Life as an expedition medic
Added to website: 15 March 2003
David Wheeler looks back at his eventful time as a medical officer on 3 CCC expeditions.
I had to take early retirement four years ago as a result of chronic depression. I knew, from my experiences of SAD, that it would be imperative to avoid the British winter. I looked on the web and discovered Coral Cay Conservation (CCC) - a Not-for-Profit Organisation that works at the invitation of, and in partnership with, local stakeholders to conserve coral reefs and tropical rainforests. CCC depends on Volunteers to survey these habitats and collect vital biological data needed by host communities to develop effective conservation measures. The important thing from my point of view was that they have Medical Officers on all expeditions, who pay their fares out to the site but once there, are sustained by CCC.
Marine biological training
As I am a scuba diver, I chose a marine expedition, and was soon installed in a charming wooden house in the tiny capital town of the island of Utila in the Southern Caribbean off Honduras. I was subjected to 10 days’ intensive marine biological training, learning to identify some forty corals and a hundred or so fish species along with a number of invertebrates and algae and also how to perform surveys underwater. I then joined in with the Volunteers and, over the next three months, completed over one hundred dives.
Freedom to roam
Saturday night was always party night (no diving on Sundays!) and on Sundays I always spent time roaming through the mangrove swamps and rain forests, which cover the little island. My medical duties were not arduous, I maintained the stock in the extensive Medical Kit and dealt with a variety of minor illnesses, the odd high fever and an acute abdomen.
Desert Island
The next year found me on the truly remote desert island of Cagdanao in the Sulu Sea in the southern Philippines. This was quite a different kettle of fish (so to speak!) - the nearest human habitation was some hours away by sea and the camp had been wrecked by a typhoon! I had to start by building and furnishing my medical room and I then I installed the plumbing to the toilet block (including the WCs) and finally gave a hand to getting the radio communications and electrical generator to work. It was quite a relief when the Volunteers arrived and I could settle down to learning a complete new suite of marine organisms and head off surveying some of the most beautiful reefs in the world. Cagdanao has everything required of a desert island, peace, blue sea, golden beaches and palm trees and tropical rain forest on its tiny peak. One evening, we were all relaxing on the beach in front of the camp when we were surrounded by a tide of tiny turtle hatchlings making their way to the sea.
Dealing with emergencies in remote locations
I did have one serious emergency, when a young man developed a spreading cellulitis of his leg which showed no sign of responding to co-amoxiclav, shot a temperature of 41 degrees and then started to vomit. I rang his insurers in the UK to arrange evacuation and had the great pleasure of waking a young man in Brighton at 2am with the words “I am ringing you on a satellite phone from a desert island in the Philippines and I need a chopper!” It took many more phone calls before it was all fixed and even then, the chopper could not come that day as it had to do the return flight from Manila in daylight, so I fixed up a drip with some ceftriaxone and kept him going till the chopper came next morning. He ended up in hospital in Manila on 12g a day of co-amoxiclav i.v. and returned to the expedition a fortnight later. This young man has now returned to CCC as a Scuba Instructor and as a Science Officer.
Comparative Luxury in Fiji!
My last expedition, on an island off the coast of Fiji, was very civilised by comparison. We were living in a stone house with a resort just down the coast and were accompanied by easily available and excellent quality meat and fish. The culinary highlight was always Saturday nights - “lomu” night - fish and meat cooked on hot stones on the beach - delicious!!
Much like my previous expeditions, there was the great challenge of establishing a decent medical centre for the team. This time I just had to knock a few shelves and bunk beds together and we were in business. On more remote sites we would have to order medical supplies and get them brought out by the next bunch of Volunteers, but here we were lucky. Sulu, the provincial town was only an hour’s boat ride away and had a dentist and a hospital and medical supplies were readily available in the market.
Become a Medical Officer (MO) for Coral Cay
Coral Cay is always looking for Medical Officers for its expeditions in the Caribbean, South East Asia and Pacific Ocean. MOs may be registered doctors or nurse practitioners but should have current ALS or, preferably, ATLS. MOs on diving expeditions should already be PADI AOW or BSAC Ocean divers. Training is available on site up to PADI Divemaster. MOs for forest expeditions merely need stout legs. The normal expedition contract lasts for 14 weeks but may be extended by mutual agreement. All sites have a comprehensive medical kit capable of coping with any expected incident as well as with the mundane realities of General Practice. At a recent medical conference the medical kit list has been updated and procedures refined.
The sites on Utila and Cagdanao are now closed but there are expeditions on Roatan Island off Honduras, Leyte Bay in the Phillippines and Fiji, where satellite expeditions are being set up. New sites are being opened up all the time including the Malaysia, Yucatan (Mexico), Cuba and El Salvador. Forest expeditions are running on Negros Island in the the Philippines and the Perhentian islands in Malaysia.
I have no official position with CCC and they certainly are not paying me! I do know they are acutely in need of MOs and can unreservedly recommend them to a tired and jaded doctor in need of a break. For more information look at the staff vacancies page or contact James Sawyer at js@coralcay.org
David Wheeler
