Archive of Activities

Tsunami Medical Aid to Sri Lanka

Medical Camps in Sri Lanka

Medical Camp in Fiji, 2004

Previous Programs conducted in Australia

Tsunami Medical Aid to Sri Lanka

Tsunami Aid - Relief Response Pathway

Overview

The Sathya Sai Baba Organisation has centers in 157 countries world-wide. For administrative purposes, the Organisation is divided into worldwide zones and has regions in those zones. Sri Lanka falls into the same zone as Australia. International relief for the 26 December Tsunami and subsequent earthquakes in the region has followed the Relief Response Pathway. This pathway has three stages, incorporating but not limited to:- immediate aid and assessment; recovery aid, and long term rehabilitation and recovery service.

Medical Items despatched from Sydney to Indonesia

Immediate Aid to Sri Lanka

Aid to Tsunami stricken Sri Lanka was received from a number of sources, and efforts in several cities were coordinated by the Sai Medical Unit. Aid supplies were despatched from Canberra and Sydney.

• Gloves 3 boxes, Needles 3 boxes, Syringes 3 boxes, Medi swabs 4 boxes, cotton wool 2 bags
• 1 carton syringes 5ml, 1 carton needles, 1 carton alcohol swabs, 1 carton clinical waste bags
• 2 Cartons Dressing Packs, 1 carton alcohol swabs, 1 carton 10boxes 1 ml syringes, 1 carton 10 boxes 3 ml syringes, 1 carton 40, 7.5x7.5 gauze swabs,
• 20 boxes 100 Panamax, 3 boxes 1 ml syringes
• 1 carton 6 boxes 3 ml syringes, 4 boxes needles, mixed wound dressing supplies, 6 Dressing packs, 2 suturing packs, 2 aprons, Band-aids, micropore tapes.
• 1 carton 10 boxes gloves. 1 carton mixed medication samples.
• 1 carton swabs, 1 carton medicrepe bandages, 3 boxes 5ml syringes, 3 boxes 3ml syringes, 12 boxes needles, 1 box suture material.
• 4 pallets gloves + Facial masks

Article from The Canberra Doctor

December 26, 2004, Boxing Day, for most of us, will be remembered by so many as the day of the Indian Ocean devastating tsunami. Life for so many has changed dramatically.

Dr Chandran, also the National Coordinator for the Sai Medical Unit, the medical arm of Sathya Sai Organisation of Australia and PNG - a multi faith scrvice oriented spiritual organisation - called on his colleagues: individual practitioners, pharmacies. hospitals to donate goods to assist in alleviating the impact of the tsunami in his country of origin.

Dr Chandran personally, and through "Canberra Doctor" wishes to thank our local community "for their very generous support and their response which is a reflection of the generous and compassionate nature of Australians", he said. He is less glowing of certain aiel agencies and institutions which were bureaucratic and lacked a humane approach to his request for help.

Dr Chandran was delighted by the efforts of a young Canberra teenager, Rebekah Heritage, who prevailed upon pharmacies to donate goods for transporting to Sri Lanka.

Her efforts contributed to the over 125 boxes of supplies awaiting shipment. In these boxes arc medications - analgesics, antibiotics and asthma medications as well as dressing packs, antiseptics, needles, syringes, cannulas, some surgical instruments, five autoclaves and eight tonnes of linen. A number of Sri Lankan doctors in the ACT and Bungendore and the ACTDGP participated in this effort. These are currently stored at Dr Chandran's home and that of fellow Sri Lankan - TCH medical registrar, Dr Pranavan and it is auticipated that they will be uplifted in the next week.

In thanking the local community, Dr Chandran singled out The John James Memorial Hospital, National Capital Diagnostic Imaging, Capital Pathology, anel Calvary Hospital which were generous in their donation of supplies. Rehabilitation is now the issue, said Dr Chandran - re-building life - and the international community will need to continue to support the affected countries to build houses, schools, hospitals etc.

Dr Chandran and orthopaedic surgeon, Dr Chris Roberts leave soon for Sri Lanka with three nurs es from the Canberra Hospital and an ophthalmologist from Sydney They will be joined by a team from the UK - Dr Chandran's ophthalmologist brother and his colleagues (Sai members from the UK), several nurses and a counsellor. Once in Sri Lanka they will work from five different medical camps in the south, east and north of Sri Lanka where the need is greatest.

