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Barrington 12-year-old teaches first aid in Nepal

While many were stirred to action after the devastating Nepali earthquake a year ago, relatively few Americans were inspired to travel halfway across the world to help. And even fewer were 12 years old.

Ian McKeirnan, a Barrington middle schooler, spent 12 days last month in and around Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal, training people older than him in emergency first aid and rescue.

Ian also assembled and donated 100 first-aid kits, and an emergency defibrillator.

To accomplish all that, Ian needed hours of emergency training usually reserved for people 16 and older. He also dedicated himself to fundraising and soliciting donations from medical supply companies.

According to those who know him best, it isn't shocking that Ian put in the work.

“It didn't surprise me because when Ian puts his mind to something, he just does it,” said Gary Rizzio, one of Ian's wrestling coaches. “It's a great characteristic to have as a young man.”

“He's really a remarkable kid,” said Ian's mother, Angela McKeirnan. “I always say I'm happy he's smart, but I'm really proud he has a big heart.”

Life after the quake

The April 25, 2015, earthquake killed nearly 9,000 people, injured more than 23,000 and caused around $10 billion in damage. Centuries-old buildings were leveled.

Signs of the destruction are plentiful a year later all over Kathmandu, a city of just over 1 million people. In the older areas of the city, Ian and his dad, Edwin McKeirnan - who, at his wife's insistence, traveled with Ian - saw brick buildings propped up haphazardly by shaky timber supports.

“The walls would be bending in,” Ian said.

“It's not just a few places,” Edwin said. “There's thousands of buildings like that.”

Nepalese people who had money or connections to relief funds rebuilt their homes after the quake. But those who had neither could only clear away the rubble and put up shelters. The dust and pollution of the city hurt Ian's throat and lungs to the extent, so he began wearing a face mask.

In the mountainous countryside, it was difficult for Ian and Edwin McKeirnan to know if the people living without homes had lost them in the earthquake or were too poor to have homes to begin with.

Apart from a few substantial aftershocks that hit in the weeks after the big earthquake, the Himalayan nation routinely is shaken by smaller quakes.

“While we were there they had a 4.0, and two days before we got there, there was a 4.5,” Edwin McKeirnan said.

“4.6,” Ian interjected.

“You get those a few times a month,” Edwin finished.

Ian McKiernan, 12, teaches how to apply a tourniquet to a group of Nepalese people during a 12-day trip to Nepal last month. courtesy of Edwin McKiernan

The McKeirnans traveled with a Scottish first-aid training company called Venture Medical. They learned of the company in October, when Edwin's 99-year-old mother told him they had a distant Scottish relative - her second cousin's son - named Craig Borthwick who works with the company.

Venture Medical was in Nepal to teach emergency first aid to the country's Boy Scout troops. Edwin McKeirnan said Scouting is a bigger part of Nepalese culture than it is in America and Scouts are expected to be among the nation's first responders in emergencies.

The Venture training sessions that Ian was a part of were attended by Boy Scout leaders from around the country, so those leaders could then go back to their own regions and train their troops.

Borthwick was delighted to have Ian join them.

“His enthusiasm for training and helping others was clearly evident and he was a huge hit with our Nepalese students,” Borthwick said via email.

For some of the trainees, the quake was a devastating personal experience. Ian said one of his trainees had stepped out of his home only moments before the quake hit and had to watch as the building behind him collapsed.

“He actually pulled six people out of the rubble,” Ian said. “He saved his entire family.”

Rescuers are also needed in Nepal because of the perilous roads.

“Some places it's a 1½-lane road and there's two buses passing each other and there's a 1,000-foot drop on one side,” Ian said. “Buses will go off the edge and it's really hard for the rescuers to get down to the bottom.”

Trainers taught the Scouts how to perform a mountain rescue using a single piece of rope both as an anchor and a harness so they could rappel down a mountain. They also gave instructions on applying tourniquets and bandages, and other lifesaving first aid.

Ian McKiernan, 12, center, conducts a training session in the Kakani district of Nepal. courtesy of Edwin McKiernan

Edwin McKeirnan, who did not get the same training as his son, stood to the side and watched as the trainees grouped attentively around Ian, leaning in to hear him talk. Ian said many of the trainees spoke English well and those who couldn't would have it translated for them by other trainees.

Edwin was proud, and even humbled by what he saw.

“When somebody hears about a 12-year-old going over to train adults, I can imagine some people are skeptical,” he said. “But there's no doubt he was in there participating and helping, and giving guidance and showing his command of the information.”

Too young to certify

Before he could train others, Ian had to go through rigorous training back home, where most every class he took was intended for people older than himself.

Ian received wilderness first-aid training from the Boy Scouts Three Fires Council in St. Charles. He underwent Red Cross instructors' training for CPR and first aid, and got hands-on training with paramedics at the Wauconda Fire District.

He was not eligible to be certified because of his age. But in Nepal, being certified “doesn't matter,” Ian said.

Ian also took the lead in preparing a donation of 100 large first-aid bags and a defibrillator to the Boy Scouts of Nepal, appealing with his dad to medical supply companies for help.

One company, Adventure Medical, sold Ian first-aid kits wholesale, which he then sold to the community to raise funds. Ian also solicited donations from members of Barrington Rotary and St. Anne Catholic church of Barrington.

He used that money to buy 100 first-aid bags with enough equipment for 25 people each from a company called Ever Ready First Aid. He supplemented the kits with other medical supplies bought from Ever Ready and from the Hospital Sisters of St. Francis in Springfield, who sold to Ian at $1 per pound.

Ian McKiernan poses with the 300 pounds of medical supplies his family donated to Boy Scouts in Nepal. courtesy of Edwin McKiernan

Boy Scout Troop 29 of Barrington, where Ian is a member, helped assemble the kits, which were then stuffed into seven large duffel bags, six of which were donated by Cabela's.

Ian used his remaining money to buy a defibrillator from AED Professionals in Palatine. Edwin McKeirnan said a Nepali Boy Scout official told them that it would be only the sixth or seventh defibrillator in the country.

The final hurdle was getting the supplies halfway around the world. Etihad Airlines, based in the United Arab Emirates, agreed to increase the amount of luggage the McKeirnans could carry to 300 pounds.

Once in Nepal, the first-aid kits were distributed among all 75 districts in Nepal. The defibrillator remains at Boy Scout headquarters in Kathmandu.

“What he's done is pretty darned unusual for a 12-year-old,” Edwin McKeirnan said, the day after he and Ian returned from Nepal last week.

“It's hard for my son to surprise me because I have very high expectations for him.” Edwin paused, beginning to get emotional.

“But he exceeded them, he really did.”

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