Israel Solomon needed urgent travel to hospital after he severed one finger and injured two more, whilst working on a circular saw. MAF in Tanzania flew the timely medevac.
Dirk Frykowski had to pick up his phone and make a call we all hope we never have to make. His work colleague Israel Solomon had just suffered a horrid accident in the workshop and required an emergency medevac.
Thankfully Dirk, a German missionary working in the Malambo region, knew just who to call – MAF had assisted his organisation Help for the Maasai in various ways over the years.
Help for the Maasai is an NGO that aims to provide education to Maasai children. In Malambo, their school has a total of 800 students. Purposefully, two thirds of the students enrolled are girls, as boys have more opportunities for schooling in the traditional Maasai culture, often leaving the girls at home with no education. Beyond education, the organisation provides medical clinics, evangelism and projects to empower women.
We immediately knew I needed urgent help and needed to be taken to a hospital.
Israel, a labourer in the Help for the Maasai workshop, describes the accident vividly.
“Whilst cutting wood, I injured three of my fingers. One finger was completely sliced off. On the other two, the skin was cut deep and there was a lot of blood.
“We immediately knew I needed urgent help and needed to be taken to a hospital,” said Israel.
The nearest hospital is a 4-hour drive away on rough dirt roads. However, this hospital has no surgery facilities or surgical staff, so the first option to save Israel’s fingers was to reach the city of Arusha for treatment – up to 8 hours away by road.
With a medevac request, time is always of the essence. Furthermore, Israel had no access to ice to preserve the injured region for surgery, giving further reason for urgency.
“I wasn't prepared for a flight that day; I had no uniform, no airport security pass, nothing with me at all,” said pilot Roshan Stephen.
“I immediately left the office, stopping by home on the way. I was in Malambo in two hours.”
“As soon as I landed there, I saw the car pull over and the patient was ready to go. My turn-around was only 15 minutes,” Roshan added.
“The first thing that I noticed was that Israel was very calm. I noticed that his bandage around the hand had a lot of blood. I was told he had received a lot of painkillers.”
Forty-five minutes later the Cessna 206 had landed in Arusha.
“When we arrived, his wife Grace seemed so relieved. To my surprise, she suddenly requested if we could pray. She wanted to thank God for making a way for Israel,” Roshan said.
“I was rushed to Totokea hospital,” Israel said. “They cared for me promptly. The surgery went on for about three hours to reattach my index finger.”
“My middle finger was severed completely and therefore it was not possible to save it,” he said.
“If it was somewhere else, all three fingers would have been lost,” said Grace. “But MAF and Help for the Maasai collaborated to ensure that we reached the right hospital on time. We are so grateful.”
I also thank the MAF team for supporting to me to get urgent treatment.
“I thank God because now I am doing well,” Israel said on his return flight home with MAF.
“I also thank the MAF team for supporting to me to get urgent treatment.”
To Roshan, this was his first ever medevac flight with MAF.
“As a pilot, when you fly a medevac, you get to see how you're making a difference in those people's lives. To me, this was the most overwhelming flight.”