The group, which included Elliott Aguayo, Lale Akaydin, Vanessa Batista, Tran Huynh, Shanekqua Richardson, Pankaj Khullar, Barry Ladizinski, Jenny Lee, Rajani Maret, Akeem Marsh, Nadia Quijije, Travina Varghese, Katherine Walia, Jing Wang, Kimberly Watson, and Maria Rosa, was led by Assistant Medical Professor Anne Dembitzer, MD, of Sophie Davis’ Department of Community Health and Social Medicine and supported by the Arnold P. Gold Foundation.
"The students really stepped up to the plate to serve in anyway they could,” said Dr. Dembitzer, an internist who also volunteered her services to a couple of clinics there, including the Latin Health Outreach Project which treats patients in the middle of a parking lot. The students received some hands-on medical training during the trip in conjunction with their efforts to help with the recovery. Each day, Dr. Dembitzer would take two of them to a clinic where she treated both residents and volunteer workers living in the area. Many patients with chronic disease were left unmonitored and without medication after Katrina. Many presented with symptoms of post traumatic stress syndrome. One patient, who recalled how he spent four days after Katrina pulling people out of the water, still had nightmares.
"The students would do patient intakes, vital signs and shadow me and other doctor or medical students. They really enjoyed all the hands-on work with patients, being able to interact with third and fourth-year medical students, and being able to see first hand how care is delivered,” she noted.
The ruin and despair that greeted the Sophie Davis students in parts of New Orleans many months later was still shocking. "People who were victims of a natural disaster should not have to fend for themselves afterward," said Akeem Marsh on his return to New York. “It’s hard to believe that nine months after the hurricane, the areas worst hit remain just about completely in ruins.” Mr. Marsh was one of 15 Sophie students who spent spring break this year doing volunteer work in the gulf city still reeling from Hurricane Katrina’s fury.
Working with “Common Ground,” a local community organization founded by Malik Rahim in response to Katrina, the volunteers helped gut houses damaged by the hurricane, cleaned schools and churches, paint and remove debris, among other things. One of the schools they helped gut was the Martin Luther King School in New Orleans’ lower ninth ward. Also, two of the churches team members assisted in cleaning and rehabilitating opened for the first time since Katrina struck last August for Easter services, which some of the students attended. At a women’s center, volunteers helped clean and take care of children who currently have no access to schools.