ABOARD USS KEARSARGE -- A WITNESS TO DEVASTATION
When flying over the cobalt waters snaking through Bangladesh’s emerald landscape, one cannot imagine the devastation beneath. Wayside tents of reeds and colored cloth occupy land where proud villages once stood. The lucky ones returned home to a patch of barren earth after Tropical Cyclone Sidr struck southern Bangladesh, Nov. 15. For the unlucky ones, the storm “washed many of them away.”
“The storm smashed down our country,” said Bangladesh Army Lt. Mosil Arifit, a Bangladesh Army officer who witnessed the cyclone hit South Khali, a coastal village in southern Bangladesh. “Not only did the wind blow the roofs off the houses, but many of my countrymen gave their lives -- they could not make it to the shelter in time.”
The villagers buried their siblings, parents, and children, “here and there,” said Arifit. When possible, they “laid them down together.”
A tidal surge caused the water level to rise over 10 feet. Two weeks after the storm, the ground is soft and dry, and the air is clean and cool.
THEY CAME DOWN FROM ABOVE
Crowds of men, women and children gathered to watch Marine helicopters land in South Khali on Nov. 28. Women wore red, orange and gold, yellow, green, and black dresses. Many men wore button-down shirts and trousers. Most were barefoot.
From the two CH-46E Sea Knight helicopters stepped a nine-man medical team of Marines and Sailors from the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit (Special Operations Capable) and USS Kearsarge (LHD 3). They unloaded their supplies onto an awaiting caravan of three-wheeled bicycles and quickly established a makeshift medical clinic in South Khali, one of the region’s hardest-hit areas.
Hundreds of Bangladeshis awaited their turn to be seen. In the crowd, a woman dressed in dark colors cried as she cradled her eight-year-old boy. He peered tentatively from her arms as they sat at the edge of a crumbling cinderblock wall, her hand holding his splinted leg.
“The storm washed away three of my four sons,” said the woman by means of an interpreter. A flying branch struck her son’s leg during the storm. Winds gusted to more than 100 mph during Cyclone Sidr’s most violent phase.
She watched apprehensively while Petty Officer 2nd Class Louis B. Scott, a hospital corpsman, cut tape from the bamboo splint. The small woman tugged at the interpreter’s sleeve, nervously questioning him about her son’s leg.
“This is definitely something,” said Scott, a Gary, Ind. native and advanced medical lab technician aboard Kearsarge, as he removed the splint with concern on his face.
After careful treatment of her son’s wound, the woman’s tears dried and she left smiling when Lt. Cmdr. Lou C. Cimorelli said her son would be fine. His bone bruise would heal in time, but some would not be as lucky.
SOME WERE LEFT BEHIND
A team visiting Bamna, a small coastal village, also arrived to a throng of smiles and waving arms. However, the local medical clinic where the team set up shop was far less colorful.
Its pale blue paint had curled, flaked and gathered on the dusty floors for years. Sunlight sliced through the rusted bars lining the windows, casting slanted shadows in the cement room. More and more lined up outside.
“We had a little baby that was probably about a month old, and the mother died during childbirth,” said Petty Officer 2nd Class Sheldon T. Martin. “He was being cared for by a neighbor.”
The baby was severely dehydrated and in desperate need of medical attention, said Martin, a Savannah, Ga., native, and preventative medicine technician with Headquarters and Support Company, Battalion Landing Team, 3rd Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment. Unable to cry, the child lay unconscious and pale.
“The neighbor had two children of her own, so she was unable to take the infant to the hospital,” said Martin. “The child would have died if she couldn’t get it medical care.”
The Sailors, though doubtful their patient still had the reflex to swallow, used a syringe to feed the infant a few drops of liquid.
He swallowed and stirred.
The child cried weakly as his eyes opened below his deeply furrowed forehead.
“Every time you think you’ve really seen something, you’ll see something worse,” said Sheldon. “I’ve been to Iraq; this is far worse than Iraq.”
The doctors improved the baby’s condition, but more assistance was needed at a more capable facility. The neighbor allowed official from a relief agency to take the child to a hospital not far away.
“It was extremely heart rendering to realize that this baby could have passed away in the next 24 to 48 hours, and it still might – the child was just that sick,” said Cmdr. Dave J. Damstra, officer in charge of Fleet Surgical Team 4. “But at least we were able to intervene and give the child the best shot possible.”
THE FACE OF THE WORLD
“We had a little bit of a walk from the landing zone to the site where we were going to perform the mission, and the mayor was talking to me along the way,” said Damstra. “He said, ‘more important than any medical care that you’re going to give here, it helps to know the world cares -- you are the face of the world to my people.’”
Petty Officer 1st Class Tina N. Spain, a Kearsarge laboratory technician, fought back tears as she recalled her experiences at Rangabali.
“I think of my three kids back home, and these kids don’t even have a start in life,” said Spain. “It’s hard to picture infants who survive in these conditions.”
Spain’s team treated a one-year-old child with the symptoms “everybody was suffering from.” Patients had fever, diarrhea and dehydration. Infections were widespread, and the lack of antibiotics caused highly-curable rashes to cover entire adult bodies.
“It makes you feel like your whole time out here is worthwhile,” said Spain. “It really adds meaning to your life.”
“We had the rotary-wing assets to make a mission of this nature possible, which is what truly makes a MEU so unique and flexible,” said Lt. Cmdr. Trey Hollis, the 22nd MEU (SOC) chief surgeon, and officer-in-charge of the MEU-led missions.
Hollis visited six cities in seven days and “saw the path the storm took”. The storm washed away dirt roads and a loss of boats made the rivers impassable. Villages were geographically isolated from each other, even though they might be only three miles apart.
“The ability to get our medical teams into these geographically isolated and impoverished areas is the difference maker,” said Hollis, a Nashville native.
The diverse specialties and skill sets of the Kearsarge and 22nd MEU medical teams complimented each other flawlessly, said Hollis. When the teams hit the ground, they didn’t miss a beat.
“In the case of this disaster relief mission, we were one team,” he added.
The 22nd MEU (SOC) and Kearsarge are providing humanitarian aid to the victims of Tropical Cyclone Sidr, at the request of the Bangladesh Government, which made landfall on the country’s southern coast Nov. 15.
The 22nd MEU (SOC) consists of its Aviation Combat Element, Marine Medium Helicopter Squadron (HMM) 261; Ground Combat Element, Battalion Landing Team, 3rd Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment; Logistics Combat Element, Combat Logistics Battalion 22; and its Command Element.
Kearsarge left its home-port of Norfolk, Va., on July 30 and is on a regularly scheduled deployment.
To learn more about the Bangladesh humanitarian relief efforts and experience photos, videos, and after-action interviews, check outwww.22meu.usmc.mil andwww.lhd3.navy.mil.