Children of the Amazon have special place in Ian's heart
Register for free to read more of the latest local news. It's easy and will only take a moment.
Raigmore Hospital consultant paediatrician Ian MacDonald
Consultant paediatrician Ian MacDonald is well used to treating young patients who arrive at Raigmore Hospital’s children’s ward from across the Highlands and Islands.
But he found himself going back to basics during a trip in which he helped to deliver health care to children in remote communities along the River Amazon and its tributaries.
Dr MacDonald spent two weeks of his annual leave as a volunteer on a ship which acts as a floating health centre to the river communities, inaccessible by road, which have little or no access to health care provision.
The Amazon Hope medical and dental project is run by the Vine Trust, a Scottish-based inter-denominational charity.
Its medical ships, staffed by both visiting volunteer professionals and Peruvian medical personnel, provide a vital health service for about 126 river communities along the Amazon — although by the end of this year, the aim is to double that number.
Having had a series of nine vaccinations to prevent conditions such as rabies, typhoid, diptheria and yellow fever, Dr MacDonald flew out. First stop was the Peruvian capital, Lima,
to acclimatise and transfer to a small plane for
a flight to Iquitos, the largest city in the rainforest. From there he had an arduous trip
by river to reach the Amazon Hope medical ship.
"It is not connected to anywhere by road," he explained. "You can only get there by flying, or the river. It took a five-hour trip in a fast launch just to get to where the boat was moored — it is pretty remote."
Although the facilities on board
are fairly basic, The Amazon Hope provides life-saving care to the communities it visits.
"The dental surgery looked like a
dental surgery you would see here," Dr MacDonald said. "Medically, there are very limited resources.
"We would go to a different village every day, arriving in the morning to register the patients so they would get the treatment they needed.
"The difficulty is the boat only goes to a community every three months or so. That means if someone has anything seriously wrong, it can
be more difficult to help them.
"But in terms of preventative medicine, they get vaccinations and treatment for eradicating parasites
and improved nutrition with iron supplements. It doesn’t sound like
a lot but it makes a difference to the community."
Although Dr MacDonald felt
many of the people he saw during his particular trip did not have too much wrong with them, he believed it was about continuing the commitment for the future. Part of the £850 sum paid by the volunteers also includes a contribution
to the project.
For Ian, the trip also brought home the lack
of resources available. "When you see people
with chronic conditions who have no chance
of getting the support they would get here in Britain, you realise that people are just going to
have to put up with their problems," he said.
Dr MacDonald described the experience as a real eye-opener.
"I find new environments so exciting," he said. "The sheer scale of the river was just staggering and the miles of jungle was something I had never seen before.
"However, the amount of insects was beyond anything I could have imagined. You could sweep up the floor in
a morning and fill a half a waste basket with the dead bugs.
"I had also never been to communites where they don’t have clean running water or electricity."
Dr MacDonald, who describes himself as not particularly Christian, says The Vine Trust is helping to address issues by working alongside another Christian organisation, Scripture Union Peru. It also complements the work of the Peruvian Ministry of Health.
"The philosophy is connecting people to make a difference," he said. "You have people with skills here who want to give something to people who have a need somewhere else.
"They see what the need is and find the best way of addressing it. I would recommend it without hesitation to other people who feel they have skills to offer."
Mr MacDonald, who is about to leave his current position at Raigmore, is still planning
his next move, and it may take him to more remote parts of the world.
"Now that I have seen the Amazon, I would really like to explore other rivers and visit different types of communities," he said. "I will perhaps look at doing more overseas work."
The Vine Trust
The Vine Trust started in Bo’ness in 1985 as a community response to the famine in Ethiopia and Sudan, but has since expanded.
An international, inter-denominational volunteering charity, it supplies vital medical and dental care with the Amazon Hope medical ship as it travels to over 126 river communities.
On-board, a typical team includes two or three GPs or other doctors, one or two dentists, two nurses and up to two general helpers, for general duties and the vital pharmacy.
Patients normally attend with common childhood ailments, skin conditions, diarrhoeal illness, chest infections, muscle pains and the very occasional tropical lesion.
The major difference is that the service is really back to basics. The staff have to rely on just listening to the patient before undertaking an examination using only eyes, hands and simple diagnostic tools. The only lab test on board is a simple urine dip test.
