Make Medicine Better

Barnes-Jewish St. Peters Hospital employees Vicki Lehr, Carolyn Fox and Deanna Holtgrewe take BJSPH’s mission far beyond the hospital’s walls — not only improving the health of the people in their communities, but also in communities far beyond the United States, communities such as Zambia, Sierra Leone, Juarez, Pitorreal and Haiti.

Vicki Lehr, RN, Unit Practice Council chairman, has worked at BJSPH for four years but has provided care in an underserved country for nine years. Lehr’s first mission work was in 1981 in Zambia, Africa. The hospital, Zimba Hospital, had 80 beds and no doctor. Lehr and one other nurse were the only two nurses. Lehr cared for the inpatients and the other nurse took the outpatients. Lehr managed and administrated Zimba Hospital for three years and during her time there met her future husband, also a volunteer.

In 1986 Lehr and her husband went back to Africa to serve in Sierra Leone for six years. Lehr worked in the medical field and her husband helped with maintenance around the hospital. The conditions were very poor. In fact, according to the United States Agency of International Development, Sierra Leone is the poorest country in the world, ranking the worst out of 177 in the 2007 U.N. Human Development Index.

“It is a blessing to live in America,” Lehr says. “We can turn on water whenever we want, and we don’t have to carry jugs of water five miles. We in America have more than one meal a day, and our poorest individuals in America would be filthy rich in Sierra Leone. We have so much to be thankful for.”

Lehr and her husband plan to go back to Sierra Leone for two weeks with a church mission trip, helping with construction, medical care and seminars, in September 2010.

Deanna Holtgrewe, BSN, IBCLC, has been working for 17 years in OB at BJSPH. In 1996 Holtgrewe went to Juarez, Mexico, for a weeklong mission, helping serve the community of Juarez with construction, medical care and water and supply distribution. Holtgrewe noticed that everyone there was so grateful for the services that her mission team brought — they helped out in any way possible. They knew that Holtgrewe and others were there to help and they wanted to give a hand.

The town of Juarez is near the border, yet is nothing like the states. Holtgrewe says the conditions were harsh for anyone. There was litter and trash by the mounds, and the houses were nothing but shacks. Yet, while there, she felt the love and compassion from the people, and it made her realize that they are only worried about the essentials.Holtgrewe went to Pitorreal, Mexico, in 2001 for another weeklong mission, this time giving medical advice and helping with the clinic there.

Holtgrewe says that, when the word got out that trained medical help was there, many people rushed to the clinic with anything that was bothering them. “As a Christian, I believe the love of God transcends all people. When I am on a mission, I focus on others. Truly focusing on another person and not yourself shows a reflection of Christ to them,” Holtgrewe says. Holtgrewe paraphrases one of her favorite Bible verses (Luke 4:18) to better explain why she participates in missions: “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed.”

Carolyn Fox, RN, who has worked in the emergency department at BJSPH for six years, recently went to Haiti for a weeklong mission trip. Fox has been on nine mission trips, but the last one was a medical mission trip. Fox was especially excited about this trip because her brother is a physician and they would be working together. Fox and her brother arrived to see “shacks” made with pieces of wood, dirt floors and curtains for doors.

They started working in a medical clinic right away. Her brother was the only physician and she was the only registered nurse. There were two local nurses who weren’t registered but still helped in any way possible. When word spread that an American doctor and nurse were there, the locals came from all over. Fox says that Haitians would arrive at 8 a.m. dressed as nicely as they could, grab a number and wait their turn. “Many waited eight hours to be examined. Yet, even the last person in line that day came in with a smile and didn’t complain about the wait,” she says.

Altogether, Fox and her brother saw 800 patients in the clinic and completed 80 surgeries. “The experience there made me more appreciative of what we have here,” Fox says. “We see the physicians we want, when we want. For the Haitians to see a physician, they have to pay up front. The experience was eye-opening. Here in the United States, we complain about health care a lot. I try to reach out and be God’s hands to others, his hands and his feet.”