Little steps, big operation- Carol Pitman helped assess the patients to determine their surgery needs. 58653

By Mara Pattison-Sowden
WANDIN mother of three Carol Pitman experienced four days in a Fijian hospital helping as many as 80 patients through major surgeries as a Rotary Ambassador.
Mrs Pitman, who was the first woman to join Wandin Rotary several years ago, became overwhelmed with the local and international projects that Rotary supports.
Wandin Rotary raised $42,000 to send an Interplast team and the equipment needed for a two-week visit to help residents of Lautoka in Fiji.
A team of two surgeons, two anaesthetists and two theatre nurses from Interplast – a project set up 25 years ago by the Royal Australian College of Surgeons – is sent to a third-world country to help provide free treatment to people living with medical conditions, who would not otherwise be able to afford and access services.
“These are things like cleft palates, cleft lips, tumours, burns and bad scarring,” Mrs Pitman said.
“People go totally untreated and they are cast out of society.”
More than 22 countries are involved, and more than 400 surgical teams have completed more than 17,000 operations.
Mrs Pitman said the task of raising the money was made easier by mentally breaking down the amount into something that seemed achievable.
“I said to (Wandin Rotary president) Gavin McIntyre that if you break it down to 30 members in the club, with a minimum of 60 operations in two weeks, that would equal $700 an operation,” she said.
Mrs Pitman said she had planned to take 12 months to raise the money but through Wandin Rotary the local community donated the full amount in just over 100 days.
“I had the idea, but Gavin drove the idea along,” she said.
“Everybody got behind it – families came on board so we had little amounts and businesses gave thousand-dollar amounts so each sponsor felt like they owned an operation.
“There was a huge heart behind the whole thing and they were all Seville, Wandin and Mount Evelyn locals.”
Mrs Pitman accompanied the medical team to Lautoka in August 2009 for an “absolutely life-changing event”, and stayed for four days assisting with administration and preparing patients for surgery.
“When the Queen visited in the 1950s, they built roads and a hospital to impress her, but the infrastructure is falling apart and hasn’t been upgraded since, so we had to take every piece of equipment needed with us,” she said.
“We worked from 8am to 8pm, and the patients would come in their best dressed clothes from islands further away.”
Mrs Pitman said Lautoka was a successful Interplast destination that had two visits a year.
“It was awe-inspiring what these doctors do – and how they do it,” she said.
“The matron at the hospital is unbelievable; each visit she always has people lined up and ready for us.”
Mrs Pitman said she had the job of taking the children from their parents and getting them ready for the operating room, “and that was so sad, there were a couple of times that it would just choke you up”.
“There were a lot of burns from kerosene cookers. It’s the cheapest way to cook but very dangerous,” she said.
“We even had patients from previous visits come back to show off and thank us.”
Mrs Pitman said medical teams, who take two weeks of their annual leave to volunteer on the project, were constantly waiting to go to developing countries.
“There’s just not enough money, but we will do it again – you just have to break it down,” she said.
“I’m passionate about it; I would like other people to see what we do.”
Interplast was so taken with how Wandin Rotary raised the money that Mrs Pitman and Mr McIntyre now go to other Rotary groups to persuade them to get on board as well.
They are now looking to start raising money for their next trip to Lautoka, with a dinner and silent auction on 17 March at Coldstream’s Stones of the Yarra Valley Winery.
Casey MP Tony Smith formally thanked Mrs Pitman on behalf of the Australian Government for her contribution as a Rotary Ambassador and presented her and several other Casey volunteers with certificates of appreciation.