Australian Army surgeons draw on previous tsunami relief experience

By Pte Shannon Joyce, Directorate Defence Newspapers - filed 07 January 2005

THE Australian Army Medical teams from 1 Health Support Battalion (1HSB) currently treating casualties of the tsunami in Banda Aceh, have dealt with injuries from this type of disaster before.

Army surgeons from the Parachute Surgical Team (PST) are drawing on their previous experience gained in the town of Aitape, Papua New Guinea, when a tsunami struck, as a result of an earthquake off the north coast in July 1998.

1 HSB Executive Officer Major Eraine La Gelle said she has quite a few personnel in Banda Aceh and Medan, who were sent to the tsunami in PNG.

"A PST was immediately deployed [to Aitape PNG] on news of the disaster, and did a phenomenal amount of operations," she said.

But it never fully prepares you for the types of casualties that come from such a horrific disaster that faces our surgeons here in Sumatra at the moment.

Major La Gelle said aside from broken bones and wounds, tsunami victims inhale filthy water into their lungs, which can cause pneumonia.

"At the moment people are dying 10 days after the disaster because of massive lung infections," she said.

Major La Gelle said due to the delay in some casualties reaching medical assistance, the standard Red Cross principles of infection control are being applied.

"This treatment involves leaving wounds open, keeping them open, and cleaning them out every couple of days surgically, until the wound is clean, and then the wound is closed up," she said.

"This principle of delayed wound closure is a very well established one, which had been developed through the wars, and is a very basic system of war surgery that works."

1 HSB medical teams have responded to a number of crisis in recent times, with personnel recently deployed to the Niue cyclone last year; treatment of Bali bombing victims, and peace-monitoring deployments.

Major La Gelle said that none of these deployments, especially the current Operation Sumatra Assist, would be possible without the reserve surgeons and anaesthetists.

"This whole effort would have fallen apart if it wasn't for them," she said.