Physician answers emergency call from Iran

Despite the short notice, the apprehension of entering an unfriendly country, and the indignities of living without a bathroom, surgeon John Wei of Lahey Clinic in Burlington said he would travel to help victims of Iran's earthquake again in a heartbeat.

For that matter, Wei said, he would go to any disaster scene if he and the other members of his Boston-based team of medical specialists were called.

''There was a natural disaster; there was a humanitarian need," Wei, a Sudbury resident, said in an interview. ''Those of us who were able to answer that call were willing to go, and if it happened again tomorrow, we would do it again."

Having returned to work at Lahey, Wei noted, ''It's incredible coming back when you look at the medical facilities in the hopsital we have and all the medical resources. . . . When you look at the devastation halfway around the world, you can't help but reflect on how fortunate you are."

Wei was one of 58 trauma professionals from the Boston area picked by the head of the federal government's International Medical Surgical Response Team to travel to Bam, Iran. An earthquake measuring 6.6 on the Richter scale devastated the city on Dec. 26, killing an estimated 30,000 people. Another 20,000 to 40,000 were injured.

Wei, 45, got the call at 1:30 a.m. on Dec. 27. By 5:30 a.m., he was en route with his duffel bag to Massachusetts General Hospital, where team members assembled before heading by bus to Westover Joint Air Reserve Base in Chicopee. His wife and two teenage children came to the hospital to wave goodbye.

The team traveled on a C-17 cargo plane that carried a Chevy suburban, a deployable rapid-assembly surgical hospital, three tents, medical-surgical equipment, and a diesel generator. Too large to land at the airport in Bam, the plane touched down on Dec. 29 in Kerman, 120 miles northwest of the crumbled city.

It was the first US plane to land in Iran since the failed military operation to rescue the US hostages in 1980, according to the State Department. ''For those of us who have memories that far back," said Wei, ''that was one of the defining moments. . . . One of the things that left a scar on this country's spirit was the sight of the hostages being taken in Iran."

Cargo trucks carried the trauma specialists and their equipment over mountainous terrain. The team set up its field hospital among other groups from the Ukraine, Jordan, France, Taiwan, Sweden, and Portugal.

''We set up our facilities in the United Nations compound," said Wei, who is a native of Taiwan. ''The Iranian government agreed to provide armed guards around the entire compound."

Wei said the medical specialists were wary of how the Iranians would respond to US citizens. ''We went to Iran as professionals willing to help the needy in the world," he said. ''But in the back of our minds was a nagging thought of 'How safe will we be?' "

They found gratitude.

''They warmed to us very quickly," Wei said. ''Some would say to us, 'I love you,' even though they didn't really understand what that meant. But they would try to convey to us feelings in words that they learned."

The International Medical Surgical Response team was formed in 1999 after the US embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania, and it is the model for other teams being formed in Miami and Seattle, said Mark Libby, regional emergency coordinator for the National Disaster Medical System of Homeland Security. Headed by Massachusetts General Hospital surgeon Susan Briggs, it consists of surgeons, pediatric emergency room physicians, anesthesiologists, burn specialists, specialized nurses, paramedics, emergency medical technicians, respiratory therapists, and pharmacists. Twenty-six of the team's members are from Mass. General.

As a trauma surgeon, Wei, who has worked at Lahey Clinic for almost five years, spent his days in Iran staffing the operating room and the emergency room, working 12-hour shifts.

''The large majority of the patients we treated were walking wounded," he said, ''people who had injuries, but they were not life-threatening."

In deference to Muslim culture, male doctors could not treat females, and female doctors could not treat males. ''Unless they were dying in front of you, you had to maintain the religious norms," Wei said.

When several women gave birth during that week, Wei had no part in their medical care, but the news got national attention because of the hopefulness it represented amid so much despair.

''We saw people who were homeless, children who were orphaned and the last surviving member of their family, injured people who were brought in by good Samaritans because there was no one else to help them," he said.

Wei noted that people who were not killed by collapsing structures typically suffered only a broken arm or leg, because they were most likely standing next to something that deflected some of the debris.

''If you happened to be standing next to the refrigerator or bed when the pile of rubble came down, there was something that popped the rubble off of you, so you wouldn't be crushed," he said.

But the disaster left little hope for the survivors. ''Some [patients] were the only surviving members of their family," he said. ''There was a lot of grief, a lot of sadness."

The team returned to Boston on Jan. 7 once the Red Crescent (a Red Cross operation in the Mideast) field hospital was operating. Members left behind six pallets of medical surgical supplies and three tents equipped with a heating system, fluorescent lights, outlets for heart monitors, and an oxygen generator.

''If you had asked me [about doing another overseas stint with the team] when I was sleeping in the cold desert, freezing in my sleeping bag, I would have said, 'What! Are you crazy?' " Wei said. ''But after you get home and think about all the good that has come out of it, the next time the call comes, I'll be the first in the saddle."

Joyce Pellino Crane can be reached at crane@globe.com.