Aida Eriksson bustled around her Gilroy living room Wednesday
evening, her three kids, a family friend and two frantic dogs at
her sides.
Aida Eriksson bustled around her Gilroy living room Wednesday evening, her three kids, a family friend and two frantic dogs at her sides.
The Hazel Hawkins Memorial Hospital nurse was trying somehow to pack numerous piles of donated medical supplies into the two suitcases she would bring to the airport at 1am today.
Eriksson is traveling with six other nurses from around the state to Sri Lanka, devastated by the recent tsunami.
“Look at all this stuff!” she said, waving her arms over the mound on her rug. “It’s so exciting.”
Eriksson was accepted by the California Nurses Association and the California Nurse Foundation to join a two-week mission to bring care to tsunami survivors, including those in hard-to-reach rural areas.
She plans to carry only four changes of clothing in a backpack for the trip, to allow room for as much of the supplies as possible. Among them: Antibiotics, intravenous fluids, pain medication, wound dressings, sutures, various medical instruments and even some snacks for the children.
More than 30,000 people on the island died in the tsunami and more than a million were left homeless. Some of the more urgent needs to which Eriksson and her group will tend include post-traumatic stress disorder, dehydration and diarrhea due to a lack of fresh water, and other on-going treatment.
“The death toll is still rising,” Eriksson said. “People are still having limbs amputated. There’s refugee camps where we’re going to go, hospitals where we’ll be buddying up with the Sri Lankan nurses and mobile clinics. But our plans are up in the air. It depends on what the needs are.”
The CNA group – which includes nurses from San Jose, Watsonville, Eureka, Duarte and Kentfield – will fly into Colombo, Sri Lanka’s capital, and then make its way to Galle, located on the most southern point of the island. Eriksson said she learned much about the nation and its people from Swanthi Samarakkody, a Sri Lankan native who is now a nurse in Oakland and is acting as a liaison and interpreter for the group. Photographs of Galle before the tsunami brought home some of the extent of the devastation for Eriksson.
“They showed us beautiful, white-washed buildings, European architecture,” she said. “Now, it’s all gone.”
A bundle of energy standing less than five feet tall, Eriksson said she’s wanted to bring her skills to Southeast Asia since the disaster occurred. She saw a request for volunteers in a nurses publication and jumped at the chance. She’s been at Hazel Hawkins for five years but has 24 years of nursing experience in a variety of specialty units, such as surgery, intensive care and the emergency room.
“The median age for nurses is 47 years old – my age,” she said. “You’re talking about nurses (who also applied) who are well-versed and experienced.”
Eriksson has long been involved in other humanitarian and volunteer efforts, and she said the will to give was sparked in her at a young age. Growing up in the Philippines, where many families survive on little, her parents’ home was open to those who needed any help.
“There were always people coming to my house, stopping by to get help from my father” who was orphaned at a young age, she said.
She also hopes that background may help prepare her for the inevitable culture shock of arriving in Sri Lanka.
“Growing up in the Philippines, I understand it in a way,” Eriksson said. “I’m not sure if I’m still used to the humidity, but coming from a third-world country, I think I understand the culture somewhat.”
Her three children –Â two boys, ages 15 and 12, and daughter, 10 – had another concern.
“They said, ‘Mom, don’t you know you can come home with a communicable disease?'” Eriksson said.
She is up-to-date on the necessary immunizations and malaria prevention, and though she’s “very aware” of the possibility, she said that’s among the least of her worries.
Until her packing was completed, her attention was focused on condensing the supplies she’ll bring to Sri Lanka into as little space as possible. CNA is funding the nurses’ relief effort, but the supplies they are bringing were all donated – and within a week, she said.
“I’m so lucky to work at Hazel Hawkins,” she said, indicating donations from the operating room staff and a pharmacist. “They’ve given me more than I needed.”
Tucked into a small side pocket on one of the suitcases is a stack of Hazel Hawkins brochures. On the back is a black-and-white picture of Hazel Hawkins, the girl. Called “Little Sunshine” by her grandfather, she was born in 1892 and died ten years later from appendicitis after a two-day buggy ride to the nearest hospital, in Monterey County. Her grandfather, T.S. Hawkins, founded the hospital in her memory.
Eriksson hopes to bring a “little sunshine” to the tsunami victims of Sri Lanka.
“In a way, I think this is spreading her legacy.”
