SUN MEDIA
By TARINA WHITE
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
McLean has just returned from a two-week mission to Garowe, Puntland, in Somalia with the Canadian humanitarian relief organization GlobalMedic.
He was sent to help provide emergency trauma medical training for the Somalian field office of the landmine clearance organization Mines Advisory Group (MAG).
But when an anti-tank shell exploded in a school yard, killing three boys and injuring five others, he put his medical skills into action.
The kids found the 1.5-kg bomb and were throwing it around when it hit the ground and blew up, said McLean, a paramedic at 26 Station in Shawnessy.
"It reinforced the need for what they're doing over there," he said about MAG's efforts to remove countless unexploded landmines in the region.
Two boys died instantly in the explosion and a third succumbed to his injuries in hospital.
A fourth child is clinging to life, with a piece of shrapnel lodged in his brain and one of his legs 90% torn off.
The harrowing experience was made more difficult by the lack of medical supplies in the Third World African country, said McLean, 47.
"You can't come away from a place like that without feeling grateful for what you have here," he said, adding he didn't see any anesthetic equipment available to help ease the children's pain.
McLean was part of a team teaching an advanced first-aid course focused on traumatic injuries to the locals, including militia members, nurses, doctors and police officers.
In 2005, 682 landmine casualties -- 268 killed and 414 injured -- were recorded in Bari, Nugaa, and northern Mudug in Puntland alone.
Source: Sun Media, July 23, 2008