HONESDALE, Pa- Steven Palmer and Susan Harcke, two Physicians Assistants at Wayne Memorial Hospital (WMH), will leave March 18th for a remote region of Sri Lanka to help tsunami victims.

“We feel very privileged to be able to donate a much needed service, medical care,” said Harcke. “We believe it will be as rewarding to us as it will be helpful to Sri Lankans who’ve suffered so much.”

According to WMH, the death toll continues to rise since the December 26th earthquake that triggered the tsunami. According to official estimates close to 300,000 people have lost their lives, between 20,000 and 30,000 in Sri Lanka alone.

“The northeast part of the country was extremely hard hit,” said Palmer. “We’re told hundreds of thousands of people are homeless.” Palmer said that this remote area of Sri Lanka was already impoverished by a 20-year-old civil war. “The tsunami was like insult added to injury, he said.”

Palmer and Harcke will travel with healthcare workers from Binghamton through the International Medical Health Organization (IMHO). They will be gone for two weeks and are scheduled to return on April 2nd.

“We’re paying for our own air fare, about 12-hundred dollars, and our own immunizations,” said Harcke,
“but the agency will take care of our accommodations once we’re on the ground in Sri Lanka.”

IMHO describes itself as an all-volunteer, non-profit, non-political organization founded by Sri Lankans specifically to help rebuild the healthcare infrastructure in the northeast corner of the island. In 2004, it received the American College of Chest Physicians Community Service Award.

WMH will donate medical supplies for Palmer and Harcke to take with them.

IMHO is looking for donations of baby food and cash, along with antibiotics, IV fluids, needles/syringes, dressing materials, antiseptics, splints and other medical supplies.

“We’re going to try to bring as much with us as we can,” said Palmer. need it. We’re able to do it right now, so we’re going. We’ll be

For information about how to donate, Palmer and Harcke are asking people to visit the IMHO website, www.thousa.org or write International Medical Health Organization, P.O. Box 901, Bel Air, Maryland 21014-0901.