Front line of affliction
In the Kosovo region are 'angels working where most fear to tread'
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It was a brutal, bloody war. Among the stories of rape, torture, and other atrocities, United Nations war crimes investigators believe more than 11,000 ethnic Albanians were buried in mass graves across Kosovo. Serbian troops and paramilitary police forced thousands of ethnic Albanian refugees from their homes, causing them to flee across the border into the neighboring countries of Macedonia and Albania. Since March, 1999, the United Nations High Commission for Refugees estimates that more than 900,000 refugees left Kosovo--most in fear for their lives. Their destination was one of several refugee camps located in Albania and Macedonia. Overcrowding in these refugee camps was common. Stenkovec II, located near Skopje, Macedonia, was one such refugee camp and also the second largest camp in Macedonia with more than 25,000 refugees. In May, 1999, Eric Frykman, MD, MPH, a 1996 graduate of the School of Medicine, and a 1999 graduate of the School of Public Health, and his wife, Ayme Frykman, RN, a nurse at Redlands Community Hospital and a 1997 graduate of the School of Nursing, scheduled their trip to the Balkans to help with the daily flood of refugees who poured into these already crowded camps. Dr. Frykman was in his final month of residency in preventive medicine at Loma Linda University Medical Center when he was encouraged by his instructors to travel to Macedonia for six weeks to work in Stenkovec II. Says Dr. Frykman, "We had been wanting to do some humanitarian work for some time, and this sounded like a great opportunity." Mrs. Frykman, who worked for Loma Linda University Children's Hospital at the time, took a leave of absence, and from early June until mid-July, 1999, the Frykmans volunteered in Macedonia. Several relief organizations were involved in the effort to help the refugees, providing them with doctors, nurses, health educators, and medical supplies. Among the various organizations was International Medical Corps (IMC), a nonprofit humanitarian relief organization whose mission is to save lives and relieve suffering through health interventions and medical training in war-torn and impoverished regions of the world. The Frykmans became involved in the Kosovo mission as a result of IMC, established in 1984 by volunteer U.S. physicians and nurses. According to IMC, relief workers continuously serve on the front lines of afflicted areas, and because of this they have unofficially been called "angels working where most fear to tread." Stenkovec II, located on the road that joins Macedonia and Kosovo, is 10 miles from the border of Kosovo and could easily be called the "front line of affliction." United Nations jets, transport helicopters, and Apache attack helicopters flying low overhead were common sights during their stay at Stenkovec II. "We didn't know what to expect," says Dr. Frykman. "I had no idea what we would be doing while we were over there." Once in Macedonia, however, Dr. Frykman was involved in health education and also helped out wherever else he could. |
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| Eric Frykman, MD, MPH, and Ayme Frykman, RN, pose for a picture in front of Stenkovec II, the second largest Kosovo refugee camp in Macedonia. | ||
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| Dr. Frykman (right) sutures a laceration for a Kosovo refugee who had been injured by a police officer. | ||
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| Following the first day of the newly signed cease-fire treaty, NATO convoys carrying peacekeeping forces enter Kosovo on the road next to Stenkovec II. | ||
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| In the foreground, refugees wait to contact loved ones on donated satellite phones. In the background is the medical compound at Stenkovec II. |
The camp ran an 18-bed inpatient hospital, dental clinic, dermatology clinic, injection treatments, outpatient services, pediatric services, obstetrics/gynecology, and a pharmacy for the Albanian refugees. Dr. Frykman estimates that the medical compound accommodated about 800 visits a day.
Mrs. Frykman participated in IMC's mobile clinic program which was launched in response to fierce fighting and the forced displacement of the ethnic Albanians. The program was designed to deliver vital health care to women, children, and elderly persons who were at risk after crossing the mountains into Macedonia.
She traveled from village to village with the mobile clinics, helping refugees who were too old or too weak to travel to the overcrowded refugee camps.
"The people there were extremely thankful," remembers Dr. Frykman. "They understood that some of these doctors and nurses had traveled more than 10,000 miles to help them. I found that most of them--though not Christians--had an intense faith in God."
Doctors who worked at the camp would rotate taking call each night during their stay at the camp. Dr. Frykman's first night on call was the same night that NATO began sending forces into Kosovo, less than 48 hours after the cease-fire was signed. NATO tanks were headed into Kosovo on the road that led by Stenkovec II.
As the convoy headed through Macedonia, ethnic Albanians stood along the roadside cheering and clapping while the tanks passed by.
That same day, Dr. Frykman was given the responsibility of transporting a patient to another nearby camp. He realized that they would have to cross the road where the NATO convoy was advancing.
"It was quite a sight to see all those powerful tanks stopping to let my 1950s ambulance cut through," says Dr. Frykman.
In another incident four days after the cease-fire treaty was signed, the Frykmans crossed the border into Kosovo. Once there, they noticed numerous circular holes in the road where Serbian land mines had been removed.
"Driving through tunnels was extremely nerve-wracking because the mine sweepers could not detect well-hidden mines in the tunnels," explains Dr. Frykman. Because there were so many mines, the couple was told to drive through the center of the tunnels where they hoped no mines were located.
The center of the tunnel was safer to navigate, they learned, because those mines had already been tripped by smaller mine sweepers and by other less fortunate motorists.
On one trip from Skopje, Dr. and Mrs. Frykman made what could have been a very grave mistake when they took a picture of a dam near Skopje. They were both taken into custody by Macedonian police officers and interrogated for nearly five hours.
"To be detained in a foreign country where we don't speak the language or know the customs--I was absolutely panic-stricken," Mrs. Frykman describes. "They took our passports and interrogated us separately."
Fortunately, the head of security for IMC was able to call the U.S. Embassy and arrange for the frightened Frykmans to be released.
During his last night on call, Dr. Frykman was in the medical compound when four kids came in on stretchers. They had tripped a mine just over the border, resulting in numerous shrapnel wounds.
None of the children was seriously injured, however, in what could have been a devastating accident.
After the treaty was signed, IMC crossed the border and assessed the conditions in more than 50 villages, looking at sanitation, medicine, and community welfare. Dr. Frykman joined the IMC team, and was able to put his public health knowledge to good use helping assess several of the villages.
Dr. Frykman expressed how fortunate he was to be able to help others and receive a firsthand understanding of why these two ethnic groups have such a violent history. "We enjoy doing the Lord's work in as many various ways as possible," confirms Dr. Frykman. Both alumni are looking for future missions where they can again volunteer their services.
Dr. Frykman now works in student health at the Claremont Colleges in Claremont. According to him, working at a flexible job, and the understanding that Loma Linda University Medical Center demonstrated in letting him go to Kosovo, encourages him to volunteer for similar missions in the future.
"I am extremely thankful that Loma Linda has programs that allowed me and others to do things like volunteering in Kosovo," Dr. Frykman says.
Because of that understanding, both Eric and Ayme Frykman were able to demonstrate on the front line of affliction what it takes to be "angels working where most fear to tread."
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