Subaqua Sternal Rubs

The damage incurred by Hurricane Ivan was amazing - I had never seen anything like it. Looking from my hilltop, I could now clearly see the ocean to my right, and the school to my left, as most trees had been blown over. Not a single house that I could see had a roof left on it. (Mine included.) All my windows in the living room were blown out, glass shards sprayed over the furniture and the floor. There was water everywhere. The door no longer locked, as the door jamb was damaged. However, my apartment looked pristine in comparision to those upstairs. There, the roof was off, all windows were out, and the wind had just tossed various large appliances around like playthings, so that they ended up in various locations (including outside.) My ground floor to the left suffered no damage - all windows were intact, and there was no water in her apartment. Evidently after the eye, the winds shifted so that my side of the building received the brunt of Ivan's fury.

After inspecting the damage to our apartments, my neighbors and I armed ourselves with 2X4's which had random nails sticking out of them (as looting was rampant), and walked to campus in search of any information. The walk to campus was even more eye-opening. 90% of buildings were damaged, and the hillsides were littered with debris of demolished homes. On the way, we passed a supermarket where a large crowd was looting, including firefighters in uniform… Law and order was nowhere to be found. Upon reaching the campus gate, a vehicle belonging to the Taiwanese Embassy stopped and asked for directions to the temporary clinic. As I knew both the clinic location, and some basic medical skills, I volunteered to go and guide the vehicle. The Ambassador was transporting a 46 year old male with significant lacerations sustained in the storm from flying glass. He was weak and dizzy from bleeding out for more than a day. We brought him into the clinic and I assisted the doctors there in suturing and starting an intravenous line to replace the blood volume which he lost. As it turned out, this was only the first patient in a long line, as I ended up staying and volunteering in the clinic until I was evacuated approximately a week later. As I had no place to live, the clinic was kind enough to allow me to sleep on one of the exam tables in exchange for volunteering my limited medical services. The first few days at the clinic brought in mostly storm related injuries - lacerations, etc. As the week progressed, people started coming in for the normal range of complaints - sore throats, skin infections, abdominal pain, weakness, and dehydration. This was to be expected, as the school had secured donations of food from various hotels and restaurants, but trying to feed 2000+ people meant that food was rationed to three scoops of food, once a day. 50 students manned the kitchen each day to cook and serve the food to the rest of the campus. Actually, one of the best things to come of this disaster was seeing all the students pull together and do what needed to be done. Students were in charge of everything — from food to housing to security. Each night, about 50 males volunteered to patrol the campus and enfore the nighttime curfew, armed only with sticks and the occasional machete. While the campus was never attacked, students were afraid it would be, as it had food, and later in the week when the generator was turned on, it was highly visible as one of the only places to have electricity. Off-campus there were a few reported muggings of students, beheadings and a car jacking in which people were shot, which was witnessed by, but did not involve students. The witnesses were actually taking personal vehicles to the hospital emergency department, trying to help out. After this incident, students (including myself) continued to go to the hospital for 12-hour shifts, but only escorted by armed security guards in a security vehicle. The hospital definately needed the help — staffing was low, and the amount of patients presenting was high. It was really disaster medicine - do the best you can with very limited supplies. It was one of the best clinical experiences - I learned more there than in my years as an ED tech and an Emergency Medical Technician. Usually medicine is "See one, Do one, Teach one." Now it was just do one - with very limited instruction I wa s suturing patients. My first foray into sewing didn't turn out too badly - but then it did help that the patient was deaf and mute. (Sort of like my first IV stick - on an unconscious drunk.)
After about a week of volunteering 24/7 either in the campus clinic or the General Hospital, I started hearing rumors of evacation…

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