{"id":67572,"date":"2013-12-09T04:30:44","date_gmt":"2013-12-09T04:30:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.freeburmarangers.org\/?p=59299"},"modified":"2013-12-11T16:47:01","modified_gmt":"2013-12-11T16:47:01","slug":"trying-to-rescue-a-mule","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.freeburmarangers.org\/my\/2013\/12\/09\/trying-to-rescue-a-mule\/","title":{"rendered":"Trying to Rescue a Mule"},"content":{"rendered":"

FBR Report: Trying to Rescue a Mule<\/h1>\n
8 December, 2013<\/address>\n
Karen State, Burma<\/address>\n
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Stephanie the day after her rescue; we thought she would make it<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

Dear friends,<\/p>\n

Thanks for your care for all of us here and our animals too. Last week our\u00a0best mule, Stephanie collapsed on the trail outside of our training camp-Tha\u00a0U Wa camp- in Karen State. She was sick and fell off the narrow path down\u00a0into a deep ravine. Stephanie was our most powerful mule and has carried\u00a0many sick patents on her strong back as well as healthy people. My father\u00a0who is in his eighties rode her when the mountains became steep on his trips\u00a0in. She has carried thousands of pounds of relief supplies and is gentle in\u00a0spirit and willing to do anything we ask of her. She had recently become\u00a0sick and we were resting her and giving her medical treatment in our camp.
\nStephanie is named after a young girl from England who died in a motorcycle\u00a0accident as she was helping Karenni refugees in Thailand. She was a friend\u00a0of ours and her parents donated the funds to buy a mule and we named this\u00a0mule Stephanie in honor of their daughter.<\/p>\n

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Rangers on side of ravine carrying Stephanie<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Now Stephanie the mule had fallen a long way down the steep slope and was in\u00a0real trouble. She was too sick and weak to stand back up and was hung up in\u00a0vines with her feet in the air. Suu prayed for her and helped hold her head\u00a0as we cut away the jungle to pass a rope under her.<\/p>\n

We then chopped out a shelf in the slope below, slid a deflated rubber canoe\u00a0under her and lowered her down on to the boat. We then lashed her into the\u00a0boat and slid a long piece of bamboo through the ropes while other rangers\u00a0hacked out a new trail out of the side of the ravine.<\/p>\n

It took 20 of us working like ants to carry her out, some rangers sliding\u00a0and falling while others took their place. We got her back to the camp
\nclinic (JSMK). There we set her down and prayed for her. I asked Ray Kaw and\u00a0Toh- both senior medics, to start a IV on her. We all prayed again, shaved a\u00a0spot on Stephanie’s neck and held her still. Suu used a syringe filled with\u00a0water and was able to get her to swallow some of it.<\/p>\n

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Rigging Stephanie to the boat<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We could not see or feel her veins as she was very dehydrated and sick and\u00a0we prayed as Toh searched with the needle. There was flash of blood, – he\u00a0got it. Toh did a perfect needle stick the first attempt and then the IV\u00a0solution started to flow into her. We squeezed 3 I.V. bags into her and by\u00a0the time we started the fourth she was showing more life and began to nibble\u00a0the honey and crushed oats that Sahale and Suu brought her. Within an hour\u00a0she was up on her knees eating from the bucket they had for her. A little\u00a0while after that she stood up on wobbly legs. We hugged her and thanked God\u00a0for her, the medics and all the rangers who carried her.<\/p>\n

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Toh makes the stick<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Suu give Stephanie water as Ray Kaw and Toh treat her<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We gave her\u00a0antibiotics and arranged for her to stay at the camp but the next day as we\u00a0started to walk out on the mission, she shakily tried to follow us out of\u00a0the camp. We led her back to the camp where she was to rest under the care\u00a0of our medics at the clinic and hopefully recover.<\/p>\n

Today while on the\u00a0mission we got word that Stephanie did not make it. In spite of the best\u00a0efforts of the medics back at the clinic, she died. Tonight the kids cried\u00a0for Stephanie, as she was their favorite mule and carried them when they\u00a0were infants. I remember riding with little Pete across rice fields, both of us on Stephanie with Pete riding in front of me. We are all sad at her loss. We do thank God for her life and all the ways she helped us and the IDPs and\u00a0for the love she shared with us. We miss her very much.<\/p>\n

God bless you,
\nDave and all of us here<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n