Hands of help

On Thursday, Dec. 30, Dr. Wade Erickson and his wife, Heather, were planning what to do over the New Year's holiday. Then, he received a call - there would be a meeting that evening, to see if there was anybody interested in traveling to Sri Lanka to help with the relief efforts from the devastating tsunami.

"That was Thursday night, and Friday was New Year's Eve, so not much was going on, and then Saturday was New Year's Day and Sunday was Sunday," Erickson, a doctor at Capstone Medical Clinic, recalls. "They were planning to leave on Tuesday, so that didn't give anybody much time."

But when it comes to extraordinary missions such as helping an entire region devastated by tsunami, people will go to great lengths - 11 people volunteered to go, many of them doctors and others in the medical field who dropped everything at their practices because of the opportunity to help.

Erickson and his wife, along with one of his partners at Capstone, Dr. Geoff Barry, were three of those 11.

"The pastor at the People's Church of Colombo is good friends with the pastor at the Church on the Rock, and he called and asked if there was any way he could send a team of medical professionals," Erickson said. "It was a mini-miracle it all came together like it did."

Joining the Ericksons and Barry were Elowyn Smith, Roger Hughes, John Clark, Don Cunningham, Mark Sebens, Kristin Smith, Butch Killian and Rosie Buben. They were organized by the Church on the Rock and Crossroads Community Church.

"It's something that has always been in the background at Crossroads, doing work like this, and it seemed like something we should do now," said Kathy Conn of Crossroads Community Church. "Our pastor asked if this is something we should do, and everybody agreed we needed to."

In four days, everything was organized - the team gathered donations, both of medical supplies and money - from medical practices, Valley Hospital, drug suppliers and just about everybody else they could think of.

"Tuesday night we got together at Crossroads and put everything out on the floor, because we had no idea what we all had," Erickson said. "We had sutures, medicines, anything anybody could spare. We didn't start planning until Monday and by Tuesday, everything came together."

For many, the question of whether or not to go was an easy one to answer.

"If you are able-bodied, and you can help, you have to go," Killian said of his decision. "The good you are doing makes up for the discomforts you go through."

Hughes echoed the sentiment.

"I just knew when I heard about it that it was something I needed to do," Hughes said. "There was no reason not to go, other than selfish reasons. I thought, 'I've never done something like this, and maybe it's time for me to put forth the effort to help others.'"

The team left for Sri Lanka, uncertain as to what it would encounter. The team flew into the capital city of Colombo, and from there, took a 12-hour bus ride across old, muddy farm roads, many of which had not been used in years, before arriving.

Several of the group's bags didn't arrive in time, but once they finally did, the group was met with a harsh reality.

"The health minister over there decided that he was going to confiscate all the medical supplies and put them in a big warehouse and then decide where it was needed most," Erickson said. "The group in front of us had their bags confiscated, and I said a little prayer. When we got to the front of the line, they asked what we had in our bags, and I told them, 'Gauze, some medicines, other supplies.' They said, 'OK, you can go through.' The group behind us had their bags confiscated, too."

Once the team arrived, members were amazed at what they saw.

"It was definitely devastating," Killian said. "Immediately, we met a lot of people who lost a lot of their families, a lot of kids. I met one guy who lost 57 members of his family."

Much of the body-recovering efforts and cleanup work had already been completed upon the medical team's arrival.

"I was quite pleased I didn't have to see a lot of the things I thought I'd have to see," Hughes said. "The things I dreaded most had already taken place."

The team set up a pharmacy and started seeing patients, who suffered from a variety of ailments. Many of the patients were treated for colds or flu-like symptoms, as well as a lot of asthma cases.

"We saw a ton of foot injuries and foot diseases, because they don't wear shoes over there and there was so much standing water," Erickson said. "We thought we'd see more acute diseases and thought that maybe some epidemic diseases would break out, but we never saw that while we were there."

The team of doctors, physician's assistants and other professionals traveled around the makeshift refugee camps, treating what they could and giving medicine to those in need. As the French and Finnish Red Cross agencies arrived, they moved to other camps that needed the attention the most.

The first couple of days the team was in Sri Lanka, it saw between 200 and 350 patients a day. Toward the end of the three-week stay, the patient numbers decreased.

For Killian, though, the work never stopped - rather than working with the medical team, he worked in the refugee camps, setting up the water system. That meant drilling wells, but there certainly wasn't any big rigs on the island - the wells were drilled by hand.

"Hey, I'm young at heart," Killian, a retired EMT, said. "We cleaned up churches, but digging the wells was definitely work."

There was time along the way, however, to make impressions on the local community.

While patients were being treated, many of the area's children would often crowd around the doctors, for curiosity's sake. Smith decided to teach the children a quick game Americans are well familiar with - "Duck, Duck, Goose."

The children never had heard of such a thing, but soon, they were sitting around in a circle, chasing each other and playing the game all day. A few days later, as the medical team was traveling to a new refugee camp, they were amazed to see children playing the game, miles away from where they first taught the children the game.

"It was amazing, but a lot of people there were happy, smiling and in excellent spirits," Killian said. "What they need more than anything is the chance to sit and talk to someone who will listen. Many of them have lost their entire families."

Ten members of the team returned on Tuesday, while Sebens stayed for a while to set up a permanent refugee camp. After returning home, many of the members have new outlooks.

"We have so much here, and we take it for granted," Hughes said. "I don't think I'll be nearly as wasteful anymore."