November 4, 2005

Dr. Mark Bruce of Brookfield spent time in Indonesia this year helping tsunami victims.

Though his hands have lent a healing touch to patients in countries far across the globe, Dr. Mark Bruce, an osteopathic physician at Elmbrook Memorial Hospital, believes his work is nothing more than a blessing and a duty he was put on Earth to do. It was this belief that led Bruce, a Brookfield resident, on a medical survey mission with other members of Elmbrook Church, to Indonesia in 2003.

The purpose of the trip was to form positive relations with medical organizations within the country, but he found himself somewhat discouraged by lack of response and the closed nature of the medical system there. A year later on December 26, 2004, a massive wall of water would drastically change that system.

Ten days after the devastating tsunami hit Indonesia, Bruce received a phone call from the Christian organization, Serasih, with whom Elmbrook Church had formed a relationship on its previous mission to Indonesia.

Serasih’s goal was to provide immunity rehabilitation, such as rebuilding homes and repairing boats, as well as medical care for those affected by the tsunami. When they requested a team from Elmbrook Church to assist them, Bruce and five others from the Milwaukee area didn’t hesitate.

Seven weeks after the tsunami ravaged the country, Bruce and other members of the team flew in to a horrific scene in the province of Ache, Indonesia.

"It looked like a nuclear blast had hit there," he explains. "There was just nothing as far as the eye could see except destruction and slabs where houses used to be."

Though recovery of the dead had slowed by the time the team arrived, at least 200 bodies were still being recovered per day. "It was just very devastating," adds Bruce. "Survivors reported seeing a wave about 30 to 60 feet high of black water moving very fast."

In an area that already had poor access to medical care, it was even further depleted in the wake of the disaster. Although there were very good people and some good facilities in operation farther inland, there was not enough means to serve the population.

"Most of the massive injuries from the tsunami had already been recognized and treated by the time we got there, but we did see some," Bruce explains. "Our main purpose was to provide basic care where we could for chronic issues such as hypertension, skin diseases and things of that nature."

After spending two days in Banda, seeing some 300 patients per day, the team headed to a clinic in the village of Sigli. There they worked with additional tsunami victims while training members of the Serasih team in general medical care and to use some of the equipment provided by GE Healthcare.

"It was very hot and we had to take anti-malaria medication that made you nauseous, but the area was very beautiful," Bruce says of his experience in Sigli. It was also in this village that Bruce and the others came to understand the importance of their mission when they met a woman whose leg had been badly injured by the tsunami.

"We recognized right away that she had a femur injury and she hadn’t walked since the tsunami hit and the wound was becoming badly infected. We told her we couldn’t fix the problem there, that we’d have to take her back to Banda, but she was scared and really didn’t want to go. It was only when she realized that her only other alternative was death that she went, though still reluctantly."

Later, Bruce says, he had a conversation with the woman’s son who told him as a Muslim, all the bad things he had been taught about Christians throughout his life had been completely wrong. "That really cemented what we went there to do, to help bring down those barriers and show God’s love," says Bruce.

Though Bruce said his time in Indonesia was difficult, he feels privileged that he was able to lend a helping hand. The importance of helping those in need is something he and his wife Moria have also instilled in their five children. In turn, their kids have all been actively involved in international mission work through Teen Missions International.