Caring in a war zone
"It was so raw. I just couldn't stop crying"
Posted By DONNA DANYLUK
Posted 3 months ago
Andrea Bereczky watched helplessly as the Afghan father cradled his dying child.
She listened as he quietly prayed to Allah.
This would be his third son to die in as many months.
And this would be the one moment that would break this seasoned nurse's heart.
After serving more than six weeks of a three-month term as an ICU nurse at the Canadian Forces Base Hospital in Kandahar, this would be the first time the war in Afghanistan really got to her.
It all came crashing down in this scene on Christmas Day 2008.
The reality of war played out in the face of a five-year-old boy with an untreatable head trauma, causing him excruciating
RVH H1N1 update
Royal Victoria Hospital remains on heightened alert and continues to enforce rigorous infection control protocols in the wake of an increasing number of H1N1 cases in the community.
What is the current situation?
The hospital continues to see unusually high numbers of patients in its emergency department. Approximately 30% of those patients are coming to the ER with flu-like symptoms, with a significant number of them being young people under 17.
Because H1N1 is the predominant strain of influenza that is currently circulating in the community, most patients visiting emergency departments across Canada with flu symptoms are no longer being tested. If they have the flu, it is most probable that they have H1N1.
If I am experiencing flu-like symptoms, should I visit the emergency department?
The majority of patients coming to RVH's Emergency Department have minor flu-like symptoms and the treatment they received could have been delivered at their family doctor's office or an urgent care clinic. If you think you, or your child, is suffering from the flu, your
pain, and in the sorrow found in the eyes of his father who knew his child would not live to his next birthday.
"It was so raw. I just couldn't stop crying," said Bereczky, a registered nurse at Royal Victoria Hospital. "I thought I was coping better than that and then this happened. I couldn't even put into words how devastating it was to watch this man prepare to bury his third child."
"The boy had been critically wounded in an explosion that took place in his village. His two brothers had already been killed in a similar incident that sent his mother to a local hospital with a severe limb injury.
As emotional as it was to watch this scene unfold, it is what Bereczky had come to Kandahar to do.
She was there to ease the pain of those suffering and on this night all she could do was
first step should be to try the self-assessment tools available from the Ministry of Health website www.health.gov. on.ca, or call Telehealth Ontario.
What is RVH doing to reduce the spread of H1N1 within the hospital?
RVH has a well-developed pandemic plan which includes comprehensive measures to protect patients and staff, as well as reduce the spread of the virus.
administer what little pain medication she could to a suffering child, and shed tears alongside a grieving father.
And it has changed her.
"This experience has opened my eyes to the possibilities in life. I've learned not to put limits on myself," she said.
"And I've become very intolerant of people who complain about small, insignificant, nonlife threatening things like the long lineup at the bank or traffic jams."
Bereczky, who has worked at RVH for 24 years in both the emergency department and the intensive care unit, first learned about the opportunity to practice nursing in Kandahar through her contacts as trauma instructor at CFB Borden.
Some of these measures include:
All visitors and patients entering through the hospital's main entrance are asked to self-screen based on the instructions provided.
Nurse screeners are stationed at the entrance to the Emergency Department to assess potential patients arriving with flu-like illness, including fever, cough, shortness of breath, sore throat, muscle and joint pain, and headache
Patients with flu-like symptoms
"When I first heard about this opportunity I was dead set against anyone volunteering to do something like this. It was too risky," she said.
"Why would anyone send themselves into a theatre of war if they were not trained for that? But then looking back, everything I had done in my nursing career 18 to 24 months prior to going to Kandahar was leading me in that direction."
She investigated the opportunity further and changed her mind completely.
"Once I decided that this was something I wanted to do, I became totally passionate about it," she said.
"I love challenges."
must wash their hands, wear a mask and are isolated to one area of the ER waiting area
Staff caring for patients with flu-like symptoms are wearing masks, face protection (goggles), gloves and gowns
Written self-screening surveys must be completed by any visitors entering Paediatrics, Obstetrics, the Birthing Unit and the Special Care Nursery
Any patients with flu-like symptoms who are booked for an outpatient appointment should call ahead to the appropriate hospital department to determine if their procedure needs to be re-scheduled.
For the safety of our patients RVH's Visitor Policy is being strictly enforced. General visiting hours are 2 p. m. to 8 p. m. with no more than two visitors at a time, per patient.
