CMAT Team #5, (second funded by CIDA) to deploy to Pakistan on Friday, Nov. 25
Dr. Lynda Redwood-Campbell assessing a child in a village near Muzaffarabad.
November 23, 2005: CMAT announced today that it is sending its fifth Canadian Medical Assistance Team (CMAT) to Pakistan quake affected territories on Friday, November 25. Team 5 will be the second CIDA-funded team that CMAT is deploying after being awarded $190,000 CAD from the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) this month.
The funding from CIDA represents matching funds for Pakistan Quake Relief given to CMAT and will be used to support its medical teams to Islamabad hospitals and CMAT field hospitals in and outside of Muzzafferabad, Pakistan, over the next 6 months. CMAT is coordinating its efforts with the Rotary Club of Islamabad, the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) in Islamabad, as well as CIDA staff and the UN Health Cluster in Muzzafferabad.
Team #5 will be departing for Islamabad from the Pakistan International Airlines ticket counter in Terminal #3 at Pearson International Airport in Toronto at 1700hrs (check in at 1400hrs).
CMAT Paramedic Elizabeth Grant retrieves supplies from a tent funded by Mercy USA.
CMAT established a wound care clinic at the UN compound which will also serve as a base of operations for deployment of additional teams. CMAT is currently in talks with officials at the UN Health Cluster on deployment of its advanced inflatable tent hospital to remote areas in the Kashmir region accessible only by helicopter. Many of these remote areas have not seen any medical attention as yet. The mobile hospital will feature advanced battery-powered electronic medical equipment and medical supplies all funded 100% by Michigan-based Mercy-USA from a $22,000 USD grant awarded to CMAT. Medications for the mobile hospital will partly come from Montreal-based Health Partners International through their popular “Physician Travel Pack” program.
CMAT Nurses Maida Hotilovac (left) and Jeanette Van Minnen (right) remove a cast in Muzaffarabad.
Over 80,000 persons have died since the devastating October 8 quake with a second wave of deaths expected when the cold weather arrives in the area.
Team #5 is includes the following six individuals: Dr. Ron McMillan (Head of Emergency Medicine, Cambridge Hospital, Professor McMaster University, from Burlington, Ontario), Ms. Tara Newell (CMAT Field Project Coordinator, SPHERE trained, from London, Ontario), Ms. Jane Been (Nurse, Belmont, Ontario), Ms. Krista Moore (Ortho/Trauma Nurse , Trenton, Ontario), Ms. Nicole Menard (ICU/CCU Nurse, Cambridge, Ontario), Ms. Carolyn Davies (Nurse Practitioner, Amherstburg, Ontario).
CMAT is urgently appealing for volunteers for subsequent missions in the following specialties: physicians (primary care/mental health), nurses (wound care, public health, primary care and mental health), physiotherapists, orthotic/prosthetic specialists, social workers/counsellors (culturally/religiously appropriate and sensitive.) All volunteers are requested to make a minimum three week commitment and are requested to be prepared to foot own airfare bills (to save on administrative expenses – tax receipts will be issued in accordance with CCRA guidelines). CMAT has funds available from CIDA to offset airfare expenses for deployments of three weeks or more.
