While Queensland sweltered in a heat wave, Griffith University disaster expert Dr Hamish McLean tackled minus 30 degree temperatures in remote Mongolia to help the country’s health services.
Dr McLean, a senior lecturer in the School of Humanities, Languages and Social Science, joined Mongolian medics near the frozen Siberian border to see first-hand how the country was dealing with a declared winter disaster.
“The winter is particularly harsh this year which means local communities, and their livestock, can face extremely difficult freezing conditions – the reverse of Australia,” he said.
“While ambulance services in Australia were warning about dehydration, their counterparts in Mongolia were dealing with frostbite and hypothermia.”
Near the Siberian border, Dr McLean joined specialist medical teams transported to the ger (tent) homes of several nomadic families by old Russian ambulances (pictured below).
“Providing in-home specialist medical care helped overcome the lack of resources to get people in rural areas into hospitals,” he