FINAL CLINIC DAY #
4 IS MARKET DAY IN LUKLA,
AS WE SEE THE FIVE HUNDREDTH PATIENT IN CLINIC,
BEFORE THE STRAGGLER ADDITIONAL PATIENTS
ARE CARRIED IN TO HIMALAYA LODGE,
WHERE WE REGROUP, REPACK, AND PREP
FOR OUR EVEREST TREK TAKEOFF IN THE MORNING
May 9, 2002
Today, Thursday, is market day in Lukla, and we predicted that it would be our biggest day, because our clinic is right next to the market square. It was our biggest day in clinic seeing 157 patients, but added to the 143 seen yesterday, and the 210 patients seen in the first two days, I am almost reluctant to report to you the too perfe3ct number of 500 patients. On the basis of the subdued flow of trekkers and the somewhat besieged nature of the Lukla community just now, an on the basis of the two boxes of MAP packs I had carried in, I had predicted 560 overall for our Nepalese medical camp, and we are on our way toward being “spot on” as the Briticism has it, since after we had dismissed the group from the clinic building as the morning market also was packed up, it became apparent that the stragglers were still being carried in from a distance, and four more showed up at the Himalaya Lodge as we were finishing lunch on our “free day” in Lukla. Besides that, we have carried a number of items for the trek, since we are now well known up and down the trail for the free care and consultations we have given, and not least of all, for free medicines, so we will be sought out along the way as that medical camp now goes mobile.
For that reason we have carried some equipment, such as my pulse oximeter, and a few medicines, particularly for the Thangboche Monastery and other places where we will be asked to render care. So, as of this writing, which is the last I will be doing for a week, checking the computer in along with my exposed film and other “Lukla leave-behinds” we have 504 patients from Nepal-02, to add onto the four MAP boxes-worth of 1,069 patients in Dharam-02—about right for the teams we had in each.
WELL DONE TEAM!
A FIRST-EVER TEAM OF THREE EXPERIENCED PARAMEDICS,
AND THREE STUDENTS,
TWO SENIOR MEDICAL AND ONE JUNIOR PHYSICAL THERAPY
PEROFRMED SMOOTHLY AND COMPETENTLY
When we went to the market this morning, the porters had parked their “trucks” (their pack frames, like a parking lot full of Fruehauf trailers parked by Teamsters) from their arduous climb up from Giri, with a few of them coming down from Namche and the porous border with Tibet. It seems along the way they have picked up some of the most surprising merchandise, like sleeping bags and backpacks and clothing made of fleece. “Famous brand names” stuff it is. “What’s that? Well, what brand name would you like?” “North Face” is a favorite, and if you don’t like that, how about “Mountain Hard Ware”—it’s all the same since the labels and the counterfeit goods are all made in the same places—Tibet, Kathmandu, or India. So, you can get real bargains here, for example, a fleece vest with the brand name of your choosing, will be 2500 R’s in Kathmandu (75 R’s = $1.00 US) or 450 R’s here. It seems that we are closer to Tibet, and it is no sense in carrying it all the way sown there if you can unload it up here.
I found out that there was now market last week. The Maoists intercepted the porters and the market was cancelled for some hostilities and some confiscations along the way on the trail from here to Giri. The Maoists are getting bolder, and have control of a lot more territory than when the previous king had ruled before his death in a hail of automatic gunfire, along with all the Royal family, and the Maoists have stepped up their activity since the new king has be3en sweated without much popularity.
The news this morning, brought in by the military police radio to Nimi when she used it to call Lakpa in Kathmandu, is that last night, the Maoists killed 105 military police at a place called Rompal. In countering this news, it seems the MP’s killed 35 Maoists on the trail down to Giri rather close to us. Just how they can tell at night from a distance that the turkey shoot involves Maoists, is unclear. Nimi says the police check the elbows, since the Maoists are training by crawling through forest at night. They also sniff their arms for some scent known only to the police, since the Maoists are otherwise indistinguishable from the surrounding population. I continue to marvel that anyone can get excited about Maoism after looking to see what China is doing to Tibet. But, they have so far limited their terrorism to attacking the Nepalese people, and have let tourists alone. They have even made so bold as tot advertise to ask that tourists come to visit the Maoists camps and see what nice guys they are. The US Embassy has declared Nepal an “unsafe place” which has kicked the stuffings out of the tourists traffic, and has made everyone afraid to come up here, even though it seems that the trek route from here to Namche and along the Annapurna is quite untouched, even thought the peasants down in the valleys have been attacked.
I saw the saffron, dried tomatoes, hands of ginger, and the hot chili peppers along with tiny dried fish used as a condiment. There were sacks of salt, some of it even advertising that it was iodized, and the gristmill stone ground wheat made into flour. There were the remains of a yak being hacked into smaller parts and distributed along with some very disgruntled roosters. The dogs that are ordinarily wandering around in our clinic between the legs of the patients and the rifle butts of the soldiers who come in for checking, are wandering around out of our doors today, since the sights and smells of the clinic are so much better and the scraps are definitely easier pickings outside than they have been by sticking with us.
PACKING UP,
PICKING OUT,
AND PACKING OFF,
WE ARE ON OUR WAY UP THE EVEREST TREK ROUTE:
KALA PATTHAR, OR BUST!
Last night after our case presentations and some didactic lectures to which the paramedic group responds surprisingly well, although the students are used to it, they had asked for a lecture on tropical medicine, beginning with the species of worms, since lots of our patients are being treated for worms, a number of whom will be glad to demonstrate their worm burden. After that, I gave another talk on what might be considered the “mini-mountaineering course on the maxi-mountain” in explaining how to conserve energy and enjoy their Everest experience forthcoming tomorrow morning and for the next week on the trail, and on trek to Everest Base Camp and an attempt at the Summit of Kala Patthar.