Veteran UB Medical “Trekker” Finds Recent Trip To Himalayas To Be Most Harrowing Mission

By Lois Baker

Release Date: October 29, 1999 This content is archived.

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BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Richard Lee is a veteran "trekker."

The founder and director of the University at Buffalo Medical Trek Program has made numerous trips overseas since the mid-1980s -- with the UB program and others -- delivering medical treatment to indigenous populations all across the globe.

But a 28-day mission last summer to India with 17 others, including his wife, Susan, to deliver medical treatment to the people of the Himalayas was the most harrowing by far.

The UB group -- ranging in age from 13 to 62 -- faced on average 12 hours of trekking daily on passes barely wide enough to accommodate single-file hiking while maneuvering around obstacles caused by landslides and mudslides. The group also had to climb mountains as high as 16,800 feet at 45- and 60-degree grades, using ropes to guide them uphill.

"This was the most dangerous trek we've done," said Lee, who is chief of the divisions of Geographic and Obstetric Medicine in the UB School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences and an adjunct professor in the Department of Anthropology in the UB College of Arts and Sciences.

UB senior Diana Pratt, a pre-med student and a first-time trekker, admits she didn't know what she was getting into when she signed up for the trip. Her participation was funded through a Mary Rosenblum Somit Scholarship.

"I had no idea what this entailed until I got to India," she said. "I didn't know the real details, which was a good thing."

In addition, monsoon season was under way, preventing the group from flying out of New Delhi, where they had originally landed, to Leh, a remote city set in a valley that is difficult to reach by plane.

"The Leh airport has one runway, which isn't very big," Lee said. "And you can only land in one direction."

The group waited five days before weather permitted landing in Leh, said Lee, adding that they considered rerouting the trek, but would have faced political unrest near Pakistan if they had done so.

Once in Leh, group members had at most two days to acclimate to the 11,500-foot altitude.

"Most people get sick," said Lee, noting the importance of taking it easy due to lower oxygen levels. "Normally, we spend three days and three nights to acclimate."

The group ran into more bad luck. The trekkers were able to get to their next destination with little problem, but because of heavy rains, the roughly dozen Kashmiri men and their team of 50 horses carrying supplies from camp to camp were unable to cross the river, which had risen to an unmanageable height.

The group -- accustomed to having the caravan of men set up camp, cook and provide amenities such as hot water -- had virtually nothing, not even sleeping bags, Lee said.

"We had some food (canned sardines). And we were able to be semi-civilized," he said, chuckling at the memory of some scotch he had stashed in his backpack. The group took advantage of the delay, declaring a day of rest before heading to their main destination, the village of Lingshet.

Lingshet, Lee explained, is home to a monastery dating back to the 11th century, and is building a nunnery. The mission, he said, was to test both the Tibetan Buddhist monks and nuns for tuberculosis and hepatitis A, B and C.

The next day, the group -- which included three doctors and a nurse -- set up a clinic, using a PPD (purified protein derivative) to test for TB and drawing blood to screen for hepatitis.

"When we weren't doing that, we held a medical clinic that was open to villagers," said Pratt, who helped dispense medicine and measure blood pressure.

"The clinics are like the circus," Lee said. "Everyone turns out, and everyone wants to be seen and touched."

Patients were treated mostly for arthritis, cataracts or heartburn, Pratt said.

Arthritis was common, she said, as "they live a lifestyle of very hard labor." And living at such a high altitude meant people were more susceptible to ultraviolet damage, which causes cataracts, she explained.

Ibuprofen and Pepcid AC were administered, and the village's "amchi," or herbalist, was given medication to dispense throughout the year.

Villagers -- especially children -- suffered from severe vitamin A and D deficiencies, which were treated with chewable vitamins, Lee said.

"If you give a child a single dose of vitamin A, it reduces morbidity and mortality," he said, adding that the vitamin can be stored in body fat for up to a year.

One monk suffered from severe asthma, Pratt said, and was given an inhaler. Trying to explain its use, however, was difficult, as he didn't speak English, and directions had to be given through one of the interpreters on the trek, she said, adding that English speaking villagers were few and far between.

Lee admits there's a limit to what they can do for the people they treat.

"We try to be useful, (but) we can't treat people with chronic disease," he said. "There are things we can do," he noted, such as treat respiratory and ear infections, and skin problems, "but they're liable to recur" due to the villagers' lifestyles. Lee said the trekkers at least try to "give them an idea that there are some things they can do differently."

After three nights in Lingshet, the group began its return trek, running into yet another difficulty.

"On the last day, we were supposed to be picked up by bus," Lee said. "Because of the rain, the road had literally been washed away."

With so many delays and unexpected obstacles, Lee said the team was not able to stop at as many villages as they wanted, trekking for 14 days instead of 19. Overall, Lee said, the trek was a success.

"We were lucky," Lee said. "We probably take away more than we leave. It's an opportunity for kids to learn a little bit about other cultures and just how tough the human species can be."

Pratt said she felt the group was limited in providing treatment, given the technology available in Western medicine, but said being immersed in a different culture shed some light on American beliefs.

"Americans tend…to think our way is the right way," she said. "(But) sometimes their (villagers) way might be the right way. If they don't believe a pill is going to help them, it probably won't."

Henry Sussman, a professor and chair of the Department of Comparative Literature at UB who participated in the trek, took special interest in the villages' medicinal practices.

"There can be enormous sophistication" in their practices, he said, adding that there is "a much more intimate relationship in this culture between the body and the spirit."

Sussman was awed by his experience, which he called "an extraordinary human adventure." Pratt said she, too, was endeared by the experience, and found returning to the United States difficult.

"The hardest part was adjusting to the American culture," she said. "You can see why they don't die of things like heart attacks and don't have ulcers," she said, explaining that life in India is simpler.

Lee, who has traveled to Kenya, Thailand, China, Brazil and Chile, and who co-teaches a class in geographic medicine at UB this semester, said that while he is unsure of where or when the next trek might be, he said he's certain of one thing.

"We're not going this route again!"