Evan Blauer in Cancun Mexico

Article taken from McGill Reporter November 24/05:

Answering the call

Hurricane Wilma turns vacationing med student into Doc Holiday

Neale McDevitt | On Friday, October 21, Evan Blauer, a fourth-year medical student at McGill, found himself crammed into a makeshift shelter in Mexico with more than 60 other people. Hurricane Wilma, the most powerful ever recorded in the Atlantic Basin, had slammed into the coast hours earlier and was carving a path of destruction inland. The 280-km winds shrieked, windows shook, plywood creaked and people sat, knees to chest, dripping sweat, too hot and frightened to sleep. It was hard to believe that, less than 48 hours before, Blauer was enjoying a jungle kayak excursion as part of his all-inclusive vacation in Cancun. And the situation was about to get worse.

Hurricane Wilma reached speeds of 280 km/h, the most intense tropical cyclone ever recorded in the Atlantic basin. It caused the most destruction in Mexico's Yucatán peninsula, Cuba, and Florida. At least 47 deaths have been reported and the costs of the total damage will likely be around $20 billion. iStock photo

In the middle of the night, a woman began having trouble breathing. Thinking she was hyperventilating, one good, but misguided, Samaritan gave the woman a bag to breathe into. Immediately, her condition got worse.

Blauer's training kicked in. He recognized that the woman wasn't hyperventilating at all; she was having a severe asthma attack. The last thing her oxygen-starved lungs needed was the infusion of carbon monoxide she was getting from the bag. "It actually could have killed her," he says.

Talking with the woman's husband, Blauer learned that she had no history of asthma so she didn't have any medication. Asking around, he located a Ventolin inhaler and administered the medication. He then moved the couple to an empty washroom that was much cooler. The crisis passed and within 45 minutes the woman, a tourist from Leeds, England, was able to talk. Thanks largely to Blauer's quick action the grateful woman would be fine.

But his work wasn't done. A rudimentary infirmary was set up where Blauer worked side-by-side with a pair of vacationing paramedics and two nurses from Memphis. Mostly, they bandaged people cut from broken glass and administered IVs to those suffering from dehydration. One woman was knocked unconscious when she slipped and cracked the base of her skull on the corner of a stair. The team immobilized her and put her in an ambulance that took her to a nearby hospital.

At McGill, where he's currently finishing his clinical rotation, Blauer is used to seeing patients by himself, but the difference in Mexico was that there were no residents to check with. He was on his own. "I got tested," he says. "It was stressful, for sure, but I was confident I could do the job."

For Blauer, getting back home was as much an adventure as living through the category 5 hurricane. In less than 12 hours, he took a winding taxi ride through devastated shanty towns; tried to salvage personal items from the blown out resort where, it was rumored, an alligator was lurking in the lobby; and had a harrowing bus ride to the airport through water that rose to the windshield.

Safe at home in Montreal, Blauer doesn't think twice when asked what he will remember most about his experience. "The local people were amazing," he says. "They could have gouged us when we bought food or took a cab, but they didn't. Everyone really pulled together." He was so impressed that he would return in a second. "I can't wait to go back," he says. "I feel like I owe it to the people."