BY RITA KENNEN

After 20 years in Ethiopia, internist Rick Hodes, MD, often practices medicine without backup from subspecialists, sophisticated tests or technology. He provides a vast number of people with medical care without large amounts of money or advanced medical training. Hodes believes that getting good at physical exams is vital and something that American doctors don't emphasize enough.

Colleague Abraham Verghese, MD, professor of medicine at Stanford, invited Hodes to the School of Medicine, where he held a conference May 12 on clinical care in Ethiopia. "The Internet revolution has made Rick well-known in medical circles and increasingly in international health," said Verghese. "On top of that he's a great human being and friend."

Sitting in the first row of an audience primarily made up of interns, residents and medical students was Hodes' traveling companion, 16-year-old Zewdie Alamerew. As a boy, Zewdie lived with a 120-degree angle in his back until his father sold two sheep (a precious commodity in Ethiopia) for $13 each, so that Zewdie could see Hodes. They traveled by bus, slept on hard hotel floors and walked long distances to save on bus fare. When they met

Hodes at his clinic in Addis Ababa, the capitol of Ethiopia, he gave them $12 and told them to sleep in a bed and eat well. He diagnosed Zewdie with tuberculosis of the spine and arranged for his treatment, including trips to Ghana for five surgeries. Zewdie stands up straight now.

Rita Kennen spoke recently with Hodes about his life in Ethiopia.

What is a typical day like for you?

Hodes: I'm employed by the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee. I have a clinic, which I oversee, and right now I'm taking care of about 4,000 potential immigrants waiting to go to Israel. I run another program at a Catholic Mission Facility where I treat kids with rheumatic or congenital heart disease, sclerosis, TB spondylitis, Hodgkin's disease, bone cancer, lymphomas. A little bit of everything.

2. With only 2,500 doctors for 80 million people in Ethiopia, what types of challenges do you face?

Hodes: Getting the proper medicine on time is a big challenge for me. Raising money for my projects is another. The funds for heart disease, spine and cancer programs are raised outside our normal budget. And I'm always looking for donors. It's a struggle dealing with the overwhelming number of patients that want to see me, just through word of mouth. I can send maybe 20 spine patients abroad, but I get a new spine patient virtually every week, and I have 40 or 50 waiting to have surgery.

3. How does the cost of the treatments or surgery in the United States compare to other countries?

Hodes: The cost of surgery in Ghana is about 3 percent of what it is in America. A posterior back surgery might be about $150,000 in New York and in Ghana we're paying $7,500 for the surgery itself, plus another $2,000 for support costs to get them there and for staff to help them. Or Hodgkin's disease, here it would be $50,000 or $60,000 to cure Hodgkin's disease but I can do it in Ethiopia for $700.

4. You're raising five adopted sons. What is life like at home?

Hodes: The house has 20 kids. I try to stress the importance of respecting each other and our different traditions. We live in a Jewish house, celebrate Jewish holidays but they are welcome to practice whatever religion they want. My five Ethiopian kids call my mother Bubbe, which is the Jewish word for grandma. Two of my kids had TB of the spine. I adopted them and added them to my health insurance to pay for their surgeries.

5. What do you enjoy most about your work?

Hodes: Hopefully it's made me more kind, more patient and more focused on healing and the problems of other people. I'm helping people that nobody else has any interest in. That's what keeps me going. I remind myself that I have to go to work, I can't retire. I can't stop. Because if I don't go to work people die, and the fact that these people are alive because of my work, that's what I love.

 

People who want to support Hodes' work can donate to the Ethiopia Medical Programs: by going online to https://www.jdc.org/donation/jdc_form.cfm, by phone at (212) 687-6200 or by mail with a check payable to Ethiopia Medical Programs at JDC, P.O. Box 530, 132 East 43rd St., New York, NY 10017.