affected communities build capabilities to strengthen and rebuild after relief teams exit. “When you’re a team leader in a mass casualty event,” he says, “you forfeit your right to get caught up in the emotion, fatigue, or starvation of the circumstances. If your team sees you getting tired or overtaken by emotions, they will, too— because they’re scared. It’s hard to put into words how scary such an environment is, especially when there are aftershocks or gas explosions or terrorist attacks.” He seeks to empower through example. “The force multiplier effect of the team leader is huge—the team leader can dictate how poorly or well a team functions. And then the team itself has a force multiplier effect on the village or city it’s treating. The community carries their energy forward.” By demonstrating a path forward past trauma, the force multiplier effect sets off a ripple of hope and action. While
helping the victims of a mass casualty situation is most immediately about basic physical and medical needs, it also has psychological, emotional, and spiritual elements. Karch finds that the most powerful way to attend to these needs of an affected community is leading through example. By providing support and demonstrating that there is reason for hope, he seeks to provide an example that is both instructive and inspiring—an example that can jumpstart a community and region’s resilience and recovery. Karch’s brand of hope is a bold hope—but also grounded and pragmatic.
The Georgetown Ethic Karch grew up in Kutztown, Pennsylvania, and knew since high school that he wanted to become a surgeon. He was drawn to its combination of science, service to others, and hands-on technical skill. After college, when applying to
medical school, he also knew that he wanted to attend Georgetown University School of Medicine. “It was always number one on my list,” he recalls, noting Georgetown’s ethic of cura personalis—treating the whole person “mind, body, and soul,” caring for those at the margins, putting others before yourself, and training rigorously. “The four years of med school were the best four years of my life, without question.” He relished the training. “Every day, we were taught to do the right thing,” he says. In times of emergency and split-second decision-making, this sense of integrity helps propel him forward. The principles and ethics taught at Georgetown go beyond professional life, he says. His formation in medical school and residency helped him become both the physician and the person he is today. By being educated as a whole person, he learned to care for others in the entirety of their beings—body, mind, and soul. Karch points out that this is about “not just the patient, but also your small community, your family, your spouse, your children—it goes on and on. That’s the ethic of Georgetown and it’s carried me into my practice. “It can be easy to get caught up in the selfishness of modern society, but when you are given this base ethic as you’re being formed, it’s a stronghold you can always go back to.” After graduation, Karch completed a surgical intern year in Southern California at Loma Linda University Medical Center, and then returned to Georgetown Pages 10-11: In the wake of Typhoon Haiyan in 2013, the Philippine town of Tanauan faced major destruction and welcomed the swift arrival of Karch and his team of Mammoth Medical Mission volunteers. Page 12: Karch and his crew arrive in the Philippines just 48 hours after the storm hit. Left: Karch attends a victim of the 2015 earthquake in Laprak, Nepal. The paralyzed man will need to be carried back up the mountain to receive care.
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