After almost three months work in the Falklands we are back in Europe.

There have been some striking experiences with wildlife on top, but also a modern well working hospital with a very broad spectre of surgical challenges.

Two phenomenons have been striking from a negative perspective. 

On the picture overseeing the bay from our house to the left is a fishing vessel, and to the right, behind the peninsula is a cruiseship. This very fishing vessel is mainly fishing for calamares and the majority of these ships sail under Chinese flag leasing rights for fishing in Falkland waters. Cruiseships frequent the islands sometimes with 3 ships at the same time owerflowing Port Stanley with passengers. Average age is high and visits to the hospital common.

Working circumstances on the fishing vessels are sometimes horrendous and dangerous with frequent storms working day and night in the southern ocean. During my watch severe handinjuries were common and one weekend the SAR helicopter needed to evacuate four severly injured fishermen. Upon arrival to the hospital one fisherman was dead due to hypothermia (thrown overboard but saved back onboard), and three were severly injured  with ribfractures,hole in the lung,lower limb fractures,compartment syndrome,hip dislocation etc, and emergency surgery was ongoing the whole day. When these young men (mainly Indonesians 25-30 years in age) woke up from anesthesia there first question was when they could be back on their ship for work. In all Scandinavian countries it´s on the contrary and when digging deeper into the subject I learned to know that if these fishermen (who sign up for 400days at sea) loose even one day at work they risk getting paid NOTHING !

One weekend with three cruiseships in the bay, we had a woman in her seventies on a cruise of a lifetime with her husband. After leaving Antarctica she developed abdominal pain and diagnosis was gallbladder inflammation with pancreatitis.Being five days away from the Falklands she needed to stay in a hospital bed on the ship and upon arrival we performed emergency surgery and all went well. Staying on the ward some days after surgery I was informed she had to pay 4000GBP/night for the hospital bed on the cruiseship (20.000GBP for 5 nights).

I can only find one word for both phenomenons-disgusting