Dr. Myron Rolle On Helping The Bahamas Recover From Hurricane Dorian

Bahamas Hurricane Dorian — Pastor Jeremiah Saunders poses for a photo among the ruins of his church that was destroyed by Hurricane Dorian, in High Rock, Grand Bahama, Bahamas, Wednesday Sept. 11, 2019. Jeremiah says "I spoke to the water: 'Peace, be still.' It never listened," Saunders said with a wide smile and then grew serious as he focused on the task that tens of thousands of Bahamians now face on two islands devastated by the Category 5 storm: the clean-up.

Joe Mathieu is the anchor and executive editor of WGBH's Morning Edition. Before joining WGBH Radio, Joe worked for six years as morning anchor on WBZ NewsRadio in Boston, where he was part of the team that received a Peabody Award for coverage of the Boston Marathon bombings. Joe also received the Edward R. Murrow Award for best newscast in a major market.

October 02, 2019

Updated August 07, 2023

It's been a month since Hurricane Dorian brought widespread destruction to the Bahamas. Roughly 600 people are still considered missing, and most of the island's infrastructure is still damaged. Dr. Myron Rolle was part of Massachusetts General Hospital's Global Disaster Response team that has responded to the medical needs on the islands. For him, it was personal. The former football player for the Tennessee Titans turned Harvard/MGH neurosurgery resident is a native of the Bahamas. WGBH Morning Edition Host Joe Mathieu spoke with Dr. Rolle about his experience offering medical aid in his homeland after Hurricane Dorian. The transcript has been edited for clarity.

Joe Mathieu: Dr. Rolle, I can imagine this was an especially poignant mission for you, as you are from the Bahamas. What was it like when you arrived?

Dr. Myron Rolle: It was very difficult to compartmentalize my emotions. At first I said, "Well, I've got to go back home. I've got to take care of my family. I have to do something." And then the other side of me was like, "This is going to be devastating." I mean, it's going to hit me hard just being in Boston and trying to perfect my craft as a neurosurgeon, but then going home and seeing destruction that I've never seen before and that my family's never seen before. So when I'm seeing the pictures, all my friends are telling me about it and then my family is kind of coming in by piecemeal telling me that they're okay, it was a mix of emotions.

So I went down and just tried to bottle them up as much as I could, but stay focused on the mission of trying to do good work, trying to serve my country as a clinician and as a physician, and then maybe just draw inspiration from some of the people who were there on the ground looking to rebuild, restart [and] continue to move forward. Like the motto of our country says "Forward Upward Onward Together." We believe that. It's on our our coat of arms [and] it's something that means a lot to us. So I think the country embraced that. I rode that momentum and I think our team did as well, and it ended up being a very productive trip.

Mathieu: Compartmentalizing a big part of your job, isn't it.

Rolle: It is, certainly. Especially when you're dealing with surgical patients who may be young — five weeks old [or] seven years old — or someone who reminds you of your mother. You have to compartmentalize those emotions that you have for that personal connection and then do your work as a clinician.

Mathieu: What kind of injuries were you dealing with? It must have been across the board.

Rolle: Yeah, a lot of it was wound issues, insect bites [and] people missing medication doses because providers have either left the island or just weren't there. Some people had some psychological issues, too. We had mental health specialists and social work personnel there. There's some internal struggles that people will have to face, not only in the immediate aftermath of the hurricane, but years down the line. So I think our Global Disaster Response team at MGH and the International Medical Corps that we worked with had a great focus of having a diverse group of providers and clinicians there who could handle basically anything. There were no brain surgeries that I did or we did, but it was still amazing that we were able to see people, talk to them [and] provide that medication, but then also just provide that boost to morale that no one's forgotten you, that we're here and now we want to serve in any way we can.

Mathieu: What's the need like now? It's not in the headlines. I haven't heard much about Bahamas, although I did hear a story about the one month going by. What's the need? How severe is it?

Rolle: The Bahamas — we're an archipelago. We have a collection, we say, of 500 islands and keys. Not every one's inhabited, but they're all these different islands and they are unique and different, and sometimes the medical infrastructure is a little bit disconnected just on a normal day. I remember as a child, we would have a doctor that would come through the island. My parents would take us and they would say, "You tell them every single thing that happened to you for the last month." You don't leave anything out because you never know when that doctor or nurse is going to come back.

So with an already disjointed and disconnected medical infrastructure outside of Nassau, the capital, and then you put this kind of hurricane that can even further exasperate that problem, it makes it hard. But I think that the Minister of Health, coupled with the NGOs who are working in the medical field and other people, are really trying to put their heads together to embrace a new Bahamas moving forward that will connect people, will connect clinicians [and] will keep this momentum going forward. That's what we need, for sure.

Mathieu: You're talking about going door to door helping people, and they open the door and they see you. Not only is it help from a world-class hospital in Boston, but it's somebody from the Bahamas.

Rolle: Yeah, it was fantastic. I really got a lot of joy out of that. When I would go there, knock on those doors and ask, "Is there anything that we can do for you?" And then they start recognizing who I am and they say they're proud of me. I'm like, "Whoa, I'm trying to serve you and help you." But they're proud to see me come back home. A lot of them said that I could have stayed in Boston [and] I could have stayed doing what I'm doing, but the fact that I did arrive here means a lot. They've told their kids about my story, and that just meant a lot to me. When I relay that information back to my parents, who had have left the Bahamas about a week or two before Dorian came, they were very proud, too. So it was a phenomenal experience for sure.

Mathieu: Did you have much other family there for all this? Did you see anyone?

Rolle: I did, yes. I had my goddaughter, my aunts, uncles [and] grandparents. Everyone's there. Literally only my immediate family is in the United States.

Mathieu: Were able to see them, despite all the work you were doing?

Rolle: I was. I saw most of them in Nassau. A lot of them live in Exuma. We didn't go to Exuma, but I saw a lot of them in Nassau, and it was great to catch up with them. One of my uncles is a pastor, and he took in about 15 people from Abaco who came just looking for a place to stay. He was at the airport and there was a bunch of Nassauvians who were at the airport accepting people saying, "We have a church, we have a place to eat, hot food [and] shelter. Come and stay with us." He did that. And he's still ministering to them [and] now feeding them, and he says he would do it 10 times out of 10 because this is what you do when people are in need.

Mathieu: You didn't have to treat any family members?

Rolle: I did not have to treat any family members, thankfully.

Mathieu: I suspect they're more proud of you for this than they were for playing football.

Rolle: For sure. Football's not so huge back home, but they're very proud. It makes me happy to make them proud, for sure.