For a lot of EMS providers, it’s difficult to imagine an entire country not having a single ambulance. But until August 2014 that was a reality in the West African nation of Burkina Faso.

Now, after not having a single ambulance to serve its population of 17 million until a few months ago, Burkina Faso, a country about eh size of Colorado, will soon be receiving a second, thanks to a donation from Ryan Brothers Ambulance Service, based in Madison, WI, in December.

The windfall for Burkina Faso can be largely traced to two people: Hassimi Traore and Dawn Kiernan.

Traore, a chemistry professor at the university of Wisconsin-Whitewater, is a native of Burkina Faso. When he just 12 years old, he witnessed his best friend, his “brother,” get hit by a car hit by a car in his home village of Dédougou. There is no 9-1-1 system in Burkina Faso, so the only way to a clinic or hospital was to walk or, at the time, go by a cart pulled by livestock. Because Traore’s friend was unable to reach a clinic, he died.

Traore told himself that one day he would help his village so people wouldn’t have to die because there was no way to get to a hospital.

To fulfill this vow, in 2011 Traore purchased a 1990 Ford ambulance. It took him three years to pay it off with his own money. That was the ambulance that was delivered to Burkina Faso in August.

It was while he was raising funds to get the ambulance and medical supplies over to Africa that Traore was introduced to Kiernan, an EMT in Whitewater. Kiernan helped send out nearly 700 letters asking for assistance with the endeavor, one of which landed in the lap of Ryan Brothers co-owner Patrick Ryan.

Ryan notes company policy dictates once a vehicle hits 200,000 miles it can longer be used to transport patients. “Normally we’d remount it, but this time I remembered that letter I’d received,” Ryan says. “I thought, let’s just get a new one and donate this ambulance.”

In addition to the ambulance, Ryan Brothers donated a variety of back-up medical equipment and supplies to stock the rig. And when it starts its new life in Burkina Faso this spring, it will bring a little Wisconsin with it as a reminder of where it came from.

“All of the Ryan Brothers decals will remain on the ambulance,” says Kiernan. “The one we took over in August even still has its Wisconsin license plate.”

Sorely Needed

To say the new ambulance will be a benefit to the people of Burkina Faso is an understatement.

According to Kiernan, Burkina Faso’s only hospital is staffed by just six doctors—three general practitioners, one OB/GYN, one pediatrician and one surgeon. The first ambulance serves an area with a population of about 1.8 million people. Since August, it’s already transported about 500 patients, people who might never have made it to the hospital previously.

Kiernan was able to accompany the first ambulance on its trip to Burkina Faso with a group of volunteers, though the group hit a snag when the ambulance got waylaid in Ghana. “We’d hoped to do some training with the staff in Dédougou, but with our supplies unavailable we couldn’t do as much as we wanted.”

Still, Kiernan, who says she’s found a friend for life in Traore, plans to return to Burkina Faso with another group to continue the work she’s started. There, Kiernan and her colleagues will be able to provide more extensive EMS training and provide some much-needed assistance in an area where medical supplies and manpower are often scarce. “We’ll go back over once the threat of Ebola has truly subsided. Our goal is to bring other EMTs, stay in Dédougou and work in the hospital for a couple weeks.”

Source: Jason Busch is an associate editor for EMS World.