Newswise — A group of doctors and nurses from The Mount Sinai Medical Center recently traveled to Liberia to provide urgently needed medical care to the community. The team, led by Mount Sinai colorectal surgeon Jeffrey S. Freed, included sixteen physicians, seven medical students and three photographers who documented the trip.
The team assisted doctors and nurses at two local hospitals, John F. Kennedy Medical Center in the capital, Monrovia, and Phebe Hospital in central Liberia. They faced conditions far more challenging than previous Mount Sinai missions to Central America and Asia. There was limited electricity, no running water, run down hospitals and no funds to provide food for patients.
Despite those difficult obstacles, the two medical teams accomplished a great deal in a short time. They provided cancer treatments and performed surgeries on patients whose conditions such as ovarian fibroids, hernias and cataracts had worsened from the lack of medical care. Some of the patients that were treated had to walk 30 miles to the hospital to undergo operations and then had to walk back home.
"My colleagues and I have taken the first step on a journey of a thousand miles," says Jeffrey S. Freed, M.D., Associate Clinical Professor of Surgery at The Mount Sinai Medical Center. "We look for the strength, conviction and resources to continue on this path where we not only bring tangible assistance, but also hope to people who have lived in devastation for more than two decades."
In addition to providing medical services, the team members set up a chemotherapy suite at JFK Medical Center, trained health providers and developed a relationship with the medical school. Their work was praised by Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf who met with the group at the Foreign Ministry in Monrovia.
The mission came together after a meeting of the Clinton Global Health Initiative attended by Vice President of Trustee Affairs Robin Solomon, Mount Sinai trustees Marc and Cathy Lasry, and their friends Mark Gallogly and Lise Strickler. After hearing a presentation by President Sirleaf on the state of the Liberian health care system, the trustees and their friends decided to fund a Mount Sinai mission.
Planning is already underway for a second mission in 2009. "We may be able to serve a third hospital if finances allow," says Dr. Freed. "We have every intention of building a long-term relationship with the Liberian Ministry of Health and medical community there."
About The Mount Sinai Medical CenterThe Mount Sinai Medical Center encompasses The Mount Sinai Hospital and Mount Sinai School of Medicine. The Mount Sinai Hospital is one of the nation's oldest, largest and most-respected voluntary hospitals. Founded in 1852, Mount Sinai today is a 1,171-bed tertiary-care teaching facility that is internationally acclaimed for excellence in clinical care. Last year, nearly 50,000 people were treated at Mount Sinai as inpatients, and there were nearly 450,000 outpatient visits to the Medical Center. Mount Sinai School of Medicine is internationally recognized as a leader in groundbreaking clinical and basic-science research, as well as having an innovative approach to medical education. With a faculty of more than 3,400 in 38 clinical and basic science departments and centers, Mount Sinai ranks among the top 20 medical schools in receipt of National Institute of Health (NIH) grants.
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