Day 211: Calling 911

I have only called 911 once in my life. Several years ago when we lived in California, Sue and I drove by a young girl who had just been hit by a car. The poor girl looked as if she had been twisted into a pretzel. As we were one of the first people on the scene, I called 911 to request emergency medical assistance. I was surprised how long it took for 911 to answer my call--at least several minutes passed before anyone even picked up the phone. However, ultimately they answered, the ambulance was sent, and the girl ended up doing fine.

Imagine if you had no access to emergency medical care and that if you called 911 no one ever answered your call. This is the situation the Afghans face every day. Their medical system is broken and people don’t have access to the care they need. The Afghan police in particular have a serious lack of emergency medical providers. The police are often the targets of attacks and are frequently injured or killed. Up until now, the Afghan police out here in the western part of the country have had no trained medics. One of my goals when I arrived was to help create a program to train and certify medics--increasing access to care, providing needed medical support, and most importantly saving lives. Well today, the dream become a reality. The first Afghan Army and Police medic training course outside of Kabul kicked off this morning. Approximately twenty students will spend the next eight weeks learning everything from how to care for a broken leg, to how to dress a gunshot wound, to how to deal with serious chest and abdominal trauma.

In a place where progress is so slow and is measured in inches rather than feet or miles, it was satisfying to see something so important and with so much potential to do the Afghans some good, finally come to pass. It is a first step. Much work still lies ahead. However, today the Afghans are one step closer to having access to the medical care that they need. They are that much closer to being able to one day call 911 and have someone actually come to help them.