The picture of a thousand medevacs
Beautiful Borneo - hundreds of miles of uninhabited jungle. There are absolutely no roads to the village where we are flying. The only way in and out is by plane. Story and photos by Matt and Ellie Sheer.
Beautiful Borneo - hundreds of miles of uninhabited jungle. There are absolutely no roads to the village where we are flying. The only way in and out is by plane. Story and photos by Matt and Ellie Sheer.
Today’s flight is an emergency medevac. We were getting ready to go on an anniversary date to celebrate ten years of marriage, when Matt got a call requesting him to do an urgent medevac. A patient from one of the interior villages was in need of help.
Matt wasn’t technically on call that day, but as the only pilot checked out to fly to this particular village it fell to him. I went along with him and it was great to finally see my husband in action, doing what he does on a daily basis.
Approaching the valley in the Cessna 206, we saw the village of Long Rungan below us.
We soon landed and taxiing up the grass airstrip towards the groups of waiting children who had come to greet us.
Men from the village carried the patient, the former village pastor, to the aircraft.
The pastor had apparently suffered extremely high blood pressure during the night and started to hallucinate.
The entire village surrounded the patient to pray before he was gently lifted into the plane.
Matt secured the patient into the aircraft. He was taken to a hospital in a larger city so that he could receive the care that he needed.
We were soon on our way to hospital.
MAF provides vital aviation and radio communications services to churches, Christian missions and NGOs serving in villages isolated by mountains and rain forests
With excellent short take-off and landing performance, the 206 is ideal for short, rugged bush airstrips
Illness, accidents and childbirth complications can be catastrophic for those living in remote and isolated areas. Hours or days of overland travel to reach the hospital are not an option for those with life-threatening medical problems
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