Well, the good news is that Tiger was a good horse. The bad news is that he died the morning after our fantastic outing. The whole village knew this horse, he carried many sick people down safely from the high pass here. I asked our Nepali medical assistant Gobi if they bury dead horses in Nepal and he replied "yes". Then I went for a hike down by the river and saw a big dead Tiger lying on the bank of the river getting eaten by the vultures. Pretty grim.
I was feeling pretty down about that whole deal when I was told that a 60 year old British man collapsed on the trail 15 min away from the clinic. Several locals brought our portable stretcher down to get him. When he arrived, he was semi-conscious, clutching his L chest and had a pulse in the 30s. His friends told us he started having chest pain and fell down on the trail. We assumed this guy was having a heart attack (but didn't have a cardiac moniter or ECG to confirm it). After giving him some recsusitation meds to help boost his vital signs, he was given oxygen, aspirin, blood thinners, pain meds and a primitive nitroglycerin drip (with NTG exp date 2005!).
Our assistant Gobi was able to divert an already booked helicopter to come here ASAP. We had more local people help carry the patient by stretcher the 15min walk to the heli pad and he was flown directly to a hospital in Pokhara. We heard this morning that he survived the transport and after they confirmed his large inferior MI, he was miraculously able to receive thrombolytics (clot buster drugs) in the 6 hour timeframe for giving them. We were all very happy and amazed that he survived a big heart attack, not only in Nepal, but literally in the middle of nowhere. The photos show the patient being carried, Martin helping transport the portable O2, and Steven and Misty, our partners and new friends here, taking a last minute BP before sending the guy down.
Wow Lexi that's an incredible story. This is my first visit to your blog. WOW. Neat experience. Will continue to peruse. Thanks for sharing. Congrats on a great Save! Jenner
ReplyDeleteWay to go Lex!
ReplyDeleteMy Sympathies, Lexi , on Rainbow's death. You work sounds like being in an E R without most of the equipment and meds. And, it's great that Martin can be involved in the treatments, too.
ReplyDeleteYou look at little skinny, Martin, in the 2nd photo. Is it too many lentils?
I bought a new Dell computer with windows 7. The Geek Squad is coming next week to transfer the files from my old computer(wish you were here).
Today the weather is beautiful in MN. Most of the colorful leaves are gone now.
You're doing good work, the people in Nepal are lucky to have you both.
Bravo on the save, Sweetie! Can you hear your Grandma Bon somewhere saying, "Whoo-hoo! That's my girl!"
ReplyDeleteWe were saddened to hear about Tiger and we didn't even know the horse. What a sad end for a gallant stead who helped save lives. Life in the animal kingdom can be tough too.
Here's hoping the heli pilot has been able to smuggle some additional chocolate, coffee and Jamisons to you. I agree with Molly; you both look too thin!
MOM