The tsunami that devastated Asia has spurred many at the medical center to lend assistance, with Stanford’s two hospitals sending desperately needed medical supplies and physicians volunteering to offer treatment and guidance.
The two hospitals’ involvement was spurred in part by a suggestion from second-year medical school student Prasanna Ananth, who heard about the devastation from her mother who was visiting a temple in south India. “My mother was less than a mile from the ocean,” said Ananth. “She called me immediately to tell me about the flooding, and that she thought some people may have been killed in the neighboring village.”

As the reports of the disaster came pouring in from friends and family members, Ananth, who was spending the holidays in San Jose, reached out to officials at the two hospitals for aid for the Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences, a free hospital that was providing relief to tsunami victims.

Last Thursday two identical lots of medical supplies—one from each hospital—with an estimated value of $30,000 began a marathon trek to AIMS in the state of Kerala on the southwest tip of India. They were chock full of new sterile gloves and bandages, bedpans and scalpels—as well as once-commonplace but now scarce items such as diapers, batteries and flashlights. Surgical supplies worth about $20,000 were also jointly donated by the two hospitals.

While hospital officials were readying supplies, several doctors from the medical center were looking to provide on-the-ground aid.

Perhaps no one from the medical center was more in the center of things than Asha Pillai, MD, a pediatric hematology fellow at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital, who had been visiting home—the southern tip of India—when the disaster struck.

On the day after Christmas, Pillai suddenly found herself surrounded by the tsunami’s raging water, as she tried to rescue people before they drowned. Since then, she has worked at a relief camp, treating injuries and offering counseling and play therapy to children traumatized by the disaster.

“This is what medicine is all about for me,” Pillai wrote in a brief e-mail to Medical Center Report. “And I am happy to be involved in any way I am able.” She said she hopes to provide more information to the Stanford community in the coming weeks if the crisis lets up enough to leave her some time to write.

In the meantime, at least two other doctors and a student from the medical school have made plans to go to affected areas to provide help. Two women of Sri Lankan descent—Yasodha Natkunam, MD, assistant professor of pathology, and Niroshana Anandasabapathy, an MD/PhD student—have volunteered with the International Medical Health Organization, a nonprofit aid group established by Sri Lankans in the United States a number of years ago to provide relief to the then-war-torn country. IMHO has established clinics in parts of Sri Lanka that the tsunami affected the most, and each of the women expects to go overseas by March.

Another Stanford doctor, Eric A. Weiss, MD, assistant professor of emergency medicine and associate director of trauma who is an expert in waterborne infections, also expects to be providing medical care in tsunami-impacted regions in Southeast Asia in the coming months. He will be going though International Medical Corps, a nonprofit organization with headquarters in Santa Monica, Calif., that was established in 1984 by volunteer doctors and nurses.

According to Weiss, who is the director of the wilderness and travel medicine fellowship, IMC has a team now touring the region to assess the needs before sending in more health care providers.

As with other natural disasters, tsunami survivors are now threatened by the breakdown of their infrastructure: lack of clean water and inadequate food, shelter and sanitation systems. Waterborne maladies such as cholera, hepatitis and typhoid are a danger, as well as E. coli, salmonella and measles, of which there are already cases reported in Sri Lanka.

Ann Arvin, MD, professor of pediatrics and of microbiology and immunology, stressed such concerns when she spoke Jan. 2 at a gathering of community members and international relief workers at De Anza College about the medical and psychological challenges facing survivors and rescue workers in relief camps.

“Crowded and unsanitary conditions are likely to breed outbreaks of bacterial diarrhea and respiratory infections such as influenza and whooping cough, to which children are particularly susceptible,” said Arvin, who is also the chief of the infectious diseases division at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital. “Measles and cholera are also serious concerns, as are badly infected wounds that may lead to amputations without timely medical care.”

Arvin emphasized that those traveling to the affected regions to provide assistance should have up-to-date immunizations against tetanus, measles, polio and influenza, and that they should take antibiotics with them to combat potential cases of bacterial diarrhea. She added that they should drink only bottled water and consult with their personal physician before traveling.

Despite the risk, Natkunam, who was born and raised in Sri Lanka, said that she knew that she had to go as soon as she heard the news of the tragedy. Her American husband, who is not Sri Lankan, appeared to have read her mind as she formed the plan, telling her, “Yaso, if you want to go, I will take care of the kids.”

Natkunam will likely spend much of her time assisting her father, a surgeon in Australia, who will also be traveling to Sri Lanka to provide assistance. She expects that she will have to help perform many amputations.

While it may now be difficult to wait, Natkunam knows that the problems are not going away, and that new ones will arise in the months to come. Ensuring that the devastated regions have a stable supply of clean water, for instance, will be critical. The challenge for the relief effort, she emphasized, will be in maintaining the concern of the rest of the world after the initial news frenzy dwindles.

“The first month of relief is crucial, of course,” she said, “but there needs to be a longterm rehabilitation effort.”

Anandasabapathy, the medical student, hopes to bring supplies—such as water-purification systems, basic medical goods and antibiotics—when she goes to Sri Lanka in February. She urged those interested in contributing to e-mail her at niro@stanford.edu.