Last week's speaker was welcomed by President Peter Farr. Dr Kerry Mathewson is a GP in Callander and a Lt. Colonel in the Territorial Army 225 Scottish Medical Regiment, based in Dundee. His talk was intriguingly entitled 'From Teith to the Tigris and beyond'.
Kerry told the meeting that he joined the TA after the first Gulf War and one of his first assignments was to Kenya where he was involved in administering Polio treatment - a subject very close to Rotary's heart. Kerry served for 6 months in Iraq in 2005 as the Senior Medical Officer to Task Force Maysan then had a further tour of six months to Camp Bastion in Afghanistan in 2009. His illustrated talk showed how the limited resources they had were used to best effect and how lessons learned in the field of operations can provide valuable information to improve treatment in the NHS; in particular, he spoke about 'the Golden Hour' - the first hour following the injury - in which faster treatment can result in a far greater chance of survival. Front line troops were taught how to stop hemorrhage and administer basic first aid before medical help arrived.
Some of the more distressing aspects of the conflicts were the injuries to children, particularly from indiscriminate explosive devices and the poor facilities available in the Afghan Health service meant treatment was very basic.
After fielding a range of questions from members, Billy Phillips gave Kerry a well-deserved vote of thanks.