By Meredith Newman, The News Journal

A group of Delaware doctors plan to head to the Caribbean in the coming weeks to provide medical aid in the wake of disastrous Hurricane Maria.

Dr. Reynold Agard, a Newark internist and president of the Delaware Medical Relief Team, hopes more than 100 doctors, surgeons, nurses and pharmacists will head to the small island of Dominica, one of the first Caribbean islands to be hit by the Category 5 storm on Monday.

At least 15 people on the 72,000 person island have been killed. The country’s hospital has been without power since Monday and the U.S. State Department has arranged evacuation efforts for U.S. citizens on the island.

On Friday, Agard reached out to the Seventh Day Adventist Church, which is helping coordinate relief efforts for the Caribbean islands. He figured he’d organize the shipment of basic food necessities. The representative on the phone burst into tears when Agard called.

“He literally begged me and said ‘We need a medical team like yesterday,'” Agard said.

Two weeks ago, he and a group of doctors came back from a relief trip in Trinidad. They saw about 5,000 patients and helped feed about 15,000 people, he said. They’ve also sent doctors to Haiti and Nepal when earthquakes devastated both countries.

Agard said the medical team will go to Dominica because it’s a small, sovereign island. Unlike the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico, which are U.S. territories, Dominica doesn’t have the same access to America’s resources.

The island is more than 100 miles from Saint Lucia and is a popular honeymoon destination.

Unlike other natural disasters, Hurricane Maria has wiped out most of the country’s infrastructure. Agard expects the doctors to be working out of tents.

“It will be almost like wilderness medicine,” he said.

Right now, he plans on sending small groups of doctors to the island two weeks at a time, with groups overlapping by a day. The doctors could be heading to the island as soon as Oct. 2.

The organization is looking for donations. People can donate gently used clothes of all ages, diapers, baby supplies, crutches, wheelchairs, sugar, flower, canned foods, bottled water and potatoes.

Donations can be sent to Agard’s office, 314 E. Main St. #103 in Newark. For retired doctors or nurses who want to volunteer, call (302) 685-0181.

IMAGE: Dr. Reynold Agard works with a patient in the village of Khokana, Nepal, on May 11, 2015. The Delaware Medical Relief Team saw more than 50 patients while serving the small village. (Photo: Daniel Sato, The News Journal)

For more on this story and video go to: http://www.delawareonline.com/story/news/health/2017/09/23/delaware-doctors-provide-medical-aid-caribbean-island-wake-hurricane-maria/693301001/