Archive for the ‘medical training course’ Category

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Hannah McKeand has kindly agreed to be the guest speaker on the September Keswick Expedition Medicine Course

Guest speaker – Hannah McKeand, renown Polar Explorer http://www.hannahmckeand.com/

In 2004 Hannah joined a British expedition to explore the isolated Wakan Corridor in the northeast of Afghanistan in search of the source of the River Oxus. The strip is walled by the Hindu Kush in Pakistan to the south, the Pamirs in Tajikistan to the north and the Karakorams in China to the east. The upper regions of this mountain valley can only be reached on foot by crossing several 15,000ft passes and has rarely been visited by westerners. Part of the research was to take DNA samples of the nomadic tribe people there to establish their genetic links to Alexander the Great and his army.Clipper Round the World Yacht Race

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July 16th, 2010 | Adventure, Expedition Medicine, Film and Media medical support, Travel, Wilderness and Environmental Medicine, expedition, medical training course, travel doctor, travel medic, wilderness medic, wilderness medicine | Comment (1) | Bookmark and Share

September Expedition Medicine Course 23.75 CME points and WMS accredited…. filling up fast

The September Expedition Medicine course in Keswick located on the banks of Derwentwater in the stunning English Lakes and 23.75 CME points and WMS accredited, is filling up fast – if you want to be sure of a place then you need to let us know as soon as you can – contact Rosi at admin@expeditionmedicine.co.uk

Guest speaker – Hannah McKeand, renown Polar Explorer     http://www.hannahmckeand.com/

July 16th, 2010 | Adventure, Dr Sean Hudson, Expedition Doctor, Expedition Medicine, Film and Media medical support, Remote medicine, expedition, medical training course, polar medicine, travel doctor, travel medic, wilderness medic, wilderness medicine | No Comments | Bookmark and Share

Diving and Marine Medicine Course now CME accredited

The latest foreign course to gain accreditation through the WMS and the ACCME is the Diving and Marine Medicine Course, which this year will be in the Maldives. So not only do you get to have a fantastic, educational and exciting adventure but you also gain 20.25 CME points as well. There are only 2 places left so if this interests you, please drop us a line soon

June 29th, 2010 | CME, Dr Sean Hudson, Expedition Doctor, Expedition Medicine, Wilderness and Environmental Medicine, diving and marine medicine, expedition, medical training course, travel doctor, wilderness medic, wilderness medicine | No Comments | Bookmark and Share

It rained in the desert!

storm over damaralandThe 2010 Desert Course

Our foreign courses always run on a fairly fluid timetable, but this year’s Desert Course in Namibia was certainly more fluid than expected. Having never seen rain in the desert before, we had rain every day bar one, most of it torrential. A storm on the second night tried its hardest to blow down/away most of the tents and the large tarps put up by Faan, our local agent. His cooking staff had never experienced such a storm and then still managed to produce a hot meal for us all shortly afterwards.

We still had a great week. The group included some extremely experienced medics and everybody contributed to the learning.  A fascinating demonstration of snake handling from Stuart involved his venomous and non-venomous snakes and a parabusis scorpion.

We trekked in some seriously hot conditions and at times were lucky with cloud cover. One unexpected bonus was coming across a deep pool of water in a bend on a (usually permanently dry) riverbed giving us the chance to swim in the desert – magical. The view from the high peak of the Doros Crater Rim was well worth the walk in. Out final night out was luckily under the beautiful Southern Cross and the other stars as the clouds finally relented. We walked past fresh rhino tracks and saw herds of zebra, springbok and flighty ostriches as we drove out. Faan looked after us impeccably as usual.

Mother Nature surprised us again at the end of the course when the volcanic ash prevented Mark and I, and many of the course participants from flying home at our intended times. The latest person home was 10 days late and one participant endured an epic 3 day flight/train/train/ferry/train/ferry/train journey. At least we are all getting used to the unexpected.

Caroline Knox

April 28th, 2010 | Adventure, Africa, Expedition Doctor, Expedition Medicine, Remote medicine, Wilderness and Environmental Medicine, desert medicine, medical training course, namibia, travel doctor, travel medic, wilderness medic, wilderness medicine | No Comments | Bookmark and Share

Piers Carter writes about the UK course in March

Expedition Medicine March 10 UK course

Our flagship course in Keswick went well this month. We had 60 participants who experienced the full range of Lakeland weather during their time in Keswick.

