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Wednesday April 6, 2011

Asian American Medical Professionals Going Beyond Borders

Nalea J. Ko, Pacific Citizen

Louise Fang knows firsthand the dangers involved with working overseas as a nurse, but she says the potential hazards are trumped by the rewards of helping patients in need of medical care.

The 63-year-old who lives in Seattle, Wash. has worked as an operating room nurse since 1972. But in 2007 she would go on her first medical mission with Doctors Without Borders (MSF), a medical humanitarian organization.

Over the years Fang would go on four medical missions, working in medically underserved areas in Nigeria, South Sudan and Georgia. Patients and staff members endearingly called her grandma.

After decades of working as a nurse, Fang says she never became desensitized to the hard realities associated with her job.

“So they came to me and then they said, ‘Oh, that patient passed away. That little baby,’” Fang said about a newborn in South Sudan. “The mom was just holding the baby. That expression was just so sad. So my tears just came out. It’s just hard. It touches you.”

MSF, which was founded in 1971 by doctors and journalists in France, has medical professionals stationed in about 60 countries worldwide.

After the 9.0 magnitude earthquake and tsunami crippled Japan, MSF sent a team of about 12 medical professionals to help the country. They have been working with patients who have chronic diseases, among other ailments.

“In one area around Minamisanriku, in northern Miyagi, we were told by officials there were 9,200 people in 20 evacuation centers who needed water, non-food items and medical attention,” said Mikiko Dotsu, the Japan team’s coordinator, in a press release.

Dotsu added that medical staff is concerned about elderly displaced residents who have chronic diseases and need medical care.

“Japan is entirely a little different because of the tsunami,” Fang explained. “The thing they actually need is materials: water and clothes. And also they need a logistic team to reestablish the roads, so they can deliver all the aid to the most-damaged areas.”

Fang says she is eager to go on her next mission, which will most likely not be Japan because of her limited availability. Doctors and nurses like Fang have varying reasons for why they joined MSF, but most say they continue to go overseas for the on-the-job rewards.

“They were always very, very grateful,” said 31-year-old Lakha Mathewkutty, a registered nurse, about her work in Nigeria. “They’ll feed you. They gave us a chicken. This is a big deal! For them, they don’t have a lot and they’re giving you a large portion of their income and sustenance. People are very, very appreciative.”

Mathewkutty — an Indian American based in Los Angeles, Calif. — went on two medical assignments to Sri Lanka and Nigeria.

Working in Northern Nigeria, Mathewkutty managed meningitis vaccination teams. In addition to challenging living conditions — including living with no running water or electricity — her medical team had to fight rumors swirling about their work.

“There were a lot of rumors about the vaccine making women sterile, that it wasn’t really for meningitis and that it was a ploy by foreigners to not allow young girls to have children,” Mathewkutty explained.

Working in rural areas overseas where high-end medical equipment is sometimes unavailable can present additional challenges for some medical professionals with MSF.

“We have to adapt. I had to adapt to learn what they have,” Fang explained. “You just have to be flexible. We did a chest, we did a thoracotomy case, opened the chest without any chest instruments. We just don’t have it. You do what you can to save lives.”

Others say the limitations of working with MSF in underdeveloped countries were minimal.
 
“It seems like work that MSF does and the work that’s done internationally caters much more to specific needs of the patients rather than a much larger infrastructure of a capitalistic money-making endeavor,” explained Dr. Aditya Nadimpalli, a general physician based in New Orleans, La.

Now MSF teams are working in the tsunami-ravaged areas of Japan. With the recovery efforts in Japan expected to take years, MSF collaborated on March 11 with the Japanese Society of Certified Clinical Psychologists to support a team of six psychologists, who will treat survivors of the earthquake.

Over 16,000 people are estimated by Japanese officials to be missing and some 11,700 are confirmed dead.

“Many people now are in a phase of acute stress disorder, which is a totally natural response to this level of trauma,” explained Ritsuko Nishimae, a clinical psychologist, in a press release. “If they are not able to get proper support psychologically, there is an increased possibility that they could develop post-traumatic stress disorder.”

Fang says she is not being stationed in Japan to help with the relief efforts, but she will possibly go on her fifth medical mission as early as May or June.

“After the first mission I really liked it,” Fang explained. “By the time I was ready to go home, all of my national staff they are so sad. They didn’t want me to go. Then a few of them came to me and said, ‘Oh, wow. You really touched my life.’ I just did my job. I didn’t realize I really did something really good.”

 

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