The story
A 7.8-magnitude earthquake hit Nepal in late April 2015, and a second 7.3-magnitude quake followed on May 12. ReliefWorks, the emergency relief arm of Pure Works, landed in Kathmandu that month with doctors, paramedics, EMTs and other medical professionals, joining an advance team already there. The team numbered ten in all. They carried medicine, medical supplies, patient treatment tents and support supplies, and the first report said the team expected to bring an estimated US$250,000 in medicine and supplies. Medical Director Leah Fletchall and Vice President Jonathan Graves had already treated a woman with chest pains on the flight from Los Angeles to Abu Dhabi.
The team partnered with IsraAID, a relief organization from Israel, and drove the cliff-side road to Nuwakot, a remote village northwest of Kathmandu, where it set up in a school. Over three days of clinics it treated approximately 200 patients, from a three-day-old newborn to the elderly, for earthquake injuries, respiratory problems, wounds, infections and the ordinary conditions that had gone untreated. An elderly woman whose home had collapsed on her, breaking her femur and killing two of her sons, was carried in on a stretcher of tarps and bamboo poles. ReliefWorks and IsraAID arranged surgery for her and for an 83-year-old woman with a broken hip at Patan Hospital outside Kathmandu. Team Leader and Vice President Brandon Lindauer, nurse midwife Elizabeth Keit, three local nurses and the guides of Adventure Thirdpole Treks are named in the report.
In Ganeshthan a girl named Parisha helped with intake, escorted patients to and from triage and assisted with some treatments. On the last day of clinics John Everlove, a paramedic from Ventura, California, gave her the stethoscope he had brought from home, and the team said it would pursue scholarship opportunities for her. Two more elderly women were taken to Kathmandu for treatment. The team spent its final two days in Phalante and began the journey home on May 31.
In August 2015 Pure Works helped Jordan International Aid procure part of the medicine for its own Nepal mission. The blog post gives the figures: US$1,200 for the medicine and US$708.80 for its delivery to team leader Dr. Enoch Choi in California, three MAP packs with a total wholesale value of US$95,650.50, which Pure Works described as US$50.11 of medicine for each donor dollar. The paid receipt with wholesale values is linked below. Nepal Disaster Relief is one of the funds on the giving page.
