Third-year UCF medical students showed their humanitarian spirit to Puerto Rico recently by collecting 152 pounds of food and supplies for island residents and donating $1,000 for their medical care.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe may be students with our own loans and struggles,\u201d said M.D. candidate Heather Lesch. \u201cBut we also understand that there is always a way to help others \u2013 especially those in such disastrous conditions.\u201d<\/p>\n
Today \u2013 about a month and a half after Hurricane Maria ravaged Puerto Rico, more than 60 percent of residents are still without power. And 30 percent of the island\u2019s telecommunications grid is still broken \u2013 making it difficult for residents to use cell phones to communicate with families in the states.<\/p>\n
While none of the student campaign leaders have family in Puerto Rico, they said they felt passionate to help others in need. Students collected items from family and friends, bringing them to the Student Affairs office; donation boxes were also set up at community centers around Orlando, like gyms and churches. UCF medical school donors contributed nonperishable food, medical supplies, baby products and toiletries. The third-year class also made the cash donation from their class fund to Direct Relief, a non-profit medical aid organization.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe saw the situation as a truly devastating disaster happening in our own country,\u201d said Robert Le, treasurer of the third-year class.<\/p>\n
College of Medicine physicians and staff members have felt Puerto Rico\u2019s troubles first-hand. Dr. Jose Rubero, associate program director of the Emergency Medicine Residency program, visited the island in October on a medical mission trip. He saw patients in shelters and encountered babies who had not eaten for days.<\/p>\n
\u201cI visited a total of eleven to twelve towns in the mountains that are difficult to access,\u201d he said. \u201cThere was no electrical power, no fuel, no drinkable water. You knew that medications were running low. Many people are leaving the island.\u201d<\/p>\n
Carolyn Castro-Pagan, who coordinates affiliated and volunteer faculty members at the medical school, has relatives on the island and has struggled to reach them by phone and get them supplies.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy entire family lives in Puerto Rico,\u201d she said. \u201cMy mother, stepdad, brother and sister, aunts, uncles, cousins \u2013 you name it.\u201d<\/p>\n
But the medical students\u2019 altruism has helped Castro-Pagan cope.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am a proud Puerto Rican \u2013 but I am more proud today because of the empathy, love and support I have felt around me \u2013 especially at the College of Medicine,\u201d she said. \u201cThe fact that our med students are taking their time to help provide relief to my beautiful Isla del Encanto<\/em> is both humbling and honorable. Puerto Rico se levanta<\/em> \u2013 we will rise!\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Third-year UCF medical students showed their humanitarian spirit to Puerto Rico recently by collecting 152 pounds of food and supplies for island residents and donating $1,000 for their medical care. \u201cWe may be students with our own loans and struggles,\u201d said M.D. candidate Heather Lesch. \u201cBut we also understand that there is always a way to help others \u2013 especially…","protected":false},"author":152,"featured_media":79552,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"template-twocol.php","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"lazy_load_responsive_images_disabled":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":"","_wp_rev_ctl_limit":""},"categories":[5,6,12,17],"tags":[979,2238,15761],"tu_author":[],"class_list":["post-79551","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colleges","category-community","category-health","category-medicine","tag-college-of-medicine","tag-hurricanes","tag-pegasus-briefs"],"yoast_head":"\n