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 | 
The 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 |
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 |
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 |
Expedition Medicine is supporting Helen Skelton, presenter on Blue Peter, attempt to be the first woman to kayak the Amazon and here is the latest progress report on 18th February.
All are well here now. Helen and I have managed to avoid the D+V.
It’s been an eventful week in Helen Skelton’s Amazon adventure. We started with Carnaval in the city of Manaus where the entire crew had to dress up and dance around a specially built Samba drome in the pouring rain. Leaving Manaus we reached the meeting of the Amazon with the Rio Negra, the biggest tributary of the Amazon. One is brown and the other is black and the waters don’t mix for several miles. A helicopter was chartered to film this event and the team were buzzing after this exciting milestone. Next came an unwanted drama with several members of the local and UK crew being affected by a viral gastroenteritis. It started with one of the kitchen staff and, despite working hard at the usual strict hygiene measures, it spread to several others. Fortunately Helen (and I) have been ok so far. The latest drama was the sinking of our support boat in the early hours of Tuesday morning. Nobody was on board at the time and after several hours of hard work it was resurrected but it had to be fixed up at a boat yard upstream of our location so this cost a whole day of paddling for Helen. She’s back on track now, has just clocked 1500 miles and is going as strong as ever.
Rain’s coming so I’ll be off. Lucy x
February 18th, 2010 | Adventure, Expedition Doctor, Expedition Medicine, Film and Media medical support, Jungle medicine, Media Crew Expedition Medical Support, Remote medicine, Travel, Wilderness and Environmental Medicine, expedition, travel doctor, travel medic, wilderness medic, wilderness medicine | No Comments |
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?
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 |
Diving Medicine Training Course in the Maldives
Diving and Marine Medicine Training Course – Indian Ocean
3 – 9 OCTOBER 2010 ABOARD THE LIVEABOARD MV ARI QUEEN, THE MALDIVES
Expedition Medicine are very excited at being able to offer an inspirational course for all those medical professionals responsible for clients or expedition team members in a diving or marine environment.
This is a 6 day course, aiming to give participants an understanding of conditions likely to occur whilst working as a doctor on a diving expedition. Topics covered will include pre-expedition medicals, diving-related illness, marine envenomation, emergency treatments and casevac plans. Practical sessions include boat handling, search & rescue and underwater communications. There will be at least 2 dives a day, including a night dive and hopefully a visit to the hyperbaric chamber on Kuramathi Island – the largest facility in the Maldives. At the end of the week, participants should feel confident to act as medical officer on a diving expedition, or in any UK diving medical practice. Read the ‘What to Expect’ section below to get more of an idea of what the course entails.
MINIMUM COURSE REQUIREMENTS
All participants are expected to at least have a PADI Open Water qualification (or equivalent) with a minimum of 10 dives. Ideally participants should have PADI Advance Open Water qualification (or equivalent) as we will be doing some current diving. Conditions are dependent on dive sites, currents and times of year. If your qualification is not recent we recommend you complete at least 2 or 3 refresher dives before the course so that you get the most out of the fantastic diving the Maldives offers.
If the group is mixed, the dives will be split into 2 groups, so that each group is diving to its own ability.
PARTICIPANTS MUST BRING WITH THEM THEIR DIVE QUALIFICATION CERTIFICATES AND LOG BOOKS AS PROOF OF DIVING QUALIFICATIONS.
The Diving And Marine Medicine Course is accredited for FAWM points but we are waiting for confirmation of these as the Diving medicine course has moved to a new location.
November 30th, 2009 | Adventure, Diving Medic, Expedition Doctor, Expedition Medicine, Remote medicine, diving and marine medicine, expedition, medical training course, training, travel doctor, travel medic, wilderness medic, wilderness medicine | No Comments |
Production CompaniesDates for 2010 to be announced
Royal Geographical Society, London
This is a free training seminar, limited to 25 places, for people involved in filming or media projects abroad in locations where medical cover is not close at hand. It will highlight the biggest risks and you will learn how to administer immediate care and the importance of including the medical provision in your planning.
Anyone who is part of a media crew or production company working on location abroad in remote environments or who is filming and photographing adventurous activities.
Interested? Then contact Piers Carter on Piers@expeditionmedicine.co.uk or 07801 104604
October 1st, 2009 | Adventure, Arctic Medicine, Expedition Doctor, Expedition Medicine, Film and Media medical support, Jungle medicine, Media Crew Expedition Medical Support, Remote medicine, Travel, Wilderness and Environmental Medicine, desert medicine, diving and marine medicine, expedition, medical training course, polar medicine, training, travel doctor, travel medic, wilderness medic, wilderness medicine | No Comments |
For some time there has been a debate about the value of cervical collars in the pre-hospital wilderness environment. A recent article has lent weight to the ‘don’t take collars on expedition’ protagonists.
The recent journal of Wilderness and Environmental Medicine: Vol. 20, No. 2, pp. 166–168 compares a molded SAM splint as a collar with the traditional philadelphia collar.
The SAM splint was simply wrapped and molded around the C spine. and degrees of movement of the C spine were tested in all planes.
They found no significant difference in the ability of the 2 collars at limiting movement of the cervical spine. Podolsky and colleagues, in a prior study, found that the Philadelphia collar is as effective as numerous other collars available for cervical spine immobilization.
None of these devices has the broad range of uses that can be performed by a SAM splint (in addition to limiting movement of the cervical spine) The ability to carry one universal device for so many different medical conditions is one of the advantages of the SAM splint. This study helps to validate the practice of using a SAM splint as a universal splint for environments with limited medical supplies.
For more information on Expedition and Wilderness Medicine visit www.expeditionmedicine.co.uk
September 2nd, 2009 | Adventure, Dr Sean Hudson, Expedition Doctor, Expedition Medicine, Jungle medicine, Remote medicine, Wilderness and Environmental Medicine, desert medicine, expedition, medical training course, polar medicine, travel doctor, travel medic, wilderness medic, wilderness medicine | No Comments |
Sarah Outen in a breathtaking achievement and with a little help in terms of support and training from Expedition and Wilderness Medicine has successfully become the first Britian and the first woman ever to row across the Indian Ocean and the youngest woman to solo any ocean- massive congratulations to her from us
A very exciting, record-breaking, and ever so slightly crazy sort of challenge. It involved my little boat, the Indian Ocean and lots of chocolate. April Fools Day 2009 I set out from Western Australia in a bid to become the first woman to row solo across this ocean. 124 days later after 4,000 miles, having eaten all my chocolate, faced storms and mid-ocean capzies , I landed in Mauritius. It was raw and elemental – just as adventure should be.
Find out more about Sarah’s epic row at http://www.sarahouten.co.uk or donate online via JustGiving
Landing at the end of the record breaking row
September 2nd, 2009 | Adventure, Expedition Medicine, Remote medicine, Travel, expedition, fundraising for charity, medical training course, wilderness medicine | No Comments |
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