If you would like to make a donation - please contact Dr Chandran on 6282 4006 or 0403 040 073. (Article courtesy of Canberra Doctor, February 2005 Issue)

 
In Sai Service
Dr K NADANA CHANDRAN
 
National and Zone 3 Medical Coordinator.
Australia

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Medical Camps in Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka Medical Camps - Tsunami Relief Response

Overview

The Sathya Sai Baba Organisation has centers in 157 countries world-wide. For administrative purposes, the Organisation is divided into worldwide zones and has regions in those zones. Sri Lanka falls into the same zone as Australia. International relief for the 26 December Tsunami and subsequent earthquakes in the region has followed the Relief Response Pathway. This pathway has three stages, incorporating but not limited to:- immediate aid and assessment; recovery aid, and long term rehabilitation and recovery service.

Sri Lanka Medical Camps
Joint UK-Australia Sai Medical Camps

NORTHERN SRI LANKA (AT DR PONNAPALAM MEMORIAL HOSPITAL IN PUTHUKUDYIRUPPU / MULLAITHIVU)

The medical camp commenced as stated earlier on 14 March, 2005 and ended on 22 March, 2005. The journey to the medical camp and return was by road and took easily 12 hours or more. The poor road conditions and the traffic congestion as well as the tedious checking carried out by the Sri Lankan army of all the baggage, personal and medical supplies, added to the time taken for the journey.

Unfortunately the hot season had started prematurely this time and added to the discomfort of the travel. However every one remained well and felt that their effort was worthwhile and the experience an elevating one.

The team consisted of Dr K Nadana Chandran, neurosurgeon, as team leader, Dr Mrs M Nadana Chandran, a general practitioner, Dr Chris Roberts, a consultant orthopaedic surgeon at The Canberra Hospital, Dr B Balakrishnan, ophthalmic surgeon from Sydney, Mrs I Balakrishnan, housewife, Ms Avril Greef, anaesthetic nurse from The Canberra Hospital theatres, Ms Tammy Marchasani and Ms Elizabeth Stuart, orthopaedic nurses from the theatres at The Canberra Hospital, Mrs Saras Paramsothi, an experienced Bal Vikas teacher, nurse educator and counsellor from Adelaide.

Dr Roberts and the three nurses are not members of the Sai Organisation but volunteered their services very eagerly.

Contact was made with the Centre for Health Care - a non governmental organisation, which was coordinating our medical work in the North, and with Tamil's Rehabilitation (TRO) which was looking after the welfare of the Tsunami victims in the North and East of the island. TRO is a Non Governmental aid Organisation registered in Sri Lanka, Australia and the USA where contributions to it are tax deductible. It has been working mainly in the North and East of Sri Lanka including the areas held by the LTTE for over 20 years.

Our camp was situated in the territory held by the LTTE. There has been a cease fire in the internal ethnic conflict of over 20 years, for the past three years. This area has suffered decades of medical and economic neglect in addition to death and destruction of the civil war. The Sri Lankan government maintains a very low key essential services in this area.

The overland journey to our destination took 12hrs. Every box, equipment and suitcases taken by us was examined by the Sri Lankan security at the border crossing.

At the hospital we were provided with very good accommodation which had air conditioning and fans. All meals were provided and served. Laundry facilities were also provided. We were looked after very well and had always security transport and other help available on the spot.

Our work started with a clinic on 14 March morning. Several orthopaedic and neurological cases were seen and patients selected for surgery. Our nurses were asked to sort out and classify the various medical supplies and orthopaedic and surgical instruments that we had brought and to appraise them as well as liaise with the nurses in the theatres.

The hospital had two well air-conditioned theatres, one dedicated for eye surgery and the other for our use.

The medical team also included Dr K Puvanachandra, who was the leader of the large UK ophthalmology group and was in charge of organising the island wide eye work at five medical camps. His team in our area included Dr Vasuki Sivagnanvel from the UK, Dr Chandra Kumar and Dr Shivantha, eye surgeons from Sri Lanka. Dr Mrs Puvanachandra also assisted them.

Dr Velayuthapillai from the UK was the anaesthetist initially and two days later he was replaced by Dr Kamala Arunachalam from the UK who gave the anaesthetic services for the Australian team.

Dr Chris Roberts carried out 28 major orthopaedic surgical procedures.

Dr Balakrishnan and his wife visited the local government run hospital where he surveyed children from the local schools and also prescribed and dispensed spectacles. They saw 1300 patients and prescribed 850 glasses.

The counsellor, Mrs Saras Paramsothi, joined up with other members of the UK team, stationed in Kilinochi and visited a number of schools, counselled families and provided teaching aides and stationery to the schools. The nurses, Tammy and Averill, also joined this team from time to time when they did not have much to do in the theatres.

Elizabeth Stuart gave excellent assistance and established a good relationship with the theatre nurses and was able to transfer skills and at the same time benefit from the experience of the local nurses.

