It’s true, I left Jeremy and the girls in Westport to spend 5 days in a resort on a tropical island in the Pacific. Well, you have to keep up with your CME, right?
The hardest part was buying my plane ticket. The Cook Islands are just on the other side of the International Date Line, meaning I left New Zealand the day the conference began and landed the night before. My head exploded when I first went online to buy my plane tickets and it took three tries before I had the nerve to actually buy them. But I finally succeeded and was on a plane to Rarotonga.
Here is the view of the New Zealand North Island Mountains Ruapehu and Ngauruhoe, near Lake Taupo, from my plane window. As I saw the setting sun reflected on the plane’s wing, I realized I was flying into yesterday.
I landed late in the evening on Tuesday, November 8th. Unsuccessfully searching the sleepy resort airport for a television, it wasn’t until I stepped out into the muggy tropical night and accepted a fragrant frangipani lei that I heard a tourist announce: “Trump won!” I hoped it was just all just a bizarre dream that would come to an end once I returned to New Zealand. An email the next morning from a friend in the States asking for information about relocating to New Zealand confirmed my fears.
Luckily, the conference, located at Rarotonga’s Hospital, was stimulating enough to serve as a nice distraction from my newfound addiction to CNN on my hotel television. It began the next day with a welcome song and blessing by a staff member dressed in traditional Cook Islands Maori clothing. The conference focus was on rural generalist medicine, my new specialty in Westport.
The first speaker was the Chief Medical Officer of the Hospital, a woman who is trained as a generalist doctor, but skilled at doing many different types of surgery as well. Rarotonga Hospital is the only Hospital serving all of the Cook Islands, a collection of 15 islands spread out over a 1.8 million sq km (that’s 690,000 sq miles for those of you not on the metric system) area, home to a little less than 15,000 people, two thirds of whom live on Rarotoga, the capital and largest islands. Some of the more remote islands are only inhabited by a few hundred people or none at all during cyclone season. These islanders receive all their medical care from nurses who are on call 24/7 for all the inhabitants medical needs.
The CMO told the story of a woman living on one of the more remote northern islands, in labor with her 10th child, when her labor stalled. The doctor called for emergency medical transport and was told there was only room for three staff on the plane, which meant she had to decide between her pediatrician to resuscitate the baby, and her anesthesiologist, who had a broken arm at the time, to anesthetize the mother for her surgery. She chose her anesthesiologist and they flew for 2 hours to the island closest to their destination, then transferred their equipment, everything they would need for surgery including oxygen and blood products, into a boat and traveled for another 2 hours before they finally reached the laboring woman. After performing her Caesarean section, saving the life of both mother and baby, they were told their plane could not wait longer than 12 hours, so within the day they were transporting the recovering mother and newborn babe back via boat and then plane to the Hospital.
Hers was an unusual story as pregnant women in the Cook Islands are mandated to be transferred to Rarotonga either late in an uncomplicated pregnancy or earlier in a complicated pregnancy to wait for their babies to be born. The Ministry of Health sends planes and boats to the islands monthly to collect the pregnant women and bring them back to Raro. One remote island is a 7 day’s boat ride from the Hospital. Can you imagine a boatful of pregnant women during a week’s journey at sea?!
The conference talks were varied and stimulating and most were slightly more applicable to my current and even US work. It was a great conference and I am glad I had the opportunity to attend. (Thanks, Jeremy!)
One night I joined my Westport colleague, Nina, who told me about the conference to begin with. Nina’s mother had come with her for the week and we went to an evening market for a delicious shared meal of Cook Islands treats. My favorite was Ika Mata, their version of ceviche. Similar to Hawaiian poke, it consists of chunks of raw fish, marinated in lemon juice and then served with coconut milk, fresh ginger and chiles, tomatoes and other vegetables.
We also tasted salt and pepper calamari, creamy garlic prawns, and fish curry.
I spent my afternoons wandering the island, among coconut and papaya trees, friendly stray dogs, noisy hens and their scattered “chooks” (as the New Zealanders call them), and goats. I visited a botanical garden and walked outside the grounds of an old Catholic church.
Despite the great snorkeling, pina coladas, and alone time, I was ready to return to my family in Westport by the time the conference was over. Unfortunately, my flight was cancelled without notice hours before I was scheduled to leave so my arrival was delayed by 18 hours meaning I was not with the family when the earthquake hit. Talk about maternal guilt! But at least everyone was safe, and I have had the opportunity to experience some aftershocks, just to get a taste myself. (See our previous post: Earthquake! for more on that).
Here are more pics of my Island Adventure.