Contributed photo

Kevin Raymer, a fourth-year medical student at University of Kansas Medical Center, poses with citizens of Chennai, India. Raymer arrived in India two weeks after the tsunami hit and is working through an international elective program offered at the Med Center. He has provided victims of the tsunami with medical care.

Kevin Raymer made arrangements two years ago to travel to India this year to work with an HIV program in a hospital in Chennai. He didn’t expect that two weeks before his trip a tsunami would strike southeast Asia and parts of Africa.

Raymer, a fourth-year medical school student at the University of Kansas Medical Center, left for India Jan. 11 for an international elective program offered by the Med Center. His experiences are much different than he planned as a result of the tsunami, which struck Dec. 26.

Raymer’s day starts with a two-hour bus ride to Pudupattinam, a city on the coast of India, where he spends four or five hours helping patients. He said that the No. 1 ailment he treats is respiratory tract infections because many of the people who were in the tsunami’s wake swallowed a lot of sea water.

“It’s a lot different from the U.S, it’s a lot of primary care,” Raymer said. “We see the patients and we do what we can. We see the patients really quickly and try to give them the medicines we have.”

Raymer was inspired to help people after a pivotal change in his life. During his senior year at the University, Raymer became a Christian, a decision that altered his life and affected many of the decisions he would make, he said.

“My life changed a lot and the direction in my life changed a lot,” he said.

Raymer finished his undergraduate studies and had to make a choice about continuing on to medical school or taking a year off so he could grow spiritually. Raymer chose to continue his education and said that it was God’s planning.

His decision to go to India was not hard to make, he said. Raymer had traveled to Bucharest and Moscow with Hope Worldwide, a faith-based charity. During his trips he helped with charity work at local orphanages.

Those who know Raymer say that they aren’t surprised he had a desire to go to India.

“I think it’s pretty cool and he’s doing what he wants to do,” said Tanner Raymer, Kevin’s younger brother.

Raymer’s mother said his family was very proud of him, but she said she was nervous about him going abroad.

“Helping people is what makes him happy, he’s always had a big heart,” Sherry Raymer said. “That’s what he wants to do, as long as he keeps in touch.”

Raymer was raised in a farmhouse 15 miles south of Russell, so when he first arrived at the University, he had to adjust to a school and a town much larger than he was used to.

“There was a lot I wasn’t ready for,” Raymer said. “When I walked into my first general chemistry class there were more people in that class than in my whole high school.”

Raymer became a member the Nu chapter of Sigma Nu and originally wanted to become a physical therapist before he got the longing to practice medicine.

“When he came home and told me he wanted to be a doctor, I said, ‘Oh brother,’” Sherry Raymer said. “Then I thought, ‘Can he really do it?’”

“He has always been able to do what he wanted to, he has always had high goals,” she said.

Raymer spent summers in Russell helping Earl Merkel, a KU alumnus and a local practitioner who assisted in Raymer’s birth.

“He has always been targeted to go to med school because of his dedication and commitment,” Merkel said.

Raymer helped with patient’s histories and shadowed Merkel while he attended to patients.

“He was a huge influence on me, more so in my college days and at the med school,” Raymer said. “This guy’s dedicated 46 years of his life for Russell.”

Raymer is scheduled to return from India on Mar. 12.