American Doctors Help Revive Struggling Hospital in Liberia

to Save Children
This is a Thanksgiving story. Not the cranberry and mashed potatoes kind of story or even the overthe-river-and-through-the-woods kind. And it certainly isn't a history lesson. No, this is a story of
courage and passion, dedication and perseverance, a reminder of the best qualities in the American
spirit.
This is the story of two modern day American heroes in a place far away from home. Neither of them
would like that label. They don't see themselves that way. Nor would they like being singled out.
They will point to others. But let me tell you a bit about them and let you decide.
Andy Sechler was born 33 years ago in Union City, Mich., a town of 1,400. Andy's father left when
he was a toddler. His mother, who he calls "the shining star" in his life, did her best, but the young
family was on and off public assistance in those early days.
Andy was a good student. Very good. The valedictorian of his high school class. But he was also good
at something else: football. So good that as a freshman, he walked on to the University of Michigan
football team. Over the next four years the team won a series of bowl games including the 1997
national championship. Already enough to inspire, but only the beginning of the story. Andy Sechler
dreamed of becoming a doctor -- a doctor dedicated to taking care of the most vulnerable, most
desperate kids in the world.
I met Andy in New York City a month or so ago, on the eve of his second trip to Liberia, a struggling
nation on the west coast of Africa. Liberia has deep historic ties to the United States, dating back to
the 1820s when the American Colonization Society provided freed American slaves with passage to
the West African coast.
Andy has worked in a variety of places in the developing world, but Liberia has a special pull. Now in
the final months of his residency at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, Andy is part of the
hospital's impressive Global Health program.
RESOURCES: Learn more about the Mount Sinai Global Health program
Andy is quiet and methodical as he packs to go. Trained in pediatrics and internal medicine, he tells
us he is eager to go back to Liberia and that, in addition to the extra-strength mosquito repellent,
he's bringing a big box of pens for the nurses, as they are in short supply at the hospital. As we will
soon see for ourselves, it's not just pens that are hard to come by.
We arrive in Liberia on the eve of the presidential run-off on Nov. 8. I am traveling with "Nightline"
producer Bartley Price, our colleague Katie Hinman joined us the following day. As we step off the
plane, our Blackberrys spring to life: three people have just been killed in pre-election protests.
There is a strong U.N. presence everywhere, complete with road-blocks and vehicle searches. You
can feel the tension. We share a van to the hotel with a man who tells us he is a helicopter pilot for
the South African police, brought to Liberia in case of violence. On the way in from the airport, we
see U.N. helicopters hugging the coastline.
American Doctors Volunteer in War-Torn Hospital With No Water or ElectricityWe soon meet up

with Andy, who greets us at the John F. Kennedy Hospital in Liberia's capital city, Monrovia. Like the
nation itself, the hospital is still traumatized by the war. Less than half of the hospital's 400 beds are
useable but that the place is open at all is a bit of a miracle.
The hospital was a gift back in the 1960s to the people of Liberia from the United States. Once
considered the best medical facility in all of West Africa, a referral center complete with helicopter
landing pad, the devastating 14-year civil war has left the place in ruins.
PHOTOS: "Nightline's" Cynthia McFadden reports on dire health issues in Liberia
The hospital's administrator, an extraordinary woman named Dr. Wvannie McDonald, tells me
wistfully of a day when she was a young doctor here, a time when JFK had a paging system and
central air conditioning, when fountains bubbled at the front door. That day is long gone.
At one point during the war, 20,000 people sought refuge on the hospital grounds. The operating
room had a hole in the ceiling open to the sky. Machine guns poked out of the windows. The JFK
hospital came to be known as the "Just For Killing" Hospital.
Along with many of those who could, Dr. McDonald left Liberia during the war. She thought she'd be
able to return after a few years, but as the war raged on, it became clear that she could not go
home. She made a life for herself and her family in Indiana. But that came to an end in 2006 when
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf was elected president of Liberia. Dr. McDonald remembers a cold winter's day
when the phone rang and the president asked her to come home and bring JFK back to life. She said
she felt she had no choice.
It was a daunting assignment. The hospital had no running water and no electricity. The medical
equipment had all been looted, as had the beds and even the linens. The wounds of war were
everywhere. And worst of all, there were virtually no doctors left. The World Health Organization
estimated that there was one doctor for every 100,000 Liberians. In the U.S. the number is closer to
one for every 200.
So that is where Andy and a team of American physicians have come in. Working with the truly
astounding staff at JFK, and led by Dr. MacDonald, an impressive organization of America's finest
medical schools have banded together to provide doctors to JFK. Nearly two dozen medical schools
including Yale, Harvard and the University of Chicago, send residents and faculty to JFK. Doctors
like Andy.
The group is called HEARTT and it was founded by another remarkable man, Dr. James Sirleaf the
son of the president. During the war, his mother brought him to the United States. Now an
emergency room doctor in Bridgeport, Conn., Dr. Sirleaf started using his vacation each year to help
out at JFK. But, he says, he soon realized so much more was needed and HEARTT was born. Now
more than 70 American doctors a year take turns going to JFK with the HEARTT program.
RESOURCES: Learn more about the HEARTT program
Andy and his HEARTT colleagues are not only providing much needed care, their mission is broader:
to teach the next generation of health care workers, not just new doctors -- whose numbers
graduating each year from the medical school are increasing -- but also midwives, nurses and
physician assistants.
The goal is to provide direct clinical instruction, but, more importantly, to serve as role models of

