An Addenbrooke’s emergency department nurse who joined a courageous search and rescue mission following terrifying earthquakes in Morocco has received royal recognition for her work.
Royal College of Emergency Medicine advanced clinical practitioner in ED, Deborah Swann, was on Tuesday (18 Feb) among the first invited to Buckingham Palace to receive the new Humanitarian Medal conferred by King Charles
Announced in July 2023, the medal is a new national form of recognition awarded to public servants and organisation members contributing to global humanitarian responses on behalf of HM Government.
Deborah, who was deployed in September 2023 with the UK International Search and Rescue team (UK ISAR), said:
It was a privilege to have an audience with the King and an absolute honour to be among the first cohort to receive the medal.
Deborah Swann
Deborah, who months earlier joined a similar mission to Turkey’s after devastating earthquakes, travelled in a Chinook helicopter before boarding an Army truck.
She and her medical team colleagues endured windy flying conditions and treacherous mountain roads to reach some of the most remote villages, with rockfalls and landslides crashing around them.
They set up a base camp and medical tent, but despite their best efforts with search dogs, were unable to find any survivors among the flattened buildings.
Deborah said their 10-day mission to Morocco in soaring temperatures was in sharp contrast to Turkey where they worked in sub-zero conditions and found multiple survivors among the semi-collapsed buildings in Hatay province and Antakya city.
She explained:
By the nature of how buildings are constructed in the remote villages we visited in Morocco, there were very few left standing.
Although we could find no survivors my overwhelming memory will be of the gratitude of those that we did manage to help. It was an incredible experience and different to Turkey in so many ways.
Deborah Swann
Deborah joined UKISAR with the support of her ED colleagues 13 years ago. It followed a gruelling selection process that recognised skills that push the boundaries of what people think a nurse is.
In addition to being a RCEM credentialed advanced clinical practitioner in ED, she undertakes pre-hospital emergency medicine in Birmingham, is qualified in confined space work, working at height, in water rescue, and expedition medicine.
UK ISAR serves as the official UK Government response funded by the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO).
The team can deploy within a six to 10 hour timeframe from a designated national point of departure and includes personnel from 14 of the UK’s fire and rescue services, with support from medical teams, structural engineers and vets.
- All pictures courtesy of Deborah Swann.