One of our UAMS radiologists, Dr. Henry Lile, traveled with an emergency disaster relief medical mission to Sri Lanka to aid victims of the tsunami. A neurology nurse on the mission, Barbara Semora, is also from Arkansas, while the remainder of the team is from around the United States. In addition to the two Arkansans, the team consisted of two pediatricians, an internal medicine doctor, two family practice doctors, a physician's assistant, two nurse practitioners, two psychological counselors, and two lay people. These fourteen volunteers paid their own way to join this mission trip from Saturday, January 8, 2005 through Sunday, January 23, 2005.

The team set up four tents for examinations, each tent divided into two halves to accomodate two doctors. These clinics required that the physicians utilize their basic medical skills, as opposed to their specialized training. One interpreter per tent would help take a history with one doctor and then help the other doctor in that tent while the first doctor performed a physical exam. The interpreter would then return to translate any further questions or instructions the doctor had after the examination. An intensive care unit tent had two beds for patients who needed to remain under medical supervision, such as one dehydrated two-year-old girl who would have died within hours if the mission's clinic were not available to give her IV fluids through the night. The counsellors helped villagers recover and deal not only with the grief of lost loved ones but also with the fact that their livelihood of fishing was taken away when their boats were destroyed by the tsunami. During their ten working days, the team saw 800 patients from this village population of 1600.

This Presbyterian medical mission team is part of a group called Mission to the World, which has about a hundred volunteers trained to work on emergency disaster relief teams. The training includes orienteering skills similar to those taught at military officer training so the team can navigate in harsh enviroments, as well as civil engineering skills that allow them to construct their own structures or recognize a damaged infrastructure that would be unsafe for use. Volunteers are "on call" to be recruited whenever a medical mission is necessary, and although the members of each team changes depending on who is available at the time, they often meet each other again on future mission trips. For instance, Dr. Lile, who usually participates in at least one disaster relief mission each year, had met various members of the Sri Lanka mission team during previous missions, including a trip to Bam, Iran after the earthquake in December 2003 and another to the Amazon river and other mission destinations. After this team departed, a second medical team took their place for the next two weeks to attend to further medical problems. Following the second medical team's departure, an administrative mission team helps the villagers to begin setting up their village and return to a more normal life.