excellence, both clinically and professionally. Due to the lack of resources and lapses in education
for so long, in Liberia the expectations are often set low for what can be done for the patient.
Although their Liberian collegues are extremely hard working, smart and dedicated, they were often
discouraged from the years of being able to provide very little for their patients.
But as the overall health system improves and providers have more tools to fight disease, HEARTT
volunteers work hard to help "raise the bar" of what can be done. Thus, both improving clinical care
for patients, and the morale of the health care providers who then take on more ownership and
fulfillment in their work.
Andy tells me the lessons he learned on the gridiron have served him well here. On rounds in the
pediatric unit, his focus and determination are on full display. Watching him work you can feel his
intensity, the coiled energy. Bringing his whole being to every tiny patient.
With HEARTT Foundation, Health Care in Liberia Has Seen Remarkable ProgressHe confides that
his trip to JFK last year was very painful. Eighteen of the kids he was taking care of died during his
six-week stint. He felt helpless and frustrated. Kids just don't die like that at home he tells me, and
they wouldn't have died in Liberia if there were more resources. If there was clean water for them to
drink, and mosquito nets for them to sleep under.

Malaria is a virulent killer here. It can take a healthy child and push him to the brink of death in
hours. Simple things kill in Liberia. Kids die from dehydration and malnutrition.
Until HEARTT got to JFK there was not one pediatrician in all of Liberia. Not one. Little wonder so
many kids, especially kids under five, were dying. But slowly things are improving. Andy says in just
a year he sees remarkable progress.
Dr. Torian Easterling, Andy's friend and colleague from the Global Health Program at Mt. Sinai,

agrees. Torian brings another kind of gift to the JFK hospital. Andy's intensity is matched by Torian's
compassion. Torian, too, is also about to finish his training at Mt. Sinai. Whip smart like Andy, his
style is different. A lanky, easy-going charmer, over the course of four visits, Torian has formed deep
bonds with both the staff and the patients at JFK. He tells me there is a spiritual aspect to this for
him; he feels called to this work.
He tells me the story of a mother who sobbed in his arms on his last visit when the baby he fought so
hard to save, died. Of the connection he feels to the people here. Global medicine, he explains,
means seeing people, not borders. People with hopes and dreams who need doctors.
Raised in Newark, Torian decided early on that he wanted to practice medicine where "the need was
greatest." I asked him about that what about the gaping needs right at home? He paused. Ideally, he
says, he'll split his time between Newark and the developing world. He knows first-hand the depth of
the need in America, he tells me, but continues to feel the pull toward children in circumstances he
sees as even more dire.
As dedicated as Andy and Torian are to providing front line medical care, they are also dedicated to
their role as teachers. We follow them to a classroom, littered with broken chairs, where they are
teaching a group of midwives a simple technique for helping babies breathe in what's called the
"golden minute" after birth.
RESOURCES: Learn more about the "Helping Babies Breathe" program
An estimated two million babies unable to breathe on their own, die right after birth, in what's called
the "golden minute." In fact, nearly 2 out of 10 babies have trouble in that crucial minute, which isn't
a problem if the birth attendant knows what to do, but is deadly, if they don't.
So Andy and Torian are teaching the simple technique developed by the American Academy of
Pediatrics. It's an important lesson. Midwives deliver nearly all of the babies in Liberia. So this
teaching session will have profound effect as these young women go back to their communities. It is
moving to watch the students gain confidence as Andy and Torian slowly go over the steps using
baby mannequins ...again and again.
The hours are long at JFK, the heat intense, and the living circumstances are, as you might expect,
rugged. Andy and Torian live in a dimly lit, simple concrete dorm on the hospital grounds. They say
it is just fine with them. There are few escapes from grinding poverty and their sense of
responsibility. How they are able to stay focused and upbeat is a bit of a mystery to me. But they do.
In truth I met several other doctors with the same dedication and passion on this trip: the
extraordinary Mike Ward from the University of Chicago, the talented, Khoshal Latifzai from Yale,
and an incredible young American nurse from Dr. Sirleaf's hospital in Bridgeport, Colleen Grady.
Each has chosen to come here. To battle back against disease and poverty as best they can. To give
all they have, while making peace with their own limits. They do not seek the spotlight. In fact, they
are uncomfortable in it. They would tell you they are just doing their jobs. I would tell you they are
doing so much more. Bringing hope with the medicine. I say they are the best of America's exports. I
say, let's give thanks for them.
http://abcnews.go.com/International/american-doctors-revive-struggling-hospital-liberia-save-childre
n/story?id=15024527