Currently no children under 12 may visit. If you are ill, please do not visit a patient in the hospital. To date, almost 2,000 RVH staff members, physicians and volunteers have received an H1N1 flu shot.
Can I get the H1N1 vaccine at the hospital?
RVH does not provide flu shots to the general public. For a list of clinic locations, visit the Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit's website at www.smdhu.org.
HEALTH: Booth set up at Georgian Mall Hospital expansion
plans take road trip
BARRIE -- Royal Victoria Hospital has hit the road to let people know how the facility's long-awaited expansion is going.
The RVH Travelling Road Show has set up in the community booth at Georgian Mall.
The "show" features an entertaining and informative video on the Phase 1 Expansion Project, which includes the Simcoe Muskoka Regional Cancer Centre.
RVH volunteers, also known as the "Blue Brigade" are on hand to answer questions, as will staff from RVH's corporate communications department.
"The Phase 1 expansion Project is the largest capital project in the history of Simcoe Muskoka and will transform health care for this entire region," RVH president and CEO Janice Skot said, in a release.
"We want to share our success with the community, and, through our valued partnership with Georgian Mall, we are able to demonstrate the progress, through video and photographs, to the people who have supported this hospital for so long."
Visitors to the mall are invited to stop by the booth, watch a video of the construction of their new hospital and receive the latest information on the expansion.
The volunteers and staff manning the booth will answer questions and for those questions that require a bit of research or more details, they can fill out a form and have their questions answered in a timely fashion.
"Once expansion construction is complete in 2012, significant renovations will begin on the existing hospital. By 2013, the work will be complete and Royal Victoria Hospital will be better able to meet the needs of this growing region," Skot said.
The booth, which was set up Thursday in the lower level by the food court, will be at Georgian Mall today until 6 p. m.
Following an exhaustive interview process which took more than a year, Bereczky received training for her mission at CFB Kingston. There she was familiarized with cultural differences she may experience and given a crash course on mine sweeping and how to disarm an AK47 rifle.
She was also introduced to various weapons and explosives, but not so she knew how to use them, but rather to learn what kinds of injuries they would inflict.
"They wanted me to be aware of what types of injuries I would be dealing with," she said.
Then on Nov. 11, 2008, the nurse from RVH took a three-month leave of absence and was subcontracted to the Canadian Military as a Civilian ICU Nurse and officially deployed to Kandahar.
Equipped with her military jacket, helmet and bulletproof vest, Bereczky travelled to Germany and then Dubai before taking a Canadian Forces Hercules aircraft to CFB Kandahar and begin putting her nursing skills to use in a war zone.
"Along the way. It did cross my mind that I was actually flying into a theatre of war," she said, adding that exhaustion due to the length of travel took over and soon all she could think about was getting some rest.
She would soon find herself working alongside military medical personnel, as well as civilian nurses like herself.
Kandahar was not what she expected. It was very sandy, very bright and 30 degrees Celsius. The base hospital was modern, with departments similar to a Canadian hospital and care as comparable. This was not the case in the local hospitals.
"That is where the reality of the country's health-care system slapped you in the face. The difference in care given to certain segments of the population was stark," she said.
"The standard of care we provided was the same as any hospital in Canada, but when our patients left the base that just wasn't the case."
Bereczky's job was to assess and triage massive casualty patients. Afghan nationals would be stabilized and sent to one of the local hospitals, while Canadian soldiers requiring treatment not available at the base would be sent to Germany.
"We saw many injuries from explosives. There were lots of traumatic amputations and head injuries -- nothing like I've ever seen before, and lots of pediatric patients," she said, adding they were the ones that were the hardest to handle. "We treated anyone who was injured regardless of their background."
Although always on call, when she did had some time off, Bereczky would shop.
Local vendors would sell their wares and once done, Bereczky could munch on a burger from Burger King or sip a coffee from good old Tim Hortons, also located on the base. But there wasn't much down time.
"It was unnerving because I wasn't just working in a hospital -- it was a war zone," she said. "I never really slept that soundly because you always had to be on alert and ready for anything. I was always aware of enemy forces around us."
Now home, and after taking some time to process what she had experienced, Bereczky's back to work at RVH.
"It was kind of surreal coming home, almost like the other hospital didn't really exist."
Would she go back? "In a heartbeat."
Donna Danyluk is with RVH's corporate communications office
