From: Biniam Haile \(SWE\) (eritrea.lave@comhem.se)
Date: Wed Apr 01 2009 - 15:18:48 EST
Created: Wednesday, April 1, 2009 9:38 a.m. CDT
Healthcare providers
By DENNIS HINES - dhines@chroniclenewsgroup.com
DEKALB - Three local medical practitioners are traveling to Africa to
provide health care to people in need.
Dr. Jennifer Suess and Dr. Douglas Pacaccio, podiatrists for Dr. Tina
Starkweather DPM and Associates, and Jane Royalty, nurse for Kishwaukee
Community Hospital, are participating in a mission trip to Eritrea as
part of the Physicians for Peace program. The physicians will be
involved with the program until April 12.
The mission trip is headed by Dr. Keith Goss, of Arizona. Two medical
students and a surgical resident also will be involved. Pacaccio said
Goss was his chief resident at Georgetown University Hospital. He said
Goss has hosted several mission trips for Physicians for Peace during
the past few years.
"He has been asking us for years to go on this with him, and you want to
go, but things get in the way. Jen and I just decided this year that we
were going to make it happen," Pacaccio said. "We've wanted to go for
some time now, but you have to make something like this a priority and
arrange your life around it."
As part of the mission trip, the physicians will perform lower extremity
and limb salvage surgeries for citizens of Eritrea. Pacaccio said many
residents of Eritrea suffer from neglected fractures, polio, foot
deformities and land mine injuries. The country was involved in a war
with Ethiopia for about 16 years.
"With the level of poverty there, the poorest people in [the United
States] would look like upper middle class or rich people to them,"
Pacaccio said. "You're talking about people who have one pair of shoes,
one shirt and one pair of pants."
Suess said they also will train doctors in Eritrea how to perform limb
salvage surgeries. She said the country is home to about 5 million
people, but only seven physicians have been trained to perform certain
surgical procedures.
"When we go there, not only is it our goal to provide surgical care that
they don't have in the country, but it's also to train the surgeons
there on how to do more complex, lower extremity and limb salvage
surgeries and how to handle trauma of the lower extremities," Suess
said.
The physicians have received a lot of support to help them prepare for
the trip. Pacaccio said several local physicians have donated medical
supplies.
"You wouldn't believe the stuff that has been donated to us," Pacaccio
said. "Sometimes you ask for stuff, and people are more than happy to
help, and other people just show up with stuff that you didn't ask for."
Royalty said several of her co-workers have donated items for the
residents of Eritrea.
"I came to work one day, and there was a bag of stuffed animals sitting
by my locker to put in my suitcase to give to the kids," Royalty said.
"It just had a smiley face and 'Africa' and no name. I know who gave it
to me though, but it was just to give to the kids there."
Suess said her mother and her aunt hosted a fundraiser to help them pay
the cost to transport the medical supplies.
"Our luggage is going to be quite heavy," Suess said. "I would say
there's going to be hundreds of pounds of medical equipment that we're
going to be trying to check in."
The physicians said they are looking forward to participating in the
trip and interacting with the citizens of Eritrea.
"It just seems like a natural progression of what I've always done. It's
just the right thing to do," Royalty said. "It hasn't been a hardship
getting ready to go. Certainly, we're going to be far away from our
families, but I know we're going to be safe, and that they're going to
take care of us."
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