Story by Jenny Davis. Photos by Ide Gooden.
In September, two visiting pilots from MAF Uganda joined the team in Juba, South Sudan to help out for a week. On one flight on 7 September, in Uganda aircraft 5X-FRM, Ide Gooden and Mark Liprini, medevaced a patient with a broken leg from Yambio to Juba for treatment. Ide gave an account of what happened.
‘The accident happened on the 13th of August, more than three weeks ago. The patient had been driving on a boda boda (motorcycle taxi) when he was hit by a car from behind. He was injured somewhere on his hip or upper leg and clearly in a lot of pain.
‘With about six guys, we lifted him out of the land-cruiser where he was laying on a mattress. We placed him carefully onto our MAF stretcher. Although we tried to be as careful as possible, he was crying out from pain as we lifted him into the rear of the aircraft removing some seats to make space for the stretcher.
‘It was a busy shuttle flight back to Juba with seven other passengers. There are no public ambulances in South Sudan so we lifted him into a car the other end, reclining the seat to try and make him as comfortable as possible for his trip to hospital.’
‘A lack of healthcare services make it particularly hard for people that sustain injuries in remote communities to get the help they need. On this occasion we were able to help by bringing the patient to Juba where they could receive good medical care.’