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Medicine for Volcano Burn Victims

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“It all happened in an instant. Not minutes, but seconds. The lava came down and swept everything away”. -– Eufemia Garcia, resident from El Rodeo. Survivor of the catastrophic volcanic eruption.


On Sunday the 3rd of June, Guatemala’s Volcano of Fire violently erupted, creating what is known as pyroclastic flows, mixtures of hot gas and rock that blast down the slopes of the volcano at great speed - the same thing that happened to the city of Pompeii after Mount Vesuvius exploded in 79 AD.

The rapidly moving mixture of gases and volcanic matter reached over 700 degrees Celsius in some places, burying entire villages and their residents.

A week later, 197 people are still missing and the death toll of 109 people has slowly grown as rescue workers continue their search for missing people under the toughest conditions.

12,407 people have been evacuated and the hospitals are working at capacity to treat injured people, some with severe burns, cuts and wounds.

Medications are still needed for these survivors.

Medicine for Volcano Burn Victims is a fundraising campaign started by two Guatemalans and an Aussie living in Melbourne with the objective of providing medicine to these burn victims.

We became acquainted with a new medication specially developed in Australia for critical situations like this.

The product uses lidocaine (one of the most widely-used pain medicines) as the main ingredient but instead of using injections, it is sprayed directly onto the skin of injured people so it works faster, longer and is safer to use than other pain products. World-renowned burns specialist Fiona Woods, Australian of the year in 2005, oversaw its development.

Funds will be used to (1) purchase this medicine at cost price, (2) ship the medicine to Guatemala.  The Rotary Club in Guatemala will receive it and organise delivery to Dr Lourdes Santizo, Head of the Pediatric Burns Unit in Roosevelt Hospital who will coordinate end use of the medicine to benefit of the volcano burn victims.

Please help us to fund this campaign and share this link with others so we can deliver the maximum amount of medicine to those people in need. The pain from these injuries unfortunately will continue for the weeks and months to come and every dollar will be truly felt.

Note: We intend to send the medicine by week’s end and will provide an update once it’s received in hospitals in Guatemala.
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UPDATE 16/06/2018: Pharmachal Health Group are finalising the packaging of a batch (roughly equivalent to 400 injections of lidocaine) and we’re awaiting final approval from the TGA for export.
All required documentation for import has already been submitted to people on the ground who will assist with importation.
Pharmachal are preparing another manufacturing run of the Nopayne medicine and will provide us with another batch at that time.
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UPDATE 24/06/2018: A batch of NoPayne (roughly equivalent to 400 injections of lidocaine) is on its way to Guatemala!
Thank you to all the many people that make this possible. Donors, I personally cannot thank each of you enough, with every single donation my heart was filled with gratefulness - your generous contributions will ease the suffering of many people who have sustained high degree burns. Thank you to Mr Charles Fridlender from Pharmachal Health Group for providing the medicine at cost and liaising with authorities in Australia, Prof Fiona Wood for sharing insights about the NoPayne medicine, Dr Santizo at the Burns Unit in Roosevelt Hospital in Guatemala, Julio Grazioso from Rotary Guatemala and to the wonderful individuals Koky Barral and Carol Solares for their tireless help on the ground.
We’ll provide you with another update once the medicine reaches Guatemala.






#Medicine4BurnVictims #VolcanDeFuego #TodosPorGuate #PrayForGuatemala #fuerzaguate #UnidosporGuate

Firefighters search for Victims. AFP. Orlando Estrada

Police helping survivors. AFP. Noe Perez

Rescue efforts continue through the night. Reuters. Fabrizio Alonzo

Volcano of Fire after eruption. AP

Donations 

  • Karla Montenegro
    • $50 
    • 6 yrs

Organizer

Rocio Sagastume
Organizer

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