Medical Cover in the Peruvian Andes - by Kay Foster

While serving with the QARANC in 1981, my Matron, Col Anderson, offered me one of the many opportunities of a lifetime. An expedition to Peru. As a QA Nursing Officer, I was to provide medical cover to an Archaeological Expedition at an ancient Inca site high up in the Andes and 3 days walk from the famous fortified Inca settlement Machu Picchu.

The 1981 Expeditionary force consisted of about 70 archaeological students from the UK and USA, together with a British Military team of 8 with various skills to support Dr. Ann Kendall and her workforce.

The Military team flew into Lima and then after a short break we set off on a two-day day, three- night journey, living and sleeping on the local bus to Cuzco. There was nothing luxurious about the bus. The seats were basic and barely attached to the body work. No toilet facilities, so the drivers were asked to halt for loo stops. At these times they would rev the engine impatiently, not a relaxing experience. During the journey many of the locals would hold their children in the potty position, and by the end of the journey the bus was a disgusting toilet.

On arriving at Cusco high in the Andes, above the "high altitude zone”, feeling tired and unwashed, my first patient was waiting for me. The 2IC of the military team had confusion, bladder retention and had developed altitude sickness, so I stayed up all night nursing him. The local doctor visited, prescribed treatment and the next day I flew with him back to Lima. After a few days rest he returned to the UK and that was the end of his tour in Peru.

We then all moved on mass to our home in the Andes, nestled beside Cusichaca, a remote place with old Inca ruins. We had the mammoth task of carrying 8 tons of equipment over the Urubamba River on an oraya, a wooden platform suspended by overhead cables. We then set up tents, dug toilets and erected washing facilities etc. for 70 people.

Medical cover varied from day to day with mostly diarrhoea and vomiting within the team. On a number of occasions, with volunteer Cpl Andy Mortimer’s help, I set up 24 hr drip treatments for dehydration. There was also a daily queue of locals requiring treatments of antibiotics and Panadol.

  

There were, however, more serious accidents, as shown in the photograph below, where a local man fell down a terrace and a stick pierced his trachea. We stopped the local night train to transport him to a hospital in Cusco where he made a good recovery. Whilst his relatives looked at the stars hoping to tell his fortune. 

We lived under canvas for five months, ate under the stars surrounded by the snow capped Andes mountains, washed from water drained from the river with crude but effective shower facilities. The student UK/US archaeologist team were often joined by other nationalities. People arriving at camp and in exchange for lodgings would work on the Inca dig. This is how we met one young man from Argentina, who would the next year become our enemy, when enlisted to fight in the Falklands War.

     

It was the following year L/Cpl. Andy Mortimer was deployed to the Falkland Islands War and survived the bombing of the Sir Galahad Ship when left exposed to the Argentina Air Force. The young, enlisted Argentinian from the dig was captured during the war. At that time L/ Cpl. Andy was one of the British troops escorting prisoners and incredibly they recognised one another. Andy later sent me a letter of his experience of the Falklands War which I submitted to the Imperial War Museum and this was subsequently published in two book ‘Letters from the Front Line’ by Andrew Roberts and ‘Dead Men Rising’ by Toby Harnden. The letter will also be posted on this blog site next.



Author Bio

Major M Kay Foster 1977-1996: Served for 18 years in the Queen Alexandra Royal Army Nursing Corp.

British Military Hospitals: Queen Elizabeth Military Hospital Woolwich, Hong Kong, Nepal, Munster, Cambridge Military Hospital Aldershot.

5 Months Expedition to the Andes , Peru.

Exchange officer with the Canadian armed forces, Ottawa & \Cold Lake Alberta.

Falklands Islands Matron.

Wales – WSLO.

QATC - Company Commander - NCO recruits.

Gulf War1 22Field/33General Hospital.

Inservice Training Officer CMH.