|
 |
I am a physician at North Shore Medical Center in Salem, Massachusetts. I am a nephrologist (kidney and renal system specialist) and have the pleasure of directing the hospital's longstanding Internal Medicine Residency Program. In this setting closely affiliated with two of Boston's world-renown academic medical centers, I have the honor of educating hundreds of new physicians from the United States and around the world. In the past several years, we have trained several physicians from the African nation of Cameroon. Each of them has proved to be remarkable, and it raised my curiosity as to how such an impoverished country with so little technology could produce such fine physicians. As I gathered information to satisfy my curiosity, it became blatantly obvious to me that there exists a real crisis in Cameroon for patients with kidney disease. There is virtually no dialysis there. Patients pay out of pocket a staggering (by local standards) equivalent of $15.00 per treatment, so the poor are simply ineligible. Nonetheless, given the dearth of dialysis in that nation for rich and poor alike, the news of renal failure is received as a death sentence. I have formed WORTH as a 501(C)3 non-profit organization to address this travesty. We are represented by a prominent law firm that has embraced our goal of bringing free dialysis to that country and have partnered with us in that work. I have assembled a talented board of directors, each member of which is engaged as a volunteer, expecting only to help and asking nothing in return but the satisfaction of having made a difference. In March, with contacts arranged by my United States-based Cameroonian colleagues, I traveled to the capital city, Yaounde, to establish contacts. The reception to our plans was everything I had hoped for. In the near future, we will begin intensive training of nurses in dialysis skills and water purification technology. As you can imagine, the logistics and fundraising efforts required to succeed are substantial. I ask you to assist us in our efforts. Beyond our appreciation, you will be directly responsible for preserving the lives of many who, without WORTH, are simply fated to die unnecessarily Very Sincerely, Wayne Trebbin, M.D.
|
