How many different ways could we get hurt out here? What is the most dangerous, the most likely, or the least likely? Is it frostbite from having hands get wet and then be exposed to the brutal wind? Is it hypothermia from sleeping in poorly constructed trenches during happy camper school? Is it the bends from SCUBA divers coming up to the surface too quickly? Or is it a sprained ankle from jumping in and out of the track vehicles (which are actually pretty high up)? Or is it a wrenched back from lifting and lugging too much heavy stuff?
Hopefully nothing bad will happen to us (or anyone), though a couple of things have already happened. You saw the beautiful thumbs due to frostbite. This person is recovering nicely and, from the way she works and does everything, you can hardly tell that anything happened to her.
I am sad thought to have to announce that another member of our team has had a medical issue.
The ambulance at McMurdo- sadly one of our ICE AGED members was in it
This person was out at Happy Camper School, comfortable with many pads, blankets, and at least two sleeping bags inside a tent of some sort. Unfortunately a kidney stone decided to cause this person some excruciating pain. Our sturdy teammate dealt with the pain and patiently waited until his tent mate woke up before he asked him to help him walk the 1/4 mile to the instructors' hut. There, the instructors ordered an ambulance to evacuate him from Happy Camper School and bring him to the safety of the Medical clinic here in McMurdo. The physicians ran some tests, and, sadly, they have had to medivac him, which means they put him on a plane to New Zealand for more complete care.
Having a kidney stone means medevac to New Zealand for our ICE AGED team mate.
We are happy to hear that he is actually walking around Christchurch now, with a pee bottle in one hand and a water bottle in the other (skills we think he learned from Happy Camper School). He's waiting to pass the kidney stone and then we are all really, really hoping that he can come back to us. Let's keep our fingers crossed.
On that note, let's look at the medical and safety issues on this remote, harsh continent in more detail. It started with all of us having to PQ – be physically qualified by our doctors back at home before we even left. We had thorough dental check-ups complete with Xrays, we had physicals with cardiograms, and we had all kinds of lab tests to make sure we were fit. The people staying the winter also need to pass a psychological exam. Then we had a week of training sessions not only about how to operate vehicles, but also how to be safe out here. We also learned how to check out and in with the radios whenever we leave the station in case anything big happens. Do you remember what happens if we are 5 minutes late? 1 hour late? They really do watch out for us!
If something does happen we have a firehouse and a medical clinic here in town to help us. The firehouse operates 24 hours a day all year and responds to fire, rescue, ambulance, hazardous material, and airport rescue fire fighting incidents. According to their website the operations divisions within the Fire Department responds to an average of about 200 incidents like fires, Medevacs, hazardous material releases, rescues per year within our greater McMurdo area.
McMurdo clinic with the fire engine
There is also a professional 911 emergency dispatch communications center in McMurdo that collects information about emergencies over the phones and radios, including from the 911 lines, then quickly processes and makes decisions about where, what, and who is to be sent on the response.
I decided to investigate the clinic and the people working in it further, so I arranged a tour of our medical clinic. Kressley Gun, the one and only dentist here at McMurdo, was one of the people who first greeted me. Kressley is a dentist in Australia and found out about becoming a dentist in Antarctica by talking to a friend, googling “Antarctica Dentist”, and finding a fellow Australian dentist with similar credentials working here in Antarctica. She applied for the job through Raytheon, got it, and is now here as our only dentist.
She says she mainly cleans people’s teeth. Of the approximately 200 people who wintered over, she cleaned the teeth of about 100 of them. She is also there for us if we have toothaches though if we have any serious issue such as rotten teeth under crowns, root canals, or even bigger cavities, we have to get sent back to New Zealand to get treated properly. She said she can’t do these bigger things as she doesn’t have a dental assistant. However, she is training the other doctors to do emergency dentistry so the crew down at South Pole, who don’t have a designated dentist, can get basic emergency dental care. Kressley says being a dentist down here is different in just a couple of ways. Mainly the instrumentation is different for her because, as an Aussie, she is not used to American equipment. Otherwise, she’s happy that she is much more a part of a medical team and is also learning about medical stuff like taking x-rays of body parts that are not teeth.
Jessie Fudge, one of the 3 physicians here at McMurdo, then gave me some basic information about the medical patients.
Two of the three physicians - Jessie and Harry
She said that most people go to the clinic for what is know as the McMurdo crud – basically a cold! To me this was interesting as there are signs in every bathroom reminding us to wash our hands, as we all had to have the flu shot (though it was the southern hemisphere version- why would that make a difference?), and as there is even a special sink and a special soap dispenser we need to use when we head to the galley to eat.
Jessie said that they haven’t had many injuries related to the extreme weather conditions, though every year they have a few happy campers return from their outdoor survival school with either hypothermia or frostbite. Every year a couple of people get evacuated out to New Zealand for various reasons but most of what she deals with, besides the crud, is just bumps and cuts from falls and overuse injuries. Lastly, Jessie deals with blood pressure issues and preventative care and conducts various safety trainings.
Jessie also kindly gave me a tour of the medical clinic. There is 1 private examination room that has an actual door and 2 others that just have curtains. There are three inpatient beds with curtains where patients can stay for the night and, if they do, then there is a room for the doctor to stay with them. There is also a pharmacy and a pharmacy tech who can provide us with all the basic medication. If we need long-term prescriptions or more unique medication, we do have to request it from New Zealand.
The private examination room at McMurdo Medical Clinic
The inpatient room at McMurdo Medical Clinic
What medicine do we need? They have all kinds.
There is also a physical therapy room where a physical therapist takes care of, again, mostly overuse injuries from people not lifting things properly or the people that have chronic issues such as bad backs and are suddenly faced with lifting and carrying heavy, cumbersome objects six days a week. There is also a hyperbaric chamber for SCUBA divers who might have the bends. Luckily it has not been used this year though supposedly it was used about 3 years ago.
The hyperbaric chamber used to treat divers who have the bends
Lastly there are stock rooms with basic supplies, an x-ray room, a lab with a lab tech, and office rooms for the medical staff.
Yes they can take xrays at McMurdo.
What medical supplies could we need? They have a roomful.
There are also rooms for 3 air force surgeons, who are not actually surgeons but who are a flight nurse, a flight tech, and an emergency room physician, specially designated for the pilots.
We are lucky to have this clinic here in town as if anything bad happened, not only do we have a set of 11 fully-trained professionals taking care of us, but we also have the airplanes ready to take us to the bigger hospitals in Christchurch - weather permitting that is.
Hopefully we will only see the inside of the ambulance or the hospital for more tours and the rest of our season goes without further medical issues. Lastly, we hope our missing team mate recovers quickly. We miss him already.