Trail Angels

I hiked part of the Appalachian Trail last year and they call them trail angel. Basically when the most appropriate item/person shows up at the most opportune time to leave you a small piece of heaven to maintain your sanity or survival, it was left by a "trail angel". This trip has been full of them. The last couple of days have been the most trying. I have been in charge of the medical operations on the Physician side as well as responsible for the ICU. At a trying time when temperatures were extremely hot, tempers (and staffing) were running short, out of the "sky" appeared a team from Utah. A surgeon, a translator, and a medic just happened to hop a helicopter from PAP to see if we needed help, and indeed we did! We put them to work and it allowed both the medical teams and surgeons to benefit from their expertise and experience.

Whether it's the military, that shows up to bring us much needed food and supplies, or the 2 pediatric nurses that appeared just when I was ready to throw in the towel when we had no overnight coverage in the ICU for our sickest pediatric burn patients or the UN just when we need them to beef up security....it is truly unexplainable.