TO THE RESCUE: November 2009

Sunday, November 8, 2009

Creekside Books & Coffee Host Book Event

Rhona Knox-Prescott will read and discuss her story, Angeles on the Battlefield, at a book event this coming week. This reading is open to the public at no charge and Rhona will be available following to sign books as requested.

Thursday, Nov 12th at 7:00PM

Creeside Books & Coffee

25 Fennell Street

Skaneateles, NY

Rhona Knox Prescott is a NYC girl, having been born and bred there. and has recently retired to Skaneateles, NY. She finished nursing school in Flushing, NY and was commissioned in the US Army in the Nurse Corps. She served for approximately seven years, one of those in Vietnam during the height of the conflict, the Tet offensives of 1967 and 1968. Of her three assignments there, the most challenging was as acting chief nurse of a tent hospital in the Central Highlands. Being quite saturated with "blood nursing", Rhona completed a masters degree and extra classes in clinical social work at the University of Houston, Texas and changed careers.She worked in various settings and eventually became a trauma counsellor/therepist for war veterans, especially those traumamatized in the Vietnam war. She writes for publication now and some of her work has been adapted for stage.Busy as a mom and grandma, life is good. Volunteer work keeps her grounded and happily occupied. Come out on Thursday evening to Creekside Books & Coffee, meet Rhona and hear her amazing story!

Fund Raising Book Events to Honor Our Veterans

Nancy Leigh Harless, co-editor for TO THE RESCUE, will read from and discuss our book at two events during the coming week.

Nov 9th - 630PM
Myers Courtyard
628 Blondeau
Keokuk, IA

Nov 11th, 2:30PM
The Ivy Bake Shoppe
Seventh Street
Fort Madison, IA
Price: $10 and books will be available to buy. All proceeds from these events will go to the Lee County Chapter of the American Red Cross.

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"Sudan is where I was introduced to working with HIV/AIDS. While the program focus was to treat African sleeping sickness, those with HIV needed special care, as their weakened immune systems could do very little against the disease that attacks the central nervous system, causing confusion, poor coordination, and disturbed sleep patterns. While we could provide treatment for African sleeping sickness, there were no antiretroviral drugs available in South Sudan to suppress HIV. It felt completely hopeless to not have anything to offer. " ~ Grace Muthumbi, Beauty & Grace

We awoke to a huge explosion, the impact sending tremors throughout the compound. someone had thrown a grenade over the wall, sending debris like confetti into the air. The classroom windows shattered. Shrapnel hit one of our guards in the neck. Our surgeons repaired the guard's injuries and there were no casualties, but the experience had been unsettling. we knew it was a direct attack on us. Suddenly the danger of what we were doing became very real. ~ Jeffery C. Goodman, MD, There is a Way from Heart to Heart.

It had been raining all weekend. I had hardly been outside, marooned in the house by unrelenting curtains of rain. By Sunday night I was thinking that things might be getting serious, so ,when I woke to the 6:30AM news on Monday, February 16th, to hear that the Oroua river had breached its banks, I wasn't surprised, but I was worried and my thoughts raced. How extensive was the flooding? What areas were affected? Would we be able to see our patients? Did the night nurse get home safetly? My rather bemused family watched me race out the door to work. ~ Julie Vickery, Front Up to a Civil Emergency

"I think I should say one word too, a special word, about the 'Dust-Offs' -- the medvacs. This was a great group of men. All those who flew them, all those who did it. Courage above and beyond the call of duty was sort of routine for them. It was a daily thing, part of the way they lived. That's the great part, and it meant so much to every last man who served there. Whether he ever got hurt or not, he knew dust Off was there." ~ Gen. Creighton W. Abrams Jr., Army Chief of Staff at AAA honors luncheon, Washington D.C> October 13, 1972

My God, we're going to crash!" John suddenly yelled into his mike. "My cyclic's been shot away!"
Immediately I looked over to see him sweeping his cyclic stick in wide circles around the cockpit -- movements tht should have made the aircraft spin in circles. But out bird didn't respond. As the Huey's nose began a dive toward the trees, I instinctively reached for my set of controls.
"I've got it," I said.
This is it, I distinctly remember thinking, as enemy rounds continued ventilating our bird. Today is the day I'm going to die!......Robert B. Robeson, Miracle at Landing Zone Ross

WALK IN THEIR SHOES FOR ONE DAY

Stand in the ruins of a school in Sichuan Province, China, surrounded by rubble and human loss in the wake of an earthquake.

Heave sandbag upon sandbag, 12 high, at a Midwestern hospital as the rising floodwaters lap at the Emergency Room door.

Awaken to an explosion in Pakistan, the impact of the unrest sending tremors throughout your compound, debris falling like confetti in the air.

Suffer the anguish of scarring burns, followed by the transformative joy that fills you when you can empower another person who suffers.

Sleep alongside the dead during the aftermath of the Great Tsunami.

Tremble with the excitement on your first American Red Cross hurricane disaster duty.

Every year, more than 200 million people are affected by wars, floods, earthquakes, and other disasters. To the Rescue tells the stories of the EMT workers, firefighters, physicians, nurses, social workers, and volunteers who provide relief at disaster sites—both natural and man-made—across the world.
Celebrate the resilience of the human spirit with the remarkable stories of those who have overcome substantial odds to save lives and provide comfort to those in need.