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Here's one sample of recent reports from the Saharan expedition team: From: Scott Putman Today, our Unimog driver John Davidson (for those of you not on our adventure, the Unimog is our large, Mercedes-built 4x4 truck that hauls most of our gear across the desert) came across a family in need of some help. We are well off-track now, traveling Eastbound just 200KM shy of the Mali/Niger Border. This is a vast desert expanse that is likely as remote as nearly anywhere on the globe...and, the Unimog, being slow and steady, often falls to the rear of our traveling pan-Sahara expedition. So, John was ably pulling up the rear, when he recognized a young mom, dad, and their son in need of some help. Apparently, five days ago, this young boy (see picture) had boiling hot water spilled on both his feet and shins. John scooped the boy up, and along with the dad, ferried them along to meet up with our team doctor, Jeff. As a result, the boy got his third degree burns tended, and a big shot of antibiotics and another poke for tetanus. Through it all, this little guy was impossibly brave as the doc removed (this is tough for those of you with weak stomachs) layers of burnt and rotting flesh from the hurting boy's left foot. It was true field medicine, and though I've not seen much of that before, I know we were all impressed with both John and the Doc. When it was all said and done, the boy went home with his Poppa with 10 days of antibiotics and plenty of fresh dressing and sterile H2O for cleaning the wounds. I'm certainly no doc, but, my training many years ago as an EMT was enough to tell me that without care, this boy would likely die out here due to infection, which the Doc confirmed. In a few short days, amputation of one or both legs would have definitely been necessary. All involved in this project did a pretty cool thing today -- we likely saved a life.
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