life continues to move on at a hurried pace, that you would experience the peace and love of Christ.  We also pray for those who find themselves in chains or who find their lives in danger because of their belief in Jesus.  May they remain faithful to the end.

Prayer requests:

-Pray for the ongoing disaster drills.  Pray the staff will be receptive and that we can identify issues with our current plans to that in the event of a real event, we can respond quickly and effectively.

-Pray for our Ebola preparedness efforts.  We have a solid team of people working on this and it is impressive to see the plan that has been developed.  We pray we never need to use it, but if we do we hope that through our care that victims will experience Christ’s love.

-Pray for the countries still suffering from Ebola.  I think an equal tragedy is the fact that normal healthcare is not available for many.  Increasingly, there are stories of women delivering at home and having severe complications and other stories of people with treatable diseases who simply don’t have access to medical services.

-Pray for our new clinical officer interns.  Pray that they adjust to the stressful and fast-paced life of an intern and that they will have a fruitful year medically and spiritually.

-Another ongoing project and prayer request (one that I will discuss in more detail later) is our planning for an expansion of our current casualty department.  Plans are coming together on how best to design the area with the space limitations that we face.  Pray that as we continue to look into the future that we would plan wisely and in line with God’s will for Tenwek.  Pray that as we move ahead, that funding would come in to allow for progress to be made.

-We give thanks to visitors who choose to partner with us even after leaving Tenwek.  Casualty was recently blessed with a brand new EKG machine.  In the past we have received donations (used machines which often don’t last very long) but this is the first brand new EKG machine that casualty has received.  We are very protective of our new equipment and it has already positively impacted patient care.  Pray that additional equipment needs will be met…especially as we look ahead to an expansion of our casualty services.

-Pray for us as we enter the hardest part of the year.  In January we will celebrate Hannah’s birthday and of course March will mark two years since her home-going.  While time has helped to ease the pain on most days, we know that it will be just as raw and real on these special anniversaries.  We are thankful for the time we had with Hannah and we are thankful that her life continues to impact others, but we are most thankful that because of Christ’s sacrifice our time away from her is temporary.

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Aaron Kelley

Latest posts by Aaron Kelley (see all)

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