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Health

Kosovar doctor helps refugees one at a time

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RELATED VIDEO
CNN's Eileen O'Connor reports on some healing amidst the chaos
Windows Media28K80K

April 15, 1999
Web posted at: 12:48 p.m. EDT (1648 GMT)

From Medical Correspondent Eileen O'Connor

ELBASIN, Albania (CNN) -- Dr. Uci Gjonblaj is making house calls on his fellow Kosovars but not in his hometown Pristina. These days he is visiting them in refugee camps in Albania.

Over three weeks after the crisis began, he found it difficult to even find his countrymen. They were scattered throughout the mountainous country.

However once he located the refugees, Gjonblaj and his nurses quickly established a makeshift clinic along with the International Medical Corps, who brought a battery of donated drugs.

Strike on Yugoslavia
 
Kosovo . . . . Kosovo

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  •  

    Many of their patients are babies and children with fever and diarrhea. Gjonblaj said they are worried most about the possibility of epidemics, upper respiratory diseases (particularly among children), and a lack of drugs.

    The women, children, and elderly who line up to see the doctor are surprised, but grateful, to hear he speaks their dialect.

    Gjonblaj and other doctors in Albanian refugee camps believe it is the psychological trauma the refugees have suffered that is the hardest to treat, and could pose the biggest problems in the future. Doctors say a major part of the healing process for Kosovar refugees in Albania is knowing someone is there, caring for them with a soothing word or smile.

    As he makes his rounds, Gjonblaj says it isn't their diseases and their living conditions, but their tales of horrors that will haunt him.



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    April 15, 1999
    Week 4 begins; NATO warns attacks could continue for months
    April 14, 1999
    Convoys of Kosovo Albanians bombed; 85 dead
    April 14, 1999
    More U.S. warplanes head to Europe
    April 14, 1999

    SPECIAL SECTION:
    Strike on Yugoslavia

    RELATED SITES:
    United Nations High Commission for Refugees
    UNICEF
    IMC Online -- Home of the International Medical Corps
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    External sites are not endorsed by CNN Interactive.

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