Chicago Physicians Visit Colombia to Provide Healing for Refugees Fleeing Venezuela
By Jerome McDonnellChicago Physicians Visit Colombia to Provide Healing for Refugees Fleeing Venezuela
By Jerome McDonnellBy most measures, Venezuela is a failing state. Mass numbers of people have fled the country. Colombia has accepted more than a million Venezuelans in recent months. Venezuela’s collapsing economy is expected to force another million people to soon flee. MedGlobal provides on-the-ground medical relief in the world’s most difficult humanitarian crises. A MedGlobal team of physicians has just returned from Colombia. While there, they assessed Colombia’s overburdened medical system. We’ll hear about the medical challenges to our hemisphere’s biggest migrant crisis from Dr. Zaher Sahloul, a co-founder of MedGlobal. A Chicago-area critical care specialist at Advocate Christ Medical Center, Sahloul is former president of the Syrian American Medical Society (SAMS). Two MedGlobal volunteers join Sahloul. Dr. John Kahler is a Chicago-area pediatrician, and a co-founder of Med Global, and Alexandra is MedGlobal’s Venezuela liaison. She’s a former deputy mayor of El Hatillo Municipality in Caracas, Venezuela.