Harold L. Timboe, M.D., remembers piles of tons of debris for miles, interrupted only by a 100-foot-tall light pole somehow left standing. “It was much like the pictures I have seen of Hiroshima, Nagasaki and the destruction of the atomic bombs,” he said.
John P. Howe III, M.D., remembers a boy found clinging to a log at sea. The youngster was in respiratory arrest and would have died but for treatment aboard a great ship that equaled the seventh-largest hospital in America.
Dr. Timboe, assistant vice president for research initiatives and administration at the Health Science Center, led the first six-week rotation of U.S. health care volunteers sent to the tsunami disaster zone by the international organization Project HOPE in January. Dr. Howe, president and chief executive officer of Project HOPE, visited both rotations, which took place aboard the U.S. Navy hospital ship Mercy.
It was an unprecedented collaboration between the Navy, the U.S. Department of Defense, Project HOPE and volunteers from 37 states. In three humanitarian assistance operations, the Project HOPE volunteers traveled to disaster-struck regions of Indonesia and to islands in Southeast Asia and the Western Pacific to provide desperately needed health care. From Feb. 6 to April, the Project HOPE volunteers evaluated more than 17,500 patients in operations in Banda Aceh and Alor, Indonesia, and in Dili and surrounding areas of East Timor.
In the first two rotations in Banda Aceh, volunteers participated in the evaluation and treatment of more than 9,200 Indonesian patients and performed more than 17,000 medical procedures aboard the Mercy in the aftermath of the Dec. 26 tsunami. Motivated by the desperate need for health care in the region, Project HOPE set out to continue its work on the Mercy during a medical and dental humanitarian aid mission in Southeast Asia and the Western Pacific. But when the 8.7 quake hit Nias Island on March 26, Project HOPE and the Mercy were again called upon to provide disaster assistance to Indonesia.
G. Richard Holt, M.D., M.S.E., M.P.H., professor of otolaryngology - head and neck surgery at the Health Science Center, was selected to direct the second rotation in Banda Aceh.
The physicians reflected on the incredible missions April 11 during an evening presentation at the Health Science Center.
The Mercy anchored one mile offshore from Banda Aceh, the Sumatran city hardest hit by the Dec. 26 tsunami waves, and remained there for an extended period of time. The tsunami destroyed half of Banda Aceh, including six of its eight hospitals. “This may be the worst devastation and the worst death toll the world has ever seen in one location on one day, with more than 100,000 deaths in this city of 400,000,” Dr. Timboe said.
The Mercy is able to accommodate tertiary-care medical personnel and services including the full range of surgical specialties and medical intensive care, nurses, the latest in radiological imaging capabilities, modern laboratory capabilities including blood banking, physical therapists, mental health physicians and others. They were needed. “In the midst of so much suffering, the numbers [of patients treated] are small, but the impact they will have will grow over the years as grateful patients and their families retell the story that the American people came to help and sent their very best,” Dr. Timboe said.
Dr. Howe spoke about the historic nature of the collaboration that sent the Mercy to Indonesia, while Dr. Timboe reflected on what its presence meant to the Indonesian people. “For me this was a novel idea by the leadership of our country, to send volunteers on a U.S. military ship,” Dr. Howe said. He thanked Francisco G. Cigarroa, M.D., president of the Health Science Center, for loaning Health Science Center health care professionals to the effort.
Dr. Timboe said two polls conducted before and after the relief effort revealed the goodwill that resulted from the mission. In the first poll, only 30 percent of Indonesian respondents looked favorably on Americans. Three months later in the second poll, the figure changed to 65 percent.
“Because America showed up with this prominent hospital ship – the world’s best – this gave the people a little more hope,” said Michael Yates, R.N., San Antonio clinical nurse specialist who was aboard the Mercy and attended the presentation. Others from San Antonio selected for the Project HOPE rotations included Barry Swartz, M.D., J.D., plastic surgeon who performed skin grafts for burn victims; Trevor Pollard, M.D., anesthesiologist; and Emil Meis, M.B.A.
In his welcoming remarks, Dr. Cigarroa recognized the four School of Medicine classes who combined their fund-raising efforts to send a donation for tsunami relief. He said The University of Texas System was second only to Harvard in the number of volunteers sent on the Mercy. He also noted that Dr. Timboe’s “compassion shines as brightly as the two stars on his uniform.” Dr. Timboe is a retired major general in the U.S. Army and former commander of Brooke Army Medical Center and Walter Reed Army Medical Center.
Project HOPE is a Virginia-based health education and humanitarian assistance organization headed by Dr. Howe, who preceded Dr. Cigarroa as president of the Health Science Center. Project HOPE’s mission is to achieve sustainable advances in health care around the world.
For more information about Project HOPE, visit
www.projecthope.org/.
