Scott Ferris, MD, is a family physician from Mountain Home, Arkansas. He spent one month in the Aceh Province of Indonesia as a volunteer with International Medical Corps providing emergency health services to survivors of the December 26th earthquake and tsunami.
The city of Banda Aceh is slowly awakening. Like the phoenix rising from the ashes, the city is coming alive. There are several hundred of organizations from around the world assisting the Acehnese and, very slowly, the devastation, the debris, the mud, the last remnants of destroyed homes are being removed.
The tsunami wiped out over half the city, and at last count, the local authorities listed 114,000 dead across Aceh Province with another 127,000 missing. Sadly, for the duration of my stay in Banda Aceh, large dump trucks continued unloading body bags into mass graves.
I came in with a team of 25 or so International Medical Corps volunteer doctors and nurses from all over the United States and spent the first week in mobile clinics at IDP (internally displaced persons) camps, providing primary health care and measles vaccinations.
But there was quickly a need for an additional doctor in the emergency room of Zainoel Abidin Hospital, which had been the main teaching hospital and largest general hospital in Banda Aceh and had lost some of its physicians and nurses to the tsunami.
We staffed the hospital 24 hours a day, treating everything from tuberculosis and aspiration pneumonia to tetanus, wounds, and trauma in everyone from three-month-old babies to 85-year-old senior citizens. There were a number of deliveries and, sadly, some deaths, mostly from motorcycle or automobile accidents.
It was, to say the least, a trial by fire with very little equipment, very few supplies, and very little medicine; flying by the seat of your pants. Nevertheless, it was a truly international relief effort, and I was proud to be part of a group of such dedicated volunteers with a singular spirit to help the Acehnese. There were Spanish doctors and emergency nurses, Chinese physicians and nurses, and even an Afghan orthopedic surgeon helping out.
Some of my fondest memories, however, will be of the Acehnese people themselves. I found them to be exceedingly kind, very generous, and most importantly, totally committed to their communities. They are devout Muslims and they loved the Americans and the international volunteers. They appreciated our assistance and offered profuse thanks for the treatment.
I think most people wonder what it must have been like to witness some of the most gruesome and devastating scenes of destruction imaginable, but the story I’m telling is something entirely different: I witnessed true ecumenical understanding. It was a profound experience, and one I will never forget.