VHMM Day 4, Part 1 - Storm Surge (Salvacion, Sagkahan)

Vietnamese Houston Medical Mission
Day 4

8:50 AM – Just boarded the bus. We got a late start today because the leadership was discussing the merits of adding Barangay 70, the ship graveyard, to the list of places where we’re going to provide help. We visited Barangay 70 yesterday on our way home. While the place was still in shambles, it was also apparent that they were visible to the outside world because they've been getting a lot of local and foreign tourists visiting to see the ships. Crowd control and general safety is also a concern.

It’s been decided that we’re going to switch up our schedule. We’ll start with Baragay Salvacion, head to Sagkahan to deliver gifts, have lunch at home, and then head to Barangay 70. We were supposed to host a clinic at Sagkahan, but we swapped that out for Barangay 70 because we found out that Barangay 70 truly was far more underserved than expected. Safety is a concern, but we have Dr. Salivar's word that we'll be safe.

We have to go where the need is greatest.

10:00 AM – We’re at Barangay Salvacion, the first town of today’s work. We have to host the clinic outside today, which will make for another hot and exhausting day. Nevertheless, we're ready to work.

We’re down a doctor for the rest of the trip. Mai Khanh, our pediatrician, left to resume her work with another mission trip in Vietnam as was originally planned. Thuy will now manage pediatrics, which means that she’ll have a long day ahead of her. Pediatrics always has the longest line.

We’re going to be in Salvacion for a couple of hours, and it looks like we’re going to get through all of the patients within a reasonable amount of time. Kelsey, one of our two nurses, has stepped in to take on her own patients and fill in for Thuy, who took over pediatrics. Kelsey tag-teamed with Dr. Bang over the past few days, so she knows the system well enough to see patients solo.

11:00 AM – We’re blazing through the line. Part of it is the size of the patient population for this town, and part of it is that we have our system down pat and we know how to respond to the range of ailments patients bring to the teams. I estimate that we’ll be done in an hour.

Danny, a reporter for an LA and Manila newspaper, asked me if there was anyone on the medical team who was also a refugee in Bataan. His eyes lit up when I told him about Thuy and her story. He went over to introduce himself. He wants to write a story about a Vietnamese missionary coming back to help the Philippines. Looks like Thuy will be his feature story.

We’re always out of alcohol wipes!

11:30 AM – I get word that the media team is going to visit with a man who lost 25 members of his family in the storm. Danny, a local and Stateside reporter, helped us make the introduction and visit, as he felt it would be a good story for us to hear.

Within minutes, the media team is in the back of a mini truck driving to this man’s house a short five-minute drive away.

At the house we come across two members of the Church of Latter Day Saints. They are a young woman and an older man, both from Utah. We noticed that they were laboriously rebuilding the house of a Filipino family. We caught them mid-swing of their hammer. They said that they and their fellow LSD members came to help rebuild 2,000 houses of their fellow LDS members.

We go into the man’s house. He’s sitting on his bed. Danny, the media guy, serves as our interpreter. We learn about what his life was like before, during, and after the storm. The man used to be a fisherman. His boat, along with his livelihood, was gone in an instant. In the days that followed the typhoon, he would learn how many of his family members had passed away. His wife and two of his children were spared. One of his children didn't make it.

He and his neighbors all received a warning about the storm as it was coming. Everyone was instructed to evacuate because of an impending "storm surge." However, no one knew what a "storm surge" was, so they didn’t know how to judge its severity. Either no one bothered to explain it, or no one bothered to ask. Regardless, most of the town opted to stayed put, which wound up being a terrible error. When the surge came, all they could do was get to higher ground and pray.

Danny told us about another woman in the same neighborhood who suffered a ghastly injury. He was able to get her to come over to the house to tell her story. During the storm, a metal rod sliced into her lower back, exposing her spine. It took four days for medical help to arrive for her. She was already feverous, and her wound was gangrenous. She was eventually transferred to a hospital in Manila, where she was amazingly able to make a full recovery. She showed us her scar. It lies right along her spine on her lower back.

12:15 PM – We head back to the truck to rejoin the mission team. They’ve already finished the clinic and have reached their next destination, Sagkahan, 10 minutes away from Salvacion. They’ve already finished giving out gifts to the kids, and they are preparing to give out gifts to the adults.

The line for the adults is long and doesn’t seem to end as more and more adults get word of our arrival and make their way over to see us.

We eventually get together to take a group phone. After that, we’re back on the bus to head home for lunch.

We stopped by another fruit stand close to the house. A few members are tasked with picking up some favorite fruits of the group. Dr. Bang is among that group (To Dr. Bang’s daughter…you predicted that, didn’t you ☺)