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Friday, February 24, 2006
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Medical mission Brainerd team puts in an exhausting stint at Tanzanian government hospital - and they're anxious to go back Staff Writer They cared for about 1,500 patients in seven days while based out of a government hospital in Tanzania.
And while a team of Brainerd area medical professionals and other volunteers may still be recuperating from their exhaustive medical mission last month in East Africa, they're also making plans to return to Tanzania next year.
Several area medical professionals, many of whom have participated for years in medical missions to Guatemala and a trip to Tanzania two years ago, traveled to Singida in central Tanzania from Jan. 12-28, providing dental, medical and surgical services for the country's poorest of residents. Seven of the group members arrived a week earlier to set up the mobile medical unit.
During their 16-hour work days, the Outreach Africa medical team performed a variety of tasks, delivering babies, removing tumors and badly decayed teeth and saving lives.
Fifty-seven people participated in the medical mission with 31 of them from the Brainerd lakes area. Organizers of the medical mission were Brainerd area registered nurses Sharon Kramer and Sharon Manion and Dr. Paul Milloy.
How to help
The dedicated group of Brainerd area medical professionals who have gone for years to Guatemala and now East Africa on medical mission trips has teamed up with Outreach Africa, a nonprofit organization working to improve the lives of the people of Tanzania.
The medical team plans to return to Tanzania next year.
To make a donation or learn more about the medical mission spearheaded by Brainerd volunteers and other current Outreach projects, visit the Web site www.outreachafrica.org.
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Planning the trip took at least 18 months, with the group hosting fund-raisers to purchase medical supplies and equipment. While they were based out of a 220-bed government hospital, the hospital had few supplies and little modern equipment. Everything the team needed, including power generators to operate their equipment, had to be shipped earlier to the hospital. Both St. Joseph's Medical Center and Brainerd Medical Center were generous in donating supplies for the medical mission, said Kramer.
The team members sent more than $700,000 worth of equipment and medical supplies for their medical mission, with the majority of equipment remaining in the country to be used by three regional hospitals.
The team included four Brainerd physicians, Dr. Paul Milloy, internal medicine; Dr. Carol Uhlman, obstetrician/surgeon; Dr. Dale Hadland, family practice; and Dr. Linda Marden, neurology, and a Brainerd dentist, Dr. Arnie Rutman. The volunteers slept at a social center in the small city, run by four Catholic nuns. To get to Singida from Brainerd, they traveled 18 hours by plane and 12 hours by bus.
The medical team dealt with many diseases and ailments not typically found in the United States, including malnutrition, diarrhea and tropical diseases. One patient they treated had been mauled by a hyena while getting water from a community well. The severely injured man had to walk three days to get to the hospital. While a pregnant woman in the United States may easily go to the kitchen sink for a glass of water, Manion said the team treated pregnant mothers so dehydrated from a lack of available water that they were suffering from seizures. They performed four cesarean sections while in Tanzania.
"They're doing the best they can with what they have, but they have very little," Manion said of the Tanzanian doctors.
"The poverty is unbelievable and the people are wonderful and accepting of us, so trusting," added Kramer. "I don't think you can understand the poverty until you see it and experience it."
While 31 people from Brainerd may have made the journey to East Africa, many others back home have helped make a difference in Tanzania. Quilters from St. Francis Catholic Church, Trinity Lutheran Church and the Quilts for Kids organization in Pequot Lakes all donated quilts for each of the hospital's 220 beds. When Kramer visited the hospital last fall in preparation for the mission, she was disturbed that all the beds only had black plastic mats. Now, thanks to the area quilters, each of the beds has a bedsheet and a handmade quilt. The babies born at the hospital while the team was there were given baby quilts to be wrapped up in and a baby kit that included everything the new mom would need, from infant clothes to medical supplies.
The team also traveled outside the hospital, providing medical services and food through Outreach Africa's Kids Against Hunger program for groups of homeless streetchildren. It was a heartbreaking experience to see, the many young children without homes and families, Brainerd team members said. The team bought them six soccer balls and gathered up new T-shirts, hats, toys and sodas for the children.
"They'd say, 'Hold me,' Manion said of the streetchildren. "They just wanted to be touched and loved."
Milloy, who is planning to participate in another medical mission trip to Guatemala in March, said once you go on one of these medical missions, it's hard not to volunteer again.
"The trips in general generate a momentum of their own," said Milloy.
"Seeing the smiles from the children and the patients is the best part," Manion said of these medical missions.
Kramer compared the planning of a medical mission to a Third World country to setting up a hospital in your backyard without access to electricity.
"And you've got 500 neighbors coming over the next day," added Milloy.
Kramer thanked the Brainerd community for its support of this medical mission. This was the largest team this group has ever had. Team members came from North Dakota, Oregon, Iowa and Minnesota.
Team members from Brainerd also included Ruth Adams, Robyn Argir, Ben Bernatsky, Michelle Burris, Jerry Engelbrecht, Verla Engelbrecht, Shauna Fuhrer, Cal Gilson, Norma Gilson, Sue Hadland, Aimee Jambor, Karen Kochsiek, Marcia Kohl, Marianne Milloy, Greyson Morrow, Barb Munson, Chris Rosinger, Brady Rutman, Denny Schanzenbach, Rosy Schanzenbach, Dave Schultz, Sharon Schultz, John Westphal and Josh Westphal.
JODIE TWEED can be reached at jodie.tweed@brainerddispatch.com or 855-5858.
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