THE Ministry of Health and Roraima Airways collaborated on Sunday evening to air-dash a critically injured teenager to the city for emergency medical attention, in the process successfully conducting the first medivac from the Kamarang area in the Mazaruni Mountains of Region 7 in 18 years.

Calford George had been bitten by a venomous parrot snake on Saturday afternoon; and as his condition worsened, the decision was taken to have the 16-year-old flown to the city.
Medical evacuation is not uncommon in Guyana. Veteran Roraima Airways pilot Captain Alvin Clarke, who was ably assisted by his wingman, Guyana Defence Force ace pilot Paul Dalgetty, ascended the skies from a desolate Ogle International Airport at just about 20:30hrs on Sunday. Small planes generally don’t fly at night in Guyana, and with good reason. Hence the virtual ‘ghost town’ appearance of the Ogle Airport as Captain Clarke taxied the Roraima plane along the runway and triggered the roaring engines, lifting the pilots and me into the night skies en route to Kamarang to do the medivac operation.

Deathly skies
Flying above the capital city at night brings with it a particularly refreshing view of the Garden City’s illuminated buildings and roadways; but, within minutes, it was clear that the task at hand was not for the weak at heart. Nevertheless, with help of a global positioning system (GPS) the pilots made their way to Kamarang in Region 7 for the just-under-an-hour-and-a-half flight into the awesome mountainous area of Kamarang.
The weather was clearly in favour of the mercy mission, but the absence of any pinpoint of light made things somewhat more difficult.
The best positioning system in the world, along with the most accurate measuring meters, indicating altitude, airspeed and other critical data, could only do so much as the parallel streaks of light appeared, indicating a runway in the abysmal darkness. Considered one of the most dangerous places to land in Guyana, even in bright daylight, Captain Clarke had to literally put the aircraft down between two mountains into the valley below; and with a skill that comes only with years of experience, he gracefully positioned the plane in the centre of the barely visible runway lights.
With no other glimpse of light for miles around, the plane glided along the runway, and I then realized that the lights were from flambeaux, bottle lamps with flaming wicks.
The plane landed just before 22:00 hrs, and the massive community effort was evident. A crowd of men, women and children had come out in the dark night to lend a hand. The 16-year-old, whose life had been hanging in the balance as he slipped in and out of consciousness, was at the side of the runway with saline in his arm, a nurse by his side, and a community for support.
Calford’s swollen body was lifted on a mattress into the plane, and soon the engines were revving and the craft lifted again into the dark night, away from the flickering flambeaux and the quiet crowd, perhaps silently praying that the teenager would soon be back in the area alive and well.
Snake bites are not an uncommon thing in the dense jungles of the Mazaruni mountains, but Calford had been bitten by one of the more venomous snakes in the region — the Parrot Snake. He had been out on Saturday foraging for firewood, and fishing when he was bitten, but it took him a day’s travel to get to the Medical Centre at Kamarang.
A few injections, a saline solution and some comfort were the most that could have been done in the interior region, as his condition quickly deteriorated. George had on his legs quite a few lesions unrelated to the snake bite; but the anticoagulant properties of the venom caused the teenager to begin bleeding profusely from every single breakage in his skin; and worse, his chest began to swell. His hands lips and other parts of his body were swollen, and he panted for breath as Captain Clarke and his wingman Dalgetty navigated their way out of the valley through the treacherous mountains and headed for the Ogle Airport, where an ambulance was waiting.
He had been bitten shortly before sunset on Saturday night in the Chumanow Village in the Upper Mazaruni; and had to be taken by boat to Kamarang, before being air-dashed to the city for medical attention.
The plane landed at the Ogle Airport just before 23:30hrs on Sunday; and as it taxied to the Roraima Airways lounge, Chairman of the airline, Captain Gerry Gouveia, emerged, along with ambulance attendants. Captains Gouveia and Clarke, along with the attendants, quickly removed the teenager from the plane and placed him in the waiting ambulance to be whisked away to the Georgetown Public Hospital.

Unsung Hero
A truly modest, unsung hero, who can be considered a special person by any stretch of the imagination, Captain Clarke said the main thing always at the back of his head on such a mission is to try and save the life.
Breathing a bit heavily, having just completed his mercy mission, Captain Clarke said that whenever he receives such a call, his immediate aim is always to “execute the extraction and get the sick person out as quickly as (I) possibly can.”

Mercy Missions
Captain Gouveia explained that, on average, the airline undertakes about five such mercy missions a month; and he spoke of the last time such a mission had been undertaken from the particularly treacherous terrain of Kamarang in the Mazaruni mountains. According to Captain Gouveia, on the previous occasion, he had been the pilot, and ‘the patient’ turned out to be ‘patients’ — a pregnant woman who was enduring a particularly difficult birthing.
The child had started to emerge by its legs, the wrong way, and this made the procedure more alarming.
Gouveia recalled it was a rainy night when the woman had been air-dashed out, and soon the mother and child were both doing well. He fondly recalled, after successfully completing Sunday’s mercy mission, that recently, while in the area, a man approached him and introduced him to a young man and asked, “You know this boy?” Responding in the negative, Captain Gouveia said, he was quickly reminded of the flight done 18 years ago to rescue a mother and her baby.
The young man had been named Gerry Gouveia Gavin, a fitting note of appreciation for the aviator who has been a part of conducting mercy missions into the interior for just about 40 years now.
He also explained that little is known about the massive preparation and administrative support necessary to conduct such missions, apart from having an experienced, skillful, and moreso courageous pilot, ready to take to the skies at the sound of the alarm, be it day or night.
For security reasons, such missions would also see the Guyana Police Force, the Guyana Defence Force, the Customs Anti-Narcotics Unit, and other such agencies being notified and placed on standby.