BLOOMINGTON - It was hard to imagine life getting any more difficult for the people of Haiti, but that's what Bob and Sharon Hoy of Bloomington saw on their recent medical mission trip.

Bob Hoy, a pharmacist, has been on 15 trips with Peoria-based Friends of the Children of Haiti. His wife, Sharon, a registered nurse, has been on four trips. They have treated malnourished adults, starving babies and people who walked for miles to get to the Friends' clinic in Cyvadier, Haiti.

"No matter how many times I go, that still affects me," said Hoy, clinical associate pharmacy manager at Decatur Memorial Hospital and formerly a pharmacist with OSF St. Joseph Medical Center, Bloomington.

But during the Nov. 9-21 trip, the Hoys and 18 other volunteers - including five others from Bloomington-Normal - recognized the wrath of Hurricane Gustav that struck Haiti in September.

Roads were washed out. Buildings were damaged, including the Friends' clinic. Most importantly, "the general state of the people was worse," Hoy said last week.

Medical volunteers, who saw 2,100 patients in 10 days, found themselves treating entire families with illness or malnourishment, said Hoy, adding as he worked, his spirit soared.

"We had more people coming to the clinic who had been taking their (previously prescribed) blood pressure and diabetes medicine and their numbers were looking very good. They were really starting to improve. For me, as a pharmacist, I felt like we were really saving lives in Haiti."

Friends of the Children of Haiti, established in 1985, makes six medical mission trips a year. Most of the volunteers - many of them medical professionals - are from the Peoria and Twin City areas. They use vacation time and pay their own way.

"My first trip (in 2005), I was overwhelmed by the lack of health care and the utter poverty of the people, the lack of water, sanitation and housing," said Sharon Hoy, a surgical nurse at St. Joseph. "They have nothing."

At the clinic, she treats people with non-healing wounds, burns and broken bones that haven't been set. One person had cut his hand with a machete three days earlier.

"My skills are valued," said the 30-year nursing veteran, whose work in Haiti has given her a revived spirit for her nursing career.

Bob Hoy dispensed 750,000 pills in 10 days. Some were for acute illnesses, such as malaria, infections and pneumonia. Some were for pain. Others were for chronic conditions, such as high blood pressure and diabetes.

Every patient also gets a multivitamin, a pain reducer and antacid.

Sharon Hoy said the Hoy family Christmas has become less about buying "stuff" and more about getting together with family and friends and worshiping at church.

The Haiti mission trips have changed Bob Hoy's perspective of problems in the United States - even in a recession.

"We are fortunate to be citizens of this country," he said. "Anyone with a sense of entitlement in America should go on a mission trip to a developing country. It's