Evanston Doctor Volunteers At Syrian Refugee Camp

EVANSTON, IL — A local doctor recently returned from a trip to a Syrian refugee camp in Lebanon, where he and a group of volunteers assessed the health care needs of nearly 1,000 children.

Dr. David Soglin is an Evanston resident and the chief medical officer of La Rabida Children's Hospital in Chicago. He was contacted about a trip to the camps by a friend and colleague, Dr. John Kahler, who co-founded the nonprofit organization MedGlobal last year.

Soglin and five other doctors traveled to refugee camps in Lebanon's Arsal region, a few miles from the Syrian border. The population of Lebanon is about 4.5 million, while the war in Syria has led to the displacement of more than 1.3 million refugees in the area.

Over four days in October and with the help of four Syrian interpreters, Soglin and the other volunteers saw more than 950 kids. The doctors spent the last day using the data from those visits to put together an assessment of what kind of care is needed. MedGlobal then works with an organization called ERDA to help meet those needs.

“You hear all the time in the news, ‘1.5 million refugees’, but going there was a good reminder that every single one of those 1.5 million people has a story, and is a family with children,” Soglin said.

The needs assessment identified 140 kids who would require continuing care, with dental care the most common unmet need.

MedGlobal partners with communities to devastated by conflict, disasters and famine provide medical missions to places with little access to health care or opportunities for help from other nonprofits. In addition to Syria and Lebanon, the organization has sent teams to Bangladesh, Greece, Puerto Rico, Sierra Leone and Yemen with plans for expansion into Colombia, Haiti, Iraq and Jordan early next year.

Soglin, 61, has lived in Evanston since 1971 and graduated from Evanston Township High School in 1975. He has practiced medicine for more than 30 years after graduating from Rush Medical College in 1983 and completing a residency at Michael Reese Hospital. In 1987, he and his wife, also a doctor, spent a year working in Papua New Guinea. They also spent a month in rural Honduras around 1990.

Many Syrian families have spent more than three years living in the camps, and for many young children it is the only life they have experienced. Other kids have been deeply traumatized by their experiences before arriving in the camps.

The mother of a girl experiencing headaches, stomach cramps and other pain told doctors her daughter had nightmares every night. Doctors believe such psychological trauma can manifest itself in the form of psychical symptoms.

Soglin was especially affected by encountering kids with cerebral palsy, a condition his hospital specializes in treating.

"If I could just get one of our gifted therapists here, we could help these kids," Soglin said.