Humanity First: Frederick doctor, Mission Ryan partner returning to Haiti

From Jan. 22 to Jan. 28, Choe and Zimmerman spent a week in Haiti and the Dominican Republic, offering medical assistance at a Humanity First-sponsored clinic in Port-au-Prince, opening a one-day medical clinic near the Haitian border.

Ahmadiyya Times | News Staff |
Source & Credit: The Frederick News-Post
By Ron Cassie for The Frederick News-Post

Three weeks after returning from a relief trip to Port-au-Prince, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic, Frederick Dr. Julian Choe and his Mission Ryan partner, Mark Zimmerman, are returning to aid earthquake victims.

Choe and Zimmerman have made seven previous trips to the Dominican Republic to bring medical care to sugar cane plantation workers. They have re-directed their efforts temporarily to assist victims of the Jan. 12 earthquake.

From Jan. 22 to Jan. 28, Choe and Zimmerman spent a week in Haiti and the Dominican Republic, offering medical assistance at a Humanity First-sponsored clinic in Port-au-Prince, opening a one-day medical clinic near the Haitian border and delivering $500 worth of powered milk to a Santo Domingo hospital overflowing with Haitian children.

"There are already less and less news reports coming out of Haiti, yet the crisis there is just in the beginning stage," Choe said. "Many thousands of people with bad wounds need secondary and tertiary treatment to prevent infection. Once infections start to set in, more and more amputations will be required."

Choe, an internist, thinks the death toll, already estimated at 200,000 from the earthquake, could grow if broad outreach efforts are not made to prevent infection.

"Once there is infected bone and blood, it becomes very difficult to deal with," Choe said. "It is not a pleasant way to die."

Massive food, shelter and potable water shortages remain ongoing concerns in Haiti, particularly in Port-au-Prince, where hundreds of thousands are living in the streets or so-called "tent cities" -- largely bed sheets hung over rope lines. The threat of disease, such as dysentery, is another looming concern, said Bernard Jaar, another Frederick doctor who brought medical care to Haiti.

Choe and Zimmerman have reserved an SUV in Santo Domingo, where they are landing. They plan to buy milk, infant formula, food, water and supplies in the Dominican capital once again and drive across country.

It's roughly a 10-hour trek to Port-au-Prince under the current circumstances, and Choe and Zimmerman expect to first visit the Maison des Enfants de Dieu Orphanage, where Frederick residents Dave and Christie Hubner recently adopted a 3-year-old girl named Ila.

"We've been in contact with the orphanage. I've exchanged e-mails with the director," Choe said. "They're expecting us. They told us, 'Yes, yes, bring milk and formula.'"

He said the Mission Ryan team -- Choe and Zimmerman hope to reconnect with several Dominican Republic and Haitian pastors to assist in interpretation and logistics -- will open an "SUV clinic" in one of the homeless centers.

"There are many people with serious wounds, who maybe weren't hurt badly enough to be admitted to a hospital or flown out of the country, who need follow-up care," Zimmerman said.

Choe said he also has been in contact with a representative of the Humanity First in Port-au-Prince and plans to assist its effort.

Through Mission Ryan, a Frederick -based nonprofit, Choe and Zimmerman have been raising money to replenish medical supplies and buy IV equipment and antibiotics.

Choe said while he thinks helping the Haitians is certainly a worthwhile goal in itself, he also thinks it falls in line with Mission Ryan's long-term goal of assisting sugar cane workers.

"There are many Haitians who have been treated in the Dominican Republic for their injuries, that now have nothing to go home to," Choe said.

As illegal aliens in the Dominican Republic, Haitians face the possibility of swinging a machete in the sugar cane fields, Choe said. That begins a whole new cycle of misery for the Haitians, who receive little other than water and enough food to survive.

Since a week of News-Post stories chronicling Choe and Zimmerman's efforts, Mission Ryan has received contributions from individual members at the Frederick Church of Brethren, where Choe, Zimmerman and the Hubners attend services. Choe also said the Ausherman Family Foundation donated $5,000 to their cause, and the Jefferson Street Service Center donated $3,000 to date, allowing customers to substitute a contribution to Mission Ryan in lieu of payment for fuel.

Choe and Zimmerman booked flights to Santo Domingo Wednesday, and they plan to return Feb. 25.

"Some people argue, 'What can one person do?'" Choe said. "But if one person can save another person's life, or one person's leg, that should be enough motivation to act."

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