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Young Ypsilanti Doctor Follows In Tom Dooley's Footsteps

Young Ypsilanti Doctor Follows In Tom Dooley's Footsteps image Young Ypsilanti Doctor Follows In Tom Dooley's Footsteps image
Parent Issue
Day
20
Month
September
Year
1971
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Donated by the Ann Arbor News. © The Ann Arbor News.
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A young doe foï from Ypsilanti, following in the footsteps of Albert Schweitzer and Dr. Torn Dooley, has built - almost singlehandedly - t w o hospitals deep in the bush country of Niger to minister to the medical needs of 250,000 Africans. Dr. Bill Kirker, 36, a 1960 gradúate of the U-M Medical School, gave up a very successful private practice as a general practitioner to go to Afric and "devote part of my life to being a doctor to people who didn't have one and to spread medical care to areas that have never known it." Kirker is the only physician for 250,000 people in an area larger than the state of Michigan. It's an area where, says' Kirker, 50 per cent of the population dies before reaching the age of five, mainly from infections. He 's a white Christian doctor surrounded by Moslem blacks who he says "are all my friends." Dr. Kirker built his two hos pitáis, in part, with funds from his own pocket. And his patients are treated without charge. The physician is in Ann Ar-bor this week in search of additional financial support for his medical program. In order to encqurage more support, he also tóupa tax-exempt, non-profifV-ganization called AFRICAREHix Washington, D. C, and he dreams of setting up medical clinics throughout África. In order to build his two hospitals in Niger, which used to be French West África, Kirker had to overeóme enormous obstacles. "It's all bush country," he says. "We're a thousand miles from the capital. There are no roads. No electricity. No water or sewage systems, only open wells, we're isolated. It's difficult to maintain a modern hospital u n d e r such primitive conditions." But he does. One of the hospitals, called l'hopital de Maine, is located in Maine-Soroa, a village of 2,000. The other is in N'Guigmi. The a r e a is periodically ravaged by epidemics of smallpox, measles, meningitis, yellow fever, malaria, and cholera. Kirker went to Niger five years ago, and he's had to battle epidemics of each one of these illnesses since arriving. Witii the assistance of the Niger government, he instituted a vaecination program and I : succeeded in bringing t h e 1 smallpox and measles epidemics under control. He also must cope with leporsy, tuberculosis, dysentery, gangrene, venereal dise a s e , elephantiasis, schistomiasis, sometimès called the "snail disease," and malnutrition. Malnutrition, he says, is a major problem in the area, partly , because of famines causea by lack of rainfaU. "A huge percentage of Niger babies die of malnutrition," Kirker notes. But, Kirker points out, he rarely runs across a case of insanity. 'There's less insanity over there than there is over here," Kirker says. "You just don't see many psychotics or neurotics as such in Niger. I can't say why. I don't know." Kirker also points out that "racial problems are nonexistent." He adds: "The natives are all my friends. They are slightly suspicious at the beginning, but now they come f rom miles around." He says he has never been made to feel uncomfortable or umpnted because he is white ariö a Christian among blacks who are Moslems. And he insists that he is not a missionary. ' ' I ' m not motivated to try to spread the Gospel," he says. "I'm simply trying to spread medical care where it isn't." Dr. Kirker, whose mother Mrs_ Cari Hood still üves at I 1218 Westmoorland in Ypsilanti, built the largest hospital - a 110-bed structure - mainly through his own efforts. ('I was the architect, the contractor, and the co-financier," he says. A staff of 30 nurses and aides - all of them African - assists him. He plans soon to enlarge the hospital to accommodate 200 beds. The second hospital is supervised by a nurse with a staff of 20 Africans. After Kirker was graduated f rom the U-M Medical School, he went to Honolulú and built up a "very successful" priva t e medical practice. In 1966, he gave up his practice and joined the Peace Corps. He was assinged to Niger, . and while there, the natives' great need for medical care made a deep impression on him. And so, when his assignment with the Peace Corps came to an end, he decided to stay one and continue his work on his own. "I'm doing now on a private basis what the Peace Corps was doing with the support of the U.S. Government," he says. Financially, the going is rough. "I haven't made any money in five years," he says. Still, Kirker endures. The Government of Niger has given him $50,000 to help finance nis program. (In Niger, all medicine is socialized.) But that isn't nearly enough, and that's why Kirker has come back to America - he needs financial support, and he's organized AFRÏCARE in the hope of getting it. He's seeking help from foundations, churches and service clubs, and he's asking that tax-deductible contributions be sent to AFRICARE at 4241 Mathewson Dr. N. W., Washington, D. C. N W 20011. "One of our major problems," he says, "is lack of staff." He recently hired 17 field technicians in order to expand his program: 12 I Americans, two Canadians, two Belgians and an Irishman. His wife, Barbara Jean, an I attractive Eurasian who is á former professiional entertainer, has been his principal assistant. She spends most of her time supervising the feeding of the patients, helping in the maternity wards, caring for the children, acting as an anethetist during surgery. Another problem is the lack of medicine. "We just don't have enough money to buy the materials and medicines needed to treat all the patients we 're getting," says Kirker. He adds: "The government of Niger provides me with 20 cents per patiënt per year for medicine and other expenses." But that's only a fraction of what is needed. Kirker has surmounted the language problem by learning to speak French and two of the seven African languages spoken in Niger. But the big problem now is money, and he hopes that i KICARE will provide "concerned Americans with an opportunity to contribute to the well-being of Africans." He sees AFRICARE as a bridge between the two continents and a way to promote goodwill between them. He hopes to expand his program to train African medical technicians to work in the field; develop "pure water production"' (so m a n y Africans, he says, die from contaminated water), f i v e medical scholarships, and promote the production of nutritious foods, especially proteins, to combat malnutrition. Someday, too, he dreams of sending a native from Niger on a scholarship to the U-M Medical School. Kirker misses the states, but he loves África. He and his wife have a small farm and ride camelback and horseback almost every day. "I hope to stay there many more years," he says.

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Cal Samra
Ann Arbor News
Old News