Expedition Site Staff: A doctor's insight into volunteering...
Added to website: 29 June 2007
A Different Kind of Disease Altogether
‘Why not look into that diving company that so-and-so worked for?’ a friend of mine suggested to me late last year when I was complaining that I’d had it with general practice, a full six months after completing my VTS training. With the wonderful power of hindsight I can definitely say it was one of her better ideas as I’m writing this now on a deserted beach in Tobago.
During one of my lengthy locum lunch-breaks I visited the Coral Cay Conservation website which was advertising jobs for medics in the Philippines and here. My mind was made up before I’d finished looking at the web-page. That same day I completed the on-line application form, attached my CV & a covering email to the director of operations in London & had fixed up an interview date.
Coral Cay Conservation is a non-governmental organisation “providing resources to help sustain livelihoods and alleviate poverty through the protection, restoration and management of coral reefs and tropical forests”. The projects are run by a core of five voluntary staff members (including a medic) who come out for anywhere from 3-6 months depending on the post, and any number of volunteers who pay to be dive trained, science trained & then participate in the surveying, for 3 weeks minimum. Medics are required for safety purposes at the marine sites because of the amount of diving that is done & the remoteness of some of the sites. CCC employs doctors and nurses with expedition training/experience or A&E experience, and paramedics. All staff must have a minimum of PADI Advanced Diver certification but training is available on-site for a greatly reduced rate.
The Tobago site is a new venture and being here to help set things up has been an interesting challenge. The MO’s role involves “providing health care and emergency medical treatment to all Company personnel, expedition Volunteers and counterparts, and the maintenance and stock control of the Company’s medical supplies and equipment”.
My knowledge of diving medicine was confined to what I’d seen in films or the gory stories I’d heard when I learnt to dive a few years ago. Before I came out here I had nightmares that I’d be dealing with a never-ending stream of shark and deadly jellyfish attacks and complicated cases of the bends or lung over-expansion injuries that I’d misdiagnose. Three months down the line I’m relieved to say that that isn’t the case at all; the one victim of a portugese man of war was the scuba instructor who had a wealth of experience in such matters & knew immediately what to do. There’s plenty of literature about diving medicine should you need or desire to consult it, as well as the specialists at the Diving Diseases Research Centre (DDRC) in Plymouth that you can contact anytime if you have a problem, and often some very experienced staff on site who are happy to offer advice as required.
The volunteers are generally young and fit (they have to get health clearance from the DDRC before they are permitted to join an expedition) and most of them have done the decent thing and not got sick whilst I’ve been out here. Officially I have surgeries for half an hour before meals but in reality I’m available throughout the day for advice or consultations, most of which are wound-based (cuts, bites, stings) or ear problems.
An average day for me involves helping out with the usual expedition tasks (meals, washing up, tidying & cleaning), overseeing the hygiene and safety on-site (are the toilets & kitchen being cleaned to my satisfaction and has there been an outbreak of D&V overnight?), helping to ensure that things are running as they should (food and alcohol deliveries as expected, chores being completed, survey forms & dive logs filled in), diving once or if I’m lucky twice a day doing reef surveys & data collection or at least being around or available whilst the volunteers are diving in case of any problem. There’s also usually some time during the day for a sot of “liming”, Tobago’s favourite past-time of just relaxing, with colleagues, book, iPod or latest copy of the BMJ (?!).
I’ve been here for 10 weeks now and have another 4 to go, predictably enough the time has really flown by. There are certain things that I miss from home; Lindt chocolate, decent tea & coffee, a nice glass of Chablis or the latest series of CSI, but emergency relief parcels from friends & family at home usually ease those cravings adequately. On the plus side, I haven’t even thought about NICE, QOF, appraisal or my accounts for over 2 months. I’ve erased from memory all of the normal values for FBC, U&Es & LFTs and replaced them with pudding-wife wrasse, knobby brain coral, flamingo tongues & Christmas tree worms. I can spot coral and gorgonian disease a mile off and I know what makes a healthy reef and when it’s in trouble. The biggest stress here is sitting on the toilet & discovering nobody has replaced the old loo-roll or realising we’re getting low on porridge oats.
This expedition has helped me see that being a GP doesn’t mean spending the next 30 years banging my head on the desk repeatedly in a portacabin consulting room in Barnsley. CCC is just one of many charities that have projects requiring medics and if you’re prepared to work as a volunteer you can go pretty much anywhere in the world for as long as you wish.
Working here has added a new dimension to my persona – I am now Lou the conservationist, and I hope to remain so.CCC has helped to turn me into a more than competent diver & made me much more aware of the threat that the reefs are under as a result of pollution, climate change & habitat destruction. I’ve met some inspiring people and made good friends, added to which I have a wicked tan!
Would I recommend this to other medics? Definitely. Would I consider working for CCC again? Well I’m off to Uganda for 2 years in July to volunteer with Hospice Uganda but perhaps the Philippines marine project will be calling me when I return, after a week or two back in that portacabin in Barnsley.
If you have any questions regarding Coral Cay Conservation that are not answered on the website www.coralcay.org please email info@coralcay.org or contact me at loumillington@doctors.org.uk
