Cutchogue Man Organizes Relief to Typhoon-Ravaged Phillipines

Days after a deadly typhoon devastated the Phillipines, a Cutchogue man is organizing a team to deliver life-saving help.

Typhoon Haiyan, which swept horror across the Phillipines, was storm that officials say may have killed as many as 10,000 people and left others without food, water, transportation or communication in the devastation that followed.

"The story unfolding in the Phillipines is beyond dire, yet the storm is only the beginning of their battle," said Gabrielle Bradford, who is working to spread the word about NYCMedics, a not-for-profit organization that has sent an assessment team to the Phillipines and plans to send a mobile medical team by Friday.
"They need funding and they need it fast," Bradfor said. "This is a group of highly talented and compassionate medical experts with no agenda other than to go where help is so desperately needed."

Founded by Cutchogue resident Steve Muth, who is president of NYCMedics, the group organized after the Pakistani earthquake in 2005, when ten paramedics from New York City banded together to help.

Muth, a former paramedic, said the group heading to the Phillipines is comprised of fully trained emergency room doctors, nurses, critical care medics, nurse anesthetists and others.

His organization, Muth said, coordinates with the government in whatever country they are aiming to assist, to determine what spot would best suit a mobile clinic.

"Our main focus is finding niches where no one has been. When there is a big catastrophe, all the attention is usually focused in one area. In this case, there are a lot of photos coming from Tacloban. It’s a huge area, and the big organizations are focused on places like Tacloban, where they are trying to set up large hospitals."

He added that his group's aim is to provide more immediate, hands-on help.

"They're doing great work, but it takes a long time to set up, and we've found these people don't have time. A lot of them have minor issues —  diarrhea, dehydration an infected cut —  that could be fixed with antibiotics. But if left untreated, they could die."

The first thing the team does upon landing is to find an area where no spotlight has been shone and where the need is dire, and then, to embark upon an investigative report, he said.

The Phillipines, Muth said, have seen a 50-mile-wide radius "leveled, with no building left standing. It's a huge area," he said.

After the first team of professionals, there are second and third teams sent; the group plans to stay for five or six weeks to provide urgently needed care.

But funds are needed, Muth said; while 10 to 12 are leaving Friday, up to 40 professionals are available and funds are needed for medical supplies and airfare.

The volunteers typically camp or stay in homes, not hotels, he added, with monies used directly to help the suffering.

Food and water are bought locally. "We want to support the local economy," he said.

Once the team arrives, since roads are impassable, they are taken on a C130 and by boat or truck to the actual location, Muth said.

The group of volunteers, he said, is passionate about their mission. "This started with medical professionals who all have real world experience," Muth said. "Anyone who has ever intervened in someone's life and made a difference, you don't get that feeling anywhere else. You can help more people in a day than you could in a month or a year here. It's very fulfilling."

Most rewarding, he said, is helping the children. "The kids all look like your kids. And you can save a child's life by a very simple intervention. You can make such a big difference, by doing such a simple thing."

A life can be saved for as little as $4, Muth said. "When it costs so little, it makes you look at your cup of Starbucks coffee a little differently," he said; donations to the group's Phillipines relief efforts can be made here.