Besides consulting and doing three operations, we were able to visit three rehabilitation centres for paraplegics and neurologically injured people. Prescriptions were given for specific medications, some of which we had taken with us, for the management of pain and spasticity in these people.

During the clinic and during the operations, a certain amount of teaching was carried out and a formal lecture was given by Dr Roberts on hand injuries.

Dr Puvachandra also gave a talk on injuries to the eye.

The medical, nursing staff and the administrators of the hospital where we carried out our major work were quite impressed with the quality of our work, dedication of the team and their friendliness and attitude. We have been asked to come again to provide this service and Dr Roberts is already planning to go early next year with another orthopaedic surgeon, physiotherapist and other members of this team to continue this work.

Other team members will also return to provide much needed medical assistance in the area of neurosurgery. In the interim period, the team assessed ways of improving the quality of the neurologically damaged people's lives. The team had to leave two patients needing cranioplasty for the next visit.

In addition to carrying with us and donating instruments and medical supplies worth over $50,000, we also supplied $700 worth of anaesthetic medications that were purchased in Colombo.

Eye Camps

The Eye Camp was led by Dr K Puvanachandra and the UK group. In our area alone 139 cataract and 6 other eye operations were done. The theatres ran sometimes till 11.00pm. The eye clinics ran from 8.00am to 11.00pm. The UK team supplied all the lenses and other provisions and glasses needed for their work.

Over 3000 patients including many school children were seen and several hundred glasses were given free. It is believed from the initial figures for the whole island that over 600 cataract operations and nearly 10,000 consultations were offered in the 5 eye camps held in the island. Col. Jayantha Jayasinghe, the Sri Lankan National Service Coordinator, assisted with administrative support. With such a big undertaking some logistic and communication issues are bound to arise, but were soon sorted out.

During this period, We also took the opportunity of travelling to Jaffna which is the capital of the Northern Province and peninsula, with Dr Chris Roberts, stayed overnight, visited the local teaching hospital, met up with a number of doctors, including an orthopaedic surgeon, and then proceeded to Point-Pedro where the regional Tsunami task force was functioning.

Having had discussions with the psychiatrist counselling these patients, there were discussions with the liaison officer of the task force and then proceeded to Manalkadu, where a major Tsunami camp was being run. This was later visited by the local Sai Organisation and household utensils were provided two days later.

We also met up with a doctor who had carried out immediate relief work from Jaffna Hospital for the Tsunami victims, along with the Sai group and also the retired central coordinator of the Sri Lankan Sai Organisation, Mr Sivagnanam.

The discount of airfare and additional allowance of luggage given by the Sydney office of Singapore Airlines is gratefully acknowledged.

 
In Sai Service
Dr K NADANA CHANDRAN
 
National and Zone 3 Medical Coordinator.
Australia

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Medical Camp Fiji, 2004

Fiji Neurological Service Project 2004

Children to go under the knife
(Wednesday, November 17, 2004)

SEVEN children suffering from brain damage will be operated on this week free of charge by neurosurgeons from Australia.

The children, including a three-month baby, suffer from brain tumour and hydrocephalus or enlarging of the head because of too much fluid in the brain.

Referring to the rare disease, hydrocephalus, neurosurgeon Dr Nadana Chandran said most cases were identified in the later stages, when it was hard to treat them successfully.

He said many parents were ignorant of early signs in children and when they sought medical attention it was too late. The later stages include retarded mental development and loss of eyesight, Dr Chandran said.

"There is a good chance of children recovering successfully if their symptoms are detected early but if it's too late, recovery is poor and it's important that the children are diagnosed early and treatment done," Dr Chandran said.

"Teams come once a year so most of the children would not be able to receive treatment on time, even coming twice a year would not be adequate but it's better than no visit at all.

"If they are not detected early, their mental development is retarded. Their vision can be impaired. One child I saw in Suva has gone blind."

In the past two days, Dr Chandran and a team of experts visited children in the Lautoka and Suva hospitals to identify cases for surgery.

They saw 20 patients in Lautoka on Saturday. A kid had a lump on his head and a three-month baby had a brain tumour.

In Suva yesterday, they saw 22 children and about seven would need surgery which starts with three patients tomorrow.

Local consultant Dr Ganesh Rao said the problem was getting people to the doctor as soon they started to suffer from constant headaches or abnormal growth of the head.

"The problem is prevalent in Fijians who tend to accept the sickness in the dying stages," he said. "And when they come to us, it is too late, and many times when we want to do things for them, they refuse also. But now because the people have become more aware of the neurosurgical disease, they are coming to us."

Copyright © 2004, Fiji Times Limited. All Rights Reserved.
Used with Permission
images supplied by Sai Medical Unit, © Sai Medical Unit, 2005