TO THE RESCUE: AN INTERVIEW - Renee Berke - Walking Hand in Hand with Clara Barton

Wednesday, October 7, 2009

AN INTERVIEW - Renee Berke - Walking Hand in Hand with Clara Barton

Q - I understand you are a nurse. Why did you choose nursing as your career? What are some of the types of nursing you have done?
Renee: When I was 13 I had to have a cyst removed from the lower end of my spinal column. When I recovered I volunteered at the hospital. It was then I knew I wanted to become a nurse. I was a college nurse, I studied at Mass. Eye & Ear Infirmary, and did Eye, Ear, Nose and Throat nursing, I was a visiting nurse in Natick, MA., a camp nurse, private nursing, Parish nurse, Medical volunteer in Boston for Bridge Over Troubled Waters, taught sex education at the Unitarian-Universalist church in Sherborn, MA, lectured for The Cancer Society, and was a Nurse Practitioner with an infertility specialist.
Q - In 1999 you volunteered with the American Red Cross during the Hurricane Floyd. Have you had any other volunteer disaster nursing experience s? Are you still involved with the ARC?
Renee: I have not had another volunteer disaster experience and at present am not involved with the American Red Cross. Unfortunately, I've been diagnosed with chronic autoimmune pancreatitis, and I'm hesitant to take on that type of difficult work at this time.
Q - Other than your story, Walking Hand in Hand with Clara Barton what other stories/articles have you had published?
Renee : The Last Goodbye, Hepatitis C--A New Medical Crisis, Aging and the Thyroid Gland, Macular Degeneration and Chelation Therapy, Treating Pain Begins with Understanding that it's Real, Through the Camera Eye, Searching for Sleep, The Parish Nurse, A Potato on My Antenna, and others.
Q - What adventures are in your future plans?
Renee - A few years ago there was an article written by a local gynecologist called "Women with Disabilities Discover Gynecologic Care Difficult to Obtain." The article emphasized the emotional aspects of the women. I am thinking of writing to the doctor to see if I would be able to volunteer my services.

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"Sudan is where I was introduced to working with HIV/AIDS. While the program focus was to treat African sleeping sickness, those with HIV needed special care, as their weakened immune systems could do very little against the disease that attacks the central nervous system, causing confusion, poor coordination, and disturbed sleep patterns. While we could provide treatment for African sleeping sickness, there were no antiretroviral drugs available in South Sudan to suppress HIV. It felt completely hopeless to not have anything to offer. " ~ Grace Muthumbi, Beauty & Grace

We awoke to a huge explosion, the impact sending tremors throughout the compound. someone had thrown a grenade over the wall, sending debris like confetti into the air. The classroom windows shattered. Shrapnel hit one of our guards in the neck. Our surgeons repaired the guard's injuries and there were no casualties, but the experience had been unsettling. we knew it was a direct attack on us. Suddenly the danger of what we were doing became very real. ~ Jeffery C. Goodman, MD, There is a Way from Heart to Heart.

It had been raining all weekend. I had hardly been outside, marooned in the house by unrelenting curtains of rain. By Sunday night I was thinking that things might be getting serious, so ,when I woke to the 6:30AM news on Monday, February 16th, to hear that the Oroua river had breached its banks, I wasn't surprised, but I was worried and my thoughts raced. How extensive was the flooding? What areas were affected? Would we be able to see our patients? Did the night nurse get home safetly? My rather bemused family watched me race out the door to work. ~ Julie Vickery, Front Up to a Civil Emergency

"I think I should say one word too, a special word, about the 'Dust-Offs' -- the medvacs. This was a great group of men. All those who flew them, all those who did it. Courage above and beyond the call of duty was sort of routine for them. It was a daily thing, part of the way they lived. That's the great part, and it meant so much to every last man who served there. Whether he ever got hurt or not, he knew dust Off was there." ~ Gen. Creighton W. Abrams Jr., Army Chief of Staff at AAA honors luncheon, Washington D.C> October 13, 1972

My God, we're going to crash!" John suddenly yelled into his mike. "My cyclic's been shot away!"
Immediately I looked over to see him sweeping his cyclic stick in wide circles around the cockpit -- movements tht should have made the aircraft spin in circles. But out bird didn't respond. As the Huey's nose began a dive toward the trees, I instinctively reached for my set of controls.
"I've got it," I said.
This is it, I distinctly remember thinking, as enemy rounds continued ventilating our bird. Today is the day I'm going to die!......Robert B. Robeson, Miracle at Landing Zone Ross

WALK IN THEIR SHOES FOR ONE DAY

Stand in the ruins of a school in Sichuan Province, China, surrounded by rubble and human loss in the wake of an earthquake.

Heave sandbag upon sandbag, 12 high, at a Midwestern hospital as the rising floodwaters lap at the Emergency Room door.

Awaken to an explosion in Pakistan, the impact of the unrest sending tremors throughout your compound, debris falling like confetti in the air.

Suffer the anguish of scarring burns, followed by the transformative joy that fills you when you can empower another person who suffers.

Sleep alongside the dead during the aftermath of the Great Tsunami.

Tremble with the excitement on your first American Red Cross hurricane disaster duty.

Every year, more than 200 million people are affected by wars, floods, earthquakes, and other disasters. To the Rescue tells the stories of the EMT workers, firefighters, physicians, nurses, social workers, and volunteers who provide relief at disaster sites—both natural and man-made—across the world.
Celebrate the resilience of the human spirit with the remarkable stories of those who have overcome substantial odds to save lives and provide comfort to those in need.