Once again, Barrow House YHA hosted our course with excellent food, service and an amazing location. Whilst the programme remains broadly the same we invite new evening lecturers in and we vary the faculty. Nigel Harling did a fine job of the communications lecture and we welcomed back Dr Lesley Thomson for the diving lecture.

Our days are always a combination of indoor sessions, which include lectures, small group discussions or work groups and outdoor simulations or practical sessions. On day-1 the afternoon was a round robin of 4 mini-teaching sessions including RTC management, fracture immobilisation; wound management and managing altitude sickness. Ben Cooper ran the wound management and has developed the session into an interactive and engaging session where there are plenty of photos and bits of kit to get hands on. This went down well with all involved.

Participants were pleased to hear from Carolyn Henry from Raleigh who came up for an evening and told us about her experiences and how she had gone from being a delegate on one of our courses years ago to be Raleigh’s medical coordinator. Many of us at Expedition Medicine have history with Raleigh and we still see them as a great place to begin ones expedition career.

The highlight of day-2 is the safety on steep ground afternoon; students learn how to coil ropes, set up safe anchor points and lower colleagues off steep cliffs and drops. Also covered is the reality of improvising a carrying mechanism for various injuries.

Nigel Harling from BSES, British Schools Exploring Society, came in to explain how willing medics can travel with them and he then went on to entertain the audience with his tales of daring do and high adventure from his past and present expeditioning days. It was a memorable evening lecture and one we shall, no doubt, ask him to do again.

Day-3 has a very specific environments feel covering hot, cold, tropical, altitude and diving medicine and then closed with an excellent talk Sarah Outen. Last year Sarah rowed solo across the Indian Ocean and she told us of close encounters with whales, albatross, shops and freak storms which threatened to ‘munch her in their fangs!’ It was an inspirational talk and we wish Sarah luck on her next adventure where she intends to circumnavigate the globe by Sarah power.

The final day scenario saw the successful rescue of 6 casualties from various locations on the hill side and the arrival of the Mountain Rescue Landrover, the crew demonstrated how they would package up a casualty in one of their onboard stretchers for transportation to hospital. This looked like a somewhat more comfortable option than the rope stretchers our willing participants constructed to collect and transport their casualties.

All casualties and participants safely back to the hostel in fine weather and the final session discussed next steps and further opportunities. We staff thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and we hope the participants did too. Until next time we wish all Expedition and Wilderness Medicine graduates all the very best and we look forward to seeing you on future courses.

Piers Carter

Expedition and Wilderness Medicine

April 28th, 2010 | Expedition Doctor, Expedition Medicine, Wilderness and Environmental Medicine, medical training course, travel doctor, travel medic, wilderness medic, wilderness medicine | No Comments | Bookmark and Share

Expedition Medicine support the Jones Boys Amazon Adventure

On the 19th of April at 9.00pm Ginger will be televising the Jones Boys Amazon Adventure. Steve Jones and his brothers were exposed to a number of challenges in the jungle on the Amazon. Expedition Medicine staff member Paul Richards provided the medical support and appears to have sacrificed himself in the process. Paul managed to get bitten by every insect in the district, the number of bites in his buttocks exceeded 100 (he counted these himself). I think this means that Pauls nethers are either more appealing or larger than the other expedition members. Watch the programme, I think it will make for interesting viewing.

April 13th, 2010 | Expedition Doctor, Expedition Medicine, Jungle medicine, Media Crew Expedition Medical Support, Remote medicine, expedition, medical training course, travel medic, wilderness medic, wilderness medicine | No Comments | Bookmark and Share

Amazon Adventures with Dr Lucy Dickinson, the BBC and Sports Relief

Expedition and Wilderness Medicine

Dangers of kayaking the Amazon

Lucy Dickinson has just returned from accompanying Helen Skelton and the BBC team as Helen kayaked 2,010 miles down the Amazon. Here are her thoughts upon her return.

” I’ve just had my first experience of TV expedition work escorting Helen Skelton from Blue Peter kayaking down the Amazon. I still can’t quite believe I got the opportunity to have such an amazing trip. So how did it compare to the other expedition work I’ve done? Well it’s still just you and your box of tricks in the middle of nowhere improvising and trying to manage the risks. It’s still having an adventure and seeing a beautiful part of the earth. It’s still meeting new people from different parts of the world and learning different ways of life that put some perspective on the way we live our lives here. It’s still being inspired by interesting people doing exceptional things.

For a change, this trip was no physical challenge for me, in fact it was a challenge to sit still for 6 weeks! It was new having people thriving on the little dramas “because they make good TV”. It was exciting watching the BBC team doing a live broadcast from a sand bank in the middle of the Amazon knowing that people in the UK were watching it back in the UK as it was happening. It is not my idea of fun being in front of a camera and I constantly thought back to that conversation I had in London with Eric, the producer, about how I agreed to be on film only in exceptional circumstances if absolutely necessary. The reality was far from this and I can only hope that when the Blue Peter specials and the Sport Relief programme come out this week that I won’t cringe at the appearance of my “character” as they refer to you. As with most expeditions I’ve done it was a great pleasure and a privilege to work with a team of very lovely, interesting and fun people and have an exciting diversion to day to day General Practice.

…..If they ever ask me to do another trip with them I’ll jump at the chance.”

March 16th, 2010 | Adventure, Expedition Doctor, Expedition Medicine, Film and Media medical support, Jungle medicine, Media Crew Expedition Medical Support, Remote medicine, Travel, expedition, medical training course, travel doctor, travel medic, wilderness medic, wilderness medicine | No Comments | Bookmark and Share

Medical Director Lectures at Royal Society of Medicine

One Step Forward was hosted and arranged by RSM. I was fortunate enough to be invited to speak on Expedition Medicine.

The other speakers were inspirational and it was delightful to hear a series of lectures by doctors who dont hold to the production line theory of doctor creation.

I tried to follow this theme and aimed to inspire the junior doctors and medical students to expand their horizons and experience other cultures and hopefully to become a more rounded physician in the process. I even got to lecture to Professor Kumar (Kumar and Clark)!

March 7th, 2010 | Dr Sean Hudson, Expedition Doctor, Expedition Medicine, Travel, Wilderness and Environmental Medicine, medical training course, travel doctor, travel medic, wilderness medic, wilderness medicine | No Comments | Bookmark and Share

Expedition Medicine lecturer and wilderness medic par excellence Dr Luanne Freer organiser of ‘Everest ER’ writes about her plans for 2010

 

The Everest base camp medical clinic “Everest ER” will be on the mountain in April 2010 for our 8th season (!)  As always, we offer services to base camp climbers, support staff and trekkers-through in support of our mission to prevent and treat illness at high altitude and to use proceeds for care from non-Nepalis to subsidize free or low cost health care for our Nepali friends.  The 2010 staff will be comprised of myself, Lakpa Norbu Sherpa (our faithful logistics coordinator,) Dr Steve Halvorson, and Dr. Peter Hackett, longtime HRA volunteer and world renowned altitude expert (and Everest summitteer!) will join us for the month of May.  We plan to carry out a research project aimed at answering a plaguing question a high altitudes everywhere – what’s the best treatment for high altitude “Khumbu” cough?

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February 16th, 2010 | Adventure, Everest, Expedition Doctor, Expedition Medicine, Remote medicine, Wilderness and Environmental Medicine, expedition, medical training course, mountain medicine, travel doctor, travel medic, wilderness medic, wilderness medicine | No Comments | Bookmark and Share

Kayaking the Amazon – Expedition Medicine in support

Intrepid Expedition Medic Lucy Dickinson reports on Blue Peter presenter Helen Skeltons progress down the Amazon

Helen Skelton is super strong mentally and physically, kayaking the Amazon without complaint for up to 12 hours a day. There have been a few medical problems but nothing too dramatic despite what you may have seen on TV. She’s been getting nauseous sometimes, especially in the afternoons when it’s choppier and I think she’s sea-sick so we’ve been trying some anti-emetics. Despite throwing up all over herself while in the kayak the other day and being delayed by strorms and the searing heat a smile is never far away and she and the rest of the team are great fun to be around.

On the whole she’s doing really well. She had a bit of heat exhaustion one day but nothing major.  Part of my daily routine is taping up her hands to prevent blisters in the mornings and then some sports massage when she comes off the water. So far she’s only had minor musculoskeletal niggles and now she’s over half way so I think we can be optimistic that she’ll make it.

She had to come off the water early yesterday because of a storm so she started at 4:30am today and did the first couple of hours in the dark! There’s really no stopping her. The biggest risk for her is getting some illness which would mean she couldn’t kayak for a few days (she has a deadline to get to the end) so we’ll keep working hard to keep her well and cross our fingers.

February 16th, 2010 | Adventure, Expedition Doctor, Expedition Medicine, Wilderness and Environmental Medicine, expedition, medical training course, travel doctor, travel medic, wilderness medic, wilderness medicine | No Comments | Bookmark and Share

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