By
Becky Rutland-Brown
LA PAZ, BOLIVIA - A team of
21 people from Coronado Community United Methodist Church in New Smyrna Beach returned
from a mission trip to Sapecho, Bolivia, bruised, but uplifted by an incredible adventure
that included rescuing victims of a deadly traffic accident on a narrow mountain road.
The group's members included teenagers to adults in their mid 70s. They
went to Bolivia as a United Methodist Volunteers In Mission (UMVIM) team to provide
medical and dental treatment and assistance with construction work.
They finished their work and on April 13 began the 16-hour bus ride
from Sapecho, a remote area of Bolivia, to La Paz, the capital. Along the way they were
stopped by an accident blocking traffic in both directions. A bus had rolled off the road,
ejecting many of its 36 passengers into the jungle on the steep mountainside and killing
at least nine people, according to Dr. Arlen Stauffer, the team's leader and physician.
Victims who were easily accessible had been evacuated by car to the
nearest clinic, which was about a two-hour drive from the site. Volunteers were exhausted
from the extreme conditions and altitude and were struggling to rescue the remaining
passengers.
Four of Coronado's team volunteered to rappel down the 70-degree slope.
They climbed over broken trees, pieces of the bus and bodies as they descended. Other team
members helped organize the chaos on the road above.
Stauffer helped triage survivors and made difficult decisions about who
was most likely to survive the trip to the nearest clinic.
"It was terrible, and I will never forget that night on the
mountain," said the Rev. Rob Rutland-Brown, Coronado's pastor. "But it was also
uplifting to be working with many other people of many nations. Everyone did what he or
she could. There was a group of mountain bicyclists from Australia, Belgian tourists and
Bolivians. One of the Australians was hit by rocks dislodged by other rescuers and
required seven stitches in the head."
The team used their sheets and bedding to bind broken bones and make
stretchers to pull survivors up from the 600-foot drop. They used their flashlights to
provide light as it grew darker and one set of walkie-talkies to communicate between team
members on the road and workers hundreds of feet below.
"We were able to find 15 survivors and tie them to makeshift
stretchers and help haul them up. It made us feel good because we think most of those
would make it," team member Joe Mongato said.
Because rescuers' ropes reached only a few hundred feet team member
Clay Smith decided to slide further down the cliff in search of survivors. He found the
last one, injured, but conscious, on a cliff face just three feet from a 400-foot
drop-off. The bus itself had disappeared. Smith and other volunteers, including two from
Coronado, tied the man to an improvised stretcher, then formed a human ladder to get him
to the top.
It took the rescuers more than an hour and a half to get him to safety
because of the altitude, incline, lack of ropes and the difficulty of pulling themselves
up while carrying the stretcher.
It was dark by the time the group emerged from the jungle. Bloodied,
dehydrated, mentally spent, physically exhausted and trembling with fatigue, team members
gathered at the bus and cried together.
"It was really hard because we wanted to be able to help much more
than we could," team member Brenda Stauffer said. "Sometimes all we could do was
hold someone's hand or hold each other."
"I am convinced God meant for us to be there. It made us realize
God is with us in life and death, and we become the hands of God when we reach out to
help, even in our inadequacy," team member Mary Ann Borstad said.
The team finally made it to La Paz 23 hours after their return trip
began.
More information and photos of the trip and can be found on the group's
Web site, http://www.asyouwere.net/bolivia.
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© 2001 Florida United Methodist Review Online |
