The bleeding disorder community is great at many things—treatment, research, support and humanitarian aid—but one thing we lack is emergency help during natural disasters in developing countries. On top of lack of treatment, poor infrastructure and a chronic blood disorder, developing countries often have to deal with earthquakes, monsoons, flooding, volcanoes, mudslides, typhoons and hurricanes. I recall when the worst earthquake struck Haiti in 2010, a country I had visited as the first person in our global community, people asked how they could help. Our global hemophilia community had no program that gave such aid, and so no donations were accepted and none were delivered.
On July 1, 2024 Hurricane Beryl became a record-breaker: the earliest category 5 storm on record in the Atlantic basin. Beryl caused catastrophic damage and approximately 64 fatalities in several islands in the Caribbean Sea, resulting in over $6.86 billion dollars in damages.
Beryl hit Grenada’s northern islands and several of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines’ southern islands, such as Union Island. I’ve been to Union Island, and in fact have been to St. Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG) four times over 20 years. Why? Not for holiday. I visit a young man I’ve known since he was small enough to literally sit on my knee, who lives on a remote island called Mayreau.
His mother had called me collect in 2002 and said her two little boys had hemophilia—would I come there and teach her how to infuse? They had no access to factor, and had to travel by speed boat to get anu kind of medical care. With a volunteer nurse from Miami, we traveled by three commercial planes, a charter plane, then a motorboat to get to Mayreau. It is rustic and rugged. We taught the mom how to infuse in one afternoon. Sadly, the mother left the family and island, the youngest boy died of a GI bleed, and Kishroy, the older son, was left with his father to fend for himself. Since 2002, I have been helping Kishroy with factor and funds.
There were eight deaths in SVG from Hurricane Beryl with over $300 million in damages: buildings were battered or destroyed, trees were toppled, and power and communication outages occurred across much of the island chain. On Mayreau Island, over 90% of homes were damaged or destroyed. “Only six homes have roofs,” Kishroy said.
Mayreau is remote, a small island of only 300 people. You can walk the perimeter of it in a couple of hours. Everyone knows everyone there. When I first visited in 2002, the island didn’t even have electricity. There are few trees, so there is little shelter from the wind and waves. It is charming, but poor and isolated. A category 5 storm has decimated it. Kishroy simply said, “I hope I never see anything like that again.”
Kishroy’s home was destroyed. He has suffered so many losses in his 28 years. But he is resilient. I’ve donated money through our Maximum Impact fund so that he can rebuild his home; it’s already underway. And I hope to visit him again soon, to see his rebuilt home, and to bring more factor, more supplies and more hope.
