wfn.org | United Methodist physician treats Hurricane Mitch survivors

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.UMC.ORG>]

Dec. 2, 1998	Contact: Thomas S. McAnally(615)742-5470 Nashville,
Tenn.     {708}

NOTE:  Photo available with this story.

By Paul Jeffrey*

SAN ANTONIO DE CHIQUILA, Honduras (UMNS) -- Joe Dorn gave up his
Thanksgiving turkey dinner to come to Honduras and help the victims of
Hurricane Mitch.

A family physician at Citrus Memorial Hospital in Inverness, Fla., he
previously had visited in May to offer his services at a Methodist
clinic on the island of Utila off the Caribbean coast of this Central
American country. When Hurricane Mitch struck at the end of October,
Dorn couldn't resist the pull to come back.

"We just felt like this is where we needed to be," said Dorn, a member
of First United Methodist Church in Inverness. So he brought along his
17-year old son Aaron as a translator, arriving on Thanksgiving Day to
volunteer his services to the Christian Commission for Development
(CCD).

CCD sent him to the northern province of Santa Barbara in hopes he could
reach several communities that have been cut off for weeks from medical
care. But the heavy rain that began falling the day before Thanksgiving
made access difficult.

The recent rains in Santa Barbara have caused new mudslides, burying
houses that weeks earlier had survived Hurricane Mitch. The Honduran
army last week began evacuating some 7,000 people in nine different
communities in the region. Several earthquakes added to the nervousness
of rural residents living on steep hillsides.

Jessica Culley, a United Methodist mission intern working in Santa
Barbara, managed to get into one remote community, Gracias a Dios, on
Nov. 24. She made arrangements for the people there to receive Dorn
three days later. Yet by the time the doctor arrived in the region,
Culley said, fast-flowing, neck-deep waters had once again cut off
Gracias a Dios.

CCD did manage to get Dorn to several communities affected by Mitch.
Accompanied by Vilma Viera, a Honduran nurse who works for CCD, the two
saw patients for four days until their supply of medicines ran out.

Culley performed triage, interviewing patients as they arrived in order
to assure that very sick people got rapid attention.

Dorn reported he treated a lot cases of fungal skin infections,
respiratory problems, and intestinal parasites. He started antibiotic
treatment of one baby who he said had probably contracted  cholera.

"There are some pretty sick people here," he said. "And there are no
long-term solutions yet. We're just putting Band-Aids on the problems.
That's all we can do now."

Dorn reported it was critically important for medical personnel "to
reach the outlying villages as soon as possible. The cities are
relatively well covered. The need is greatest in the remote villages."

Many of the health problems he saw, according to Dorn, were caused by
poverty, and reminded him of what he experienced in Haiti, where he has
also traveled to provide medical services. Haiti and Honduras are the
two poorest countries in the hemisphere.

Health conditions in many areas of Honduras continue to exacerbate the
crisis caused by Hurricane Mitch. Malaria, dengue fever, and diarrhea
are increasing. Forty-nine cases of leptospirosis have been reported,
causing at least four deaths.

A six-member delegation of tropical disease specialists from Cuba
arrived in San Pedro Sula last week to assist health officials combat
the disease. Public health officials loudly warned citizens not to come
into contact with mud, a nearly impossible feat in many areas. Cadavers
are still being exhumed from villages and neighborhoods covered by
mudslides.

CCD has sent foreign medical brigades to several remote areas of the
country. Nikki Nichols, a nurse and member of Wallingford
UnitedMethodist Church in Seattle, is part of a brigade that left
November 27 for three weeks in Tuntuntara, a remote Miskito indigenous
village in eastern Honduras. To arrive there from Tegucigalpa the group
had to travel by small plane, boat, and dugout canoe.

Dorn's son Aaron was impressed with the difficulties of travel in Santa
Barbara, where the group's four wheel drive vehicle became stuck in
thick mud. "Back in Florida there are lots of people who love to drive
around in this stuff," he said. "But there's more mud here than I ever
knew existed."
#  #  #
*Jeffrey is a photojournalist and United Methodist missionary living in
Honduras.

United Methodist News Service
(615)742-5470
Releases and photos also available at
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