Backpack Medics: Saving Lives
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Planet Care
801 Cedar Street
Suite 200
Berkeley, CA 94710
510-594-4027
info@planetcare.org
This refugee family lives outside under a canopy. They cook their meals over a wood fire. Their only chance for medical care is the arrival of a mobile medical team.The mobile medic teams save lives in many ways, both dramatic and subtle. They provide trauma care and other kinds of help in extreme medical emergencies. These life-saving feats give these medics credibility among the people they serve. They then use this credibility to instill daily habits of sanitation and good health. It is these long-lasting habits that will in the end save many more lives.
Horrors such as land-mine injuries can be treated by the medics using the most rudimentary of tools. Donated Leatherman multitools have been used to perform amputations and save lives. Meanwhile, by distributing mosquito nets and training families in their use, these indigenous medics have had extreme success in lowering rates of malarial infection. Using skits and role-playing, they teach lessons about sanitation and other good health-care practices. You can read about some of these successes in "Stories from Health Workers".
Copyright Planet Care
