Mark Bennett: A heart for others -- a Hautean connection aids Nuba people in Africa

Mar. 8—After six weeks of observing and working alongside selfless Dr. Tom Catena's lifesaving work with the barest of resources in a small hospital in the remote Nuba Mountains of Sudan, Dr. Gary Ulrich's life perspective changed.

"We have it good here in America," Ulrich said, gazing at a Terre Haute office floor.

"We need to be grateful for what we have," the 29-year-old orthopedist added. "Some of our problems aren't as great as we think."

Ulrich left Sudan powerfully impressed by Catena's treatment of an otherwise neglected people in a war-torn country. Ever since the 2008 opening of Mother of Mercy Hospital, where Catena typically is the lone physician, the Nuba people walk or hitchhike for up to eight days just to get treatment. It's the only medical facility in the mountain region, so their ailments often are late-stage.

Cancers bulging from lean limbs. Puffy goiters under the chins of kids. Crusted open wounds.

They line up for hours outside the humble hospital, waiting for a miracle, often joined by their families.

Catena was trained in family medicine, but routinely performs pediatric, obstetrical, orthopedic, oncology and other services on hundreds of desperate people in the hospital.

"He's taking on any [health issue] that walks through the door," Ulrich said last week. "He's their last line of defense. It's either him, or you succumb to your ailment."

The situation and Catena's response to it spawned films and honors. The 2016 documentary "The Heart of Nuba" — with Maria Shriver as its executive producer and Kenneth Carlson as its director — depicts Catena's work. Time Magazine named Catena one of the 100 Most Influential People in the world in 2015. He was awarded in 2017 the Aurora Prize for Awakening Humanity.

The Nuba Mountains lie 7,100 miles from Terre Haute, where Catena served his postgraduate residency at Union Hospital from 1996 to 1999.

That Terre Haute connection inspired Ulrich to make last October's long, arduous journey to serve a stint assisting Catena in the Nuba Mountains. Catena came back to the U.S. and Terre Haute in 2019 to receive an award from Union Hospital. Catena gave a presentation at Hatfield Hall on the campus of Rose-Hulman, where Ulrich received a bachelor's degree in biology two years earlier. Ulrich attended Catena's talk.

"In that moment, I vowed to myself I'd do it," Ulrich said.

Ulrich graduated from the Indiana University School of Medicine in 2022, served residencies in West Lafayette and Indianapolis and became an orthopedist. Last year, "I stayed true to my word and did it," he said. Indeed, his adventure to northeast Africa would happen.

The Nuba Mountains aren't easily accessible to outsiders. Visitors can't simply jump on a flight, make a couple of connections, and land there.

It took Ulrich five days to reach Gidel, Sudan, where Catena runs Mother of Mercy Hospital. The conclusion of a trek in or out of Nuba usually involves a flight on a small United Nations plane, with UN soldiers lining the runway as it departs, for safety reasons.

The final 110 miles were traversed in a Toyota SUV, packed to its roof with essentials. That drive — about the same distance as Terre Haute to Evansville — took 20 hours. "The main reason is, there are no roads," Ulrich said, describing the muddy paths through a region stricken by conflict for most of the past 40 years. The car broke down, at one point. The driver managed to fix it within three hours, and they traveled on.

They crossed into what is essentially rebel territory, Ulrich explained.

Sudan is a nation of 1.3 million people, with 70% of its population Sudanese Arabs and 30% Black Africans. Sudan has been in a state of war, often described as genocide, since South Sudan declared its independence in 2011. Sudanese government attacks on the Nuba forced "civilians to flee into the lowlands for survival or face starvation," according to the United States Holocaust Memorial and Museum. The Nuba identify more with South Sudan than Sudan and follow Christian, Muslim and indigenous religious faiths.

"Of late, the conflict has lessened but is still present," Ulrich said. That relative calm convinced him it was safe enough to make the trip.

Still, he admitted, "It's really intense and anxiety provoking," Ulrich said.

The natural setting has its twists, too. Ulrich slept under a mosquito net, and on one occasion he incurred a bloody bite on his pinky finger protruding from the netting. He worried the culprit might've been a bat, and got a rabies vaccination upon returning to the U.S. Nuba locals told him it was probably a rat.

The prime objective, of course, was helping Catena treat and serve the Nuba people. Ulrich assisted with a variety of treatments for those folks.

"I think Gary had a very good experience here in Nuba," Catena said in an email to the Tribune-Star this week from Sudan. "It's a great learning environment for a motivated student or young doctor as we see a large amount of quite varied pathology. I think Gary left with a much better idea of the possibility of doing a lot of good with limited resources."

Catena's determination and unselfish living amazed Ulrich. "It was just how selfless and humanitarian he was," Ulrich said.

Catena was introduced to Ulrich by late Terre Haute physician Dr. Randy Stevens at the 2019 event at Rose-Hulman. Four years later, fellow Terre Haute physician Dr. Jim Turner connected Ulrich with Catena last summer, setting up the October journey to Sudan.

He found the 59-year-old Catena fascinating. Catena was born in New Amsterdam, New York, and earned a mechanical engineering degree at Brown University, where he played nose tackle for the Bears football team. He got a Duke University medical degree on a U.S. Navy scholarship, served in that branch of the military, and then came to Terre Haute for Union Hospital's residency program.

"I chose the Union Hospital program because I felt it provided a very broad training, especially in obstetrics," Catena explained. "I already had an idea that I'd like to practice medicine in rural Africa and felt I would need to know a little bit about everything. The training at Union provided a very good foundation for the kind of work I've been doing for the past 24 years, and I am very grateful to the Union Hospital program for their commitment to produce well-trained physicians."

Catena followed up his residency with volunteer service with the Catholic Medical Mission Board, serving as a missionary doctor and consultant in Kenya and Nairobi. He then assisted the church's establishment of Mother of Mercy Hospital in Sudan.

It's become his home. He lives there with his wife and son.

"Sudan and Nuba in particular are impoverished regions, but one doesn't get the feeling that people are 'poor' when living amongst them," Catena said. "The Nuba lack many things but like to try to sort things out for themselves."

The primary difference between people in Terre Haute and Nuba is the latter's "very distinctly non-Western tradition," Catena said. While their worldview differs from the Western Judeo-Christian history, "The Nuba are similar in that they're salt of the earth people — just like those of Terre Haute," he added.

Donations help keep the hospital functioning. "Small donations do go a long way out here and hopefully will put the people on the path to self sufficiency," Catena said.

Ulrich guides anyone wishing to contribute to the website healthfornuba.com.

Ulrich will give a presentation on his Nuba Mountains journey at 10:30 a.m. Saturday, May 4 in the Vigo County History Center on Wabash Avenue. Listeners will likely realize Ulrich's enhanced gratitude for what he has in his own life now. And, Ulrich's view of his profession has changed.

"It's humbled me as a physician," Ulrich said, "and inspired me to use my craft to help the community I serve."

Mark Bennett can be reached at 812-231-4377 or mark.bennett@tribstar.com.