I was flying one of the Intel flights. In Sabah we had an ex Colonial Office bod who was in Borneo before and during the 2nd WW. He could speak the local Murat language fluently and his job was to find out what was happening the other side of the border. On this occasion we went to a longhouse perched on the side of a hill overlooking the river about 5 miles short of the Indonesian border. There I shut down for the couple of hours that he required to get his information.
My attention was drawn to a young boy, about 9 years old, who had massive sores on his leg between the knee and the ankle. This was obviouly very serious and the Int officer gave his opinion that it was Yaws, a possible fatal disease. As he had time to spare I fired up, I was single pilot without a crewman, and flew to Pensiangan, the nearest village with any facilities. There I went to the WHO rep, a Taiwanese, and discussed the problem. He said that he could not give an opinion without seeing him so I bundled the WHO representitive and his assistant into my Whirlwind and flew them to the longhouse. He confirmed the Int Off opinion and declared that he would have to go to hospital in short order otherwise he was going to be in big trouble.
My decision was that when the Int Off had finished I would fly the boy to Jessleton (Kota Kinabalu) dropping the WHO party off at Pensiangan and the Int Off at Sepulot. Whilst we were waiting for the Int Off to finish the WHO chap had a long procession of sick Murats looking to be cured. There then came the problem of who was going to accompany the boy to Jessleton so one of his uncles was inveigled.
We took off, dropped the WHO party, and at Sepulot refuelled and picked up another pilot to help with the admin for the next trip. Our operators at Sepulot alerted the hospital at Jessleton and when we arrived the was an Ambulance awaiting to take him to hospital.
They would not get in the Ambulance.
They had never seen a vehicle with wheels on. Helicopters were OK, they saw them every day, but boxes that closed doors around you was not acceptable. The staff with the Ambulance did not speak Murat so eventually using sign language the ambulance drove off to the hospital with the boy and his uncle walking behind.
He was cured, in a manner of speaking and a civvy Twin Pin dropped him off at Sepulot. We would like to have flown him back home but we had nothing going that way so they walked.
Forty miles; a couple of days.
Last edited by Fareastdriver; 19th Jul 2012 at 15:32.