Hi guys!

Thanks for the responses and your well wishes, specifically aejay, zaikenhuo, jeff28, yhods69, coffeeavenu, keen, ang_pusa, yhfar07, agent_trinity05, shadownmuning. I appreciate them.

I got lots of questions to answer, so if you don’t find your question here, it will most likely pop up in the next blog.

Sino ang mas lalong nahirapan kayo ba o ang castaways?

This is a matter of opinion. The best person to answer this is a castaway who became a member of the production team, and there is absolutely no one in SP who has experienced both.

Anyway, I would say that the castaways and the production crew live on different levels of difficulty. Their psych concerns are different, but it would be Doc Sam who can enlighten you better on that subject.

The difference is that we have regular food intake (Thai or Filipino food galore), a real bed, electricity even if it were only for 12 hours in our individual cottages, and the internet and electricity at the base camp which ran for 24 hours! (Thank God!).

However, I would say that our lifestyle was more physical and grueling.

In addition, the production team and the park rangers made sure that the environment for everyone was safe to roam around in.

However, we didn’t have to deal with the hunger everyday, the challenge to survive the elements, and the various psychological issues that a castaway dealt with, which to me was their biggest challenge.

How did you manage victims of snake bites?

Snake handlers have come to be a small sub-group in our medical team.

As part of their expertise and skill, they can properly identify snakes that are endemic to Koh Tarutao and can administer the proper first aid specific to the species of snakes.

This is important because we need them to do this during transport of our victim to Langu Hospital by speedboat or by chopper.

Our Thai doctor-counterparts do not recommend providing our base camp in Tarutao with anti-venom for valid reasons.

First, proper assessment whether a victim needs anti-venom in the first place is essential.

Anti-venom treatment carries a risk of severe adverse reactions so it should only be used when the victim will really benefit from it.

Second, according to the WHO Guidelines for the Clinical Management of Snake Bite in South East Asia Region (2005), Thailand is one of the few countries in SE Asia to have monovalent or monospecific anti-venom.

This means that it can neutralize a venom of only one species of snakes and that they have a lot of different anti-venom available.

The bad news is that if the species of snake is not properly identified, then that poses some difficulty.

Unlike in countries like the Philippines, the available polyvalent or polyspecific anti-venom allows neutralization of more than one species of snakes.

It is, therefore, important to bring the victim to Langu for our Thai doctor-counterparts to conduct blood tests and evaluate whether the victim needs the anti-venom.

If needed, then they will have to administer the anti-venom and confine the victim in Langu so they can be closely monitored and managed accordingly.

Fotunately for us, despite living among snakes, there was no incidence of snake bites. Education on the subject, vigilance and our snake handlers all played key roles.

And blood loss?

I assume you are talking about massive blood loss. In this situation, we can manage the victim initially and with IV fluids which we have in Tarutao.

Again, immediate transport by speedboat or chopper to Langu is the essential thing here.

Blood transfusion is not as simple as taking out a bag of blood from the ref; it still is better to transport the victim to a hospital.

And, yes, fortunately, we did not encounter such case.

Do you have insurance?

The Survivor Team – the production team (Phante Malacca tribe) and the castaways – had insurance.

That’s it for this week!