An interview with: Krishna Patel
Krishna is a 29 year old who’s been a junior doctor for five years and on track to become a GP. So far, pretty normal. However after taking part in a yacht race round the world in 2017, not so normal, Krishna has now set her sights on expedition medicine.
Expedition medicine entails planning for any medical eventuality on an expedition, usually in a remote place where access to medical facilities is difficult. Krishna got her first taste of remote medicine in Honduras in 2010 where, as part of her second year of university, she helped set up a clinic for people that travelled for days to get medical help. What interested Krishna the most was that you never knew what was going to happen. “There’s only so far you can plan because in environments like Honduras there’s no local hospital, scan equipment or specialist doctors to rely on. You have to think on your feet and react. I realised I liked that feeling, it sparked an interest in something I hadn’t thought of before.” Krishna says.
After Honduras, life carried on for Krishna. She finished her degree and started as a junior doctor. In 2016, after a particularly bad night on shift and filled with feelings of doubt about the career she had chosen, Krishna saw a poster on the London Underground advertising a yacht race, the Clipper Round the World Yacht race. This race is the world’s only amateur circumnavigation of the globe which means anyone can take part even if you have no sailing experience or never stepped foot on a boat before. Krishna knew of the race. Back when she was doing her A-levels, she’d joked with her friends that if she didn’t get into university she would sign up. She did go to university though and had’t thought about it since. But that evening and given the day she’d had, in her own words she thought “F**k it, I’m going to go for it and see how it goes”. Krishna had only been on ferries never a small boat. Although the Clipper yachts that race round the world are 70ft they are very small compared to ferries.
So now imagine being on a yacht, thousands of miles away from land with 20 other people you don’t really know; add in rough seas, sea sickness, extreme cold and heat, minimal sleep, no showers or chance of setting foot on solid ground for weeks at a time. What you have is the perfect setting for expedition medicine and, unintentionally, Clipper re-ignited Krishna’s interest and passion for it.
“Like Honduras, with Clipper I liked how we had to think on our feet. I felt real adrenaline as you had to deal with whatever was thrown at you, sometimes quite literally, there and then. You’re outside of your comfort zone, having to figure out what to do when you may not know 100% how to do it, with no possibility of being airlifted to hospital. I remember one of our crew fell out of her bunk at the back of the boat and as she had fallen a nail had cut her arm deeply. We had to suture her arm but sewing a wound ideally needs a flat, calm surface which out in the ocean isn’t easy. We were sailing upwind which means it’s a very bumpy ride and we had to move her to the middle of the boat for more stability. We also had to communicate to the rest of the crew that if they wanted to change direction, which would have meant the whole boat flipping to the other side, they needed to tell us! I found this so exciting. All the preparation that we had done before we left shore – getting the right medical kit, placing it somewhere accessible, thinking about the situations that might need medical help and what we would do if they happened – all this all comes into play once its real. It’s a lot of logistics to do right there and then which was fun, and I felt like I was learning again.”
Once finishing the boat race and back on dry land, Krishna went straight back to being a doctor but the Clipper experience stayed with her. She wanted to spend more time learning about expedition medicine and dealing with situations which gave her a similar experience – luckily time in A&E gave her just that. In A&E she knew dealing with emergency situations was going to build her confidence as she’d have to react in the moment which is an expedition medicine requisite. Krishna’s also been to conferences where she’s heard first hand from those in the medical profession talking about their experience of working in mountains, Antarctica and even Space. She’s recognised there are lots of routes in to expedition medicine but you have to make your own way, find opportunities where you can and see where they take you.
“I know I need to build confidence every day and learn from the people around me, whether that’s in A&E or on expedition medicine training weekends. I also don’t want to look back on my life and regret not trying something. Even if it doesn’t work out I know I’ll learn something from it. I’m inspired by seeing ordinary people doing incredible things, just as my grandparents have inspired me, and I want to do that too. Hopefully one day I’ll lead an expedition.”
Article by Claire Stafford