Stronghold Newsletter - January to March 2023
When providing medical care in conflict zones, life hangs in the balance — and every minute counts.
This past quarter in Burma, the Stronghold medical team saved some lives and lost others.
It is especially hard to lose team members, and we lost one of our most courageous and beloved friends, Saw Baw Boe. But his work lives on, and because of him, many people who would have otherwise died in the past few months are still with us today.
Remembering Saw Baw Boe
It is with broken hearts that we honor the ultimate sacrifice of one of Stronghold’s most courageous and committed team members, Saw Baw Boe.
Saw Bae Boe, hunting for birds. He would have been incredibly lucky to hit a flying bird from a moving boat - hence the grin.
In January, a three-man Stronghold team conducted a long-range scouting and medical relief mission. They needed to go deep into an area of Burma under the oppressive control of the Burma Army. Saw Baw Boe led them as their guide and interpreter.
During the team’s mission, a large group of Burma Army soldiers attacked some villages near where the Stronghold team was working. There was no time to flee, so the villagers began to fight back, protecting their families and children. The Stronghold team needed to provide emergency medical care to casualties and refused to evacuate.
It was during this time, caught in the crossfire, that a piece of shrapnel from an explosion struck Saw Baw Boe in the head. For hours the Stronghold team worked to save him, but the next day, in the early dawn, he passed away.
Saw Baw Boe was a beloved husband and father, and leaves behind his wife and 3 children. He was also a devout Christian. One of his favorite verses was Romans 8:28: “And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.”
He laid down his life serving others as a member of Stronghold Rescue & Relief. We will not forget his courage and sacrifice.
Stronghold’s Jungle Ambulance Service
Many others will remember Saw Baw Boe as well: he leaves behind a project that will have an enduring impact on critically sick and injured patients in Burma. Stronghold owes him a massive debt of gratitude for catalyzing one of our most ambitious Burma projects to date: the jungle ambulance service.
One of Stronghold’s new jungle ambulances, rugged enough to master backcountry Burma roads.
This was a project Saw Baw Boe spearheaded. Before this, there was no way to carry patients to a clinic to receive intensive care except on foot. Needless to say, the trips were often too long. Patients needed a faster method of transport, and Saw Baw Boe coordinated the many people and parts necessary to install functioning vehicle ambulances along difficult jungle routes.
The first two ambulances (pictured below) launched in February, only a few weeks after the village attack. They have already transported over 200 patients, many of whom come from conflict areas where they were injured by gunfire, landmines, mortars, and bombing attacks.
With these ambulances, Stronghold can stage critical care medical personnel close to conflict areas and get their patients to clinics within hours – something that can mean the difference between life and death.
Stronghold ambulances ready and waiting.
Saving A Wounded Soldier
⚠️ Warning: Graphic image below. It is hidden by default. You can click to view it.
One of those life-or-death incidents happened in March.
A call came in to a Stronghold ambulance team positioned at the end of a dirt road far in the jungle. The callers needed to evacuate a young soldier. He had been critically wounded in the leg while defending civilians from a Burma Army attack and his companions were carrying him out from a remote jungle location.
More than eight hours passed before they arrived at the pickup point. The soldier was going into shock. He had lost a lot of blood on the way, and the only thing keeping him alive was a tourniquet someone had applied to his leg — a tourniquet that the Stronghold team had provided several weeks earlier.
The ambulance team acted quickly, stabilizing him at the pickup site. Then they began driving to their destination, a remote medical clinic run by American and Burmese doctors. For four hours they drove through the jungle mountains over dangerous and rough dirt roads, a trip that would have taken multiple days without the ambulance.
The soldier arrives at the ambulance pickup site with a tourniquet on his leg. Stronghold personnel load him onto a litter and stabilize him.
The young soldier is loaded into the ambulance.
Checking the IV fluids used to stabilize the patient.
When the team arrived at the clinic, the doctors acted quickly, drawing blood from donors at the clinic site and giving it to the soldier in multiple blood transfusions.
It was exactly what he needed. He revived.
Doctors cleaned and treated the wound on his leg. When they were done, one of the American doctors came over and thanked the Stronghold team.
If they had arrived 30 minutes later, he said, the patient would be dead. The ambulance had been just in time to save his life.
Without Saw Baw Boe’s initiative and persistence, many of the patients riding on Stronghold ambulances, like the soldier in March, would not be alive today. Saw Baw Boe may not be here to see them, but his work means they will live on.
We will not forget him.
We miss you, Saw Baw Boe.