Medical care on the other side of the world

<a href=www.zwire.com>Oconomowoc OnlineAmy Glasheen, staff writer May 12, 2003

Imagine a city on the other side of the world, where people don't have the money or the medicine to receive the treatment they need for HIV or AIDS. Such a city is anything but imaginary. In one city in India, a conservative estimate has more than 250,000 people stricken with the disease.

Think India is far away? Bryan Sauer will tell you differently. He spent four months providing medical care in India. The medical challenges that residents faced left a lasting impression on the Oconomowoc native.

Sauer, a 1994 graduate of Oconomowoc High School, completed medical school at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in May and took the year off. He spent the time traveling to places such as Venezuela and Belize. He also was a substitute teacher.

During the year off, he also spent from January to April in India, working with local people infected with various diseases, such as HIV, malaria and tuberculosis.

This was the third time he had traveled to the country, having spent 10 weeks there during each summer in 1998 and 1999.

Sauer stayed in the city of Thane, approximately 35 kilometers (about 22 miles) from the city of Mumbai, formerly called Bombay. He also did village work in Dolkhamb, which is about 75 kilometers (46 miles) from Thane.

Sauer spent time at Lok Hospital, also located in Thane. The hospital's first phase of construction was completed in 1997 and has been added onto since.

"After getting my M.D. in May, I took a year off basically to spend this extended time in India to work at this hospital and help out," Sauer said.

This hospital is a Christian hospital, in a country where the predominant religion is Hinduism, Sauer said. The government in India has persecuted a number of Christians, Sauer added.

"I think the success and safety of the hospital is a testament to the prayers and support of so many around the world," he said. Sauer added that the hospital was built and updated through donations from people in the United States, United Kingdom and India.

Sauer said that surgeon Stephen Alfred, whom Sauer met through a friend in college, started the hospital. Alfred is a native of India.

While he was there, Sauer also helped with Jeevan Sahara Kendra HIV initiative, which he said means "Center of Life and Help."

"HIV has a very negative stigma, especially in India," Sauer said. "A lot of people find out they have HIV and they're left by the wayside. Their families disown them and they have nothing ... they live in the slums."

He said that the purpose of Jeevan Sahara Kendra is to "bring dignity to these people and help them to die with dignity."

The HIV/AIDS initiative was started less than a year ago, Sauer said. A couple of volunteers and paid staff visit their contacts stricken with the disease.

Sauer said they had approximately 100 contacts with HIV or AIDS that they visited. The initiative is in the initial stages, Sauer said and plans are under way for a support institution where people can be treated for diseases associated with HIV and AIDS.

Without proper medicines, people in India with HIV die much faster than someone with the proper treatments, Sauer said.

"During the four months I was there, at least six to seven patients we had contact with died," Sauer said.

Seeing the way some people lived was difficult, Sauer said.

"I can't imagine having HIV in a country where is little education (about the disease) and then to not have the family support," he said. "That has to be hard."

While seeing different diseases not commonly experienced in this part of the world, such as malaria, was a medical benefit for Sauer, he said helping people was the main reason he was there.

"The people all over were very welcoming," Sauer said. "Ninety-nine percent of the people that you meet are such kind-hearted people and so content with what they have."

The people did everything they could to make him feel welcome, Sauer said.

"I went to one family where we had chicken, and Stephen (Alfred, a surgeon friend) said they probably only have chicken twice a year at their house," Sauer said, due to the families not having a lot of money to buy meat.

He added many of the children enjoyed seeing their pictures on Sauer's digital camera immediately after he took them.

Working in another country didn't provide as big a language barrier that some would think.

"A lot of the communication was based on nonverbal communication," he said.

With all the time he has spent in India, Sauer said that it's a fascinating country. He said one of the hardest parts to see is the poverty-stricken areas.

"It's hard to see people living on the street, people begging," he said.

Although he was an 18-hour plane ride away from Oconomowoc, family wasn't far away. Sauer said that his sister, Julie, paid him a visit during this last trip and his twin brother, Cary, visited him during his summer trip in 1999.

Next month, Sauer will head to the University of Virginia for his residency in internal medicine. His brother is already there for a residency in pediatrics.

Sauer said he could see himself traveling again to use his medicine once he's completed his residency. He said he probably wouldn't make it back to India during his residency.

"You leave those people behind not knowing if you're going to go back for three years," Sauer said.