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Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF) was called to the remote village of Tchaguine, Chad, for an emergency medevac for Urbane, a young boy with an inflamed appendix, potentially at the point of rupturing.
The only way for Urbane to receive the necessary medical care was to be flown out by MAF to the mission hospital in the capital of N’Djamena. He was able to receive life-saving surgery the following day and returned to his village in good health the following week.
Tchaguine is a small village in the south of the country that becomes surrounded by water after the rains begin in June; travel in and out by road, which normally takes 12 to 14 hours, becomes impossible. With MAF, an 80-minute flight provides a vital connection between this village and the capital of N’Djamena.
After receiving the call for the emergency medevac request, MAF pilot Phil Henderson was airborne within the hour after refueling and filing the flight plan.
The entire village gathered as the plane arrived, and one family brought their nine-year-old daughter, Solange, to the airstrip hoping to get her to the hospital as well. She had been suffering with a tumour in her jaw, which the local clinic was unable to treat.
She was added to the passenger list and flown out with the Urbane, who was accompanied by his older brother as a care-giver. Solange was also assessed quickly at the mission hospital and given some medicine to slow the growth of the tumour. She has also returned to the village to continue the course of medication and help her family with the harvest.
The children were visibly anxious about flying in the aircraft, as this would not only be their first flight, but also their first time leaving behind family and the only place they’ve ever known to visit N’Djamena, a large city they’d only been told stories about.
Henderson said: “I’ve become so used to the smells, sounds and sensations of flying that it is easy to forget how strange it must be to climb into a machine and leave the ground when you’ve never done either of those things.
“The kids looked uneasy in their very unfamiliar new environment at 8,500 feet, until I offered them some peanuts from a plastic Coke bottle–that’s how we buy peanuts here. The sight of something familiar seemed to settle them down and shift their focus enough that the flight was less stressful for them.”
Mission Aviation Fellowship operates a fleet of over 130 airplanes worldwide-the largest fleet of privately owned aircraft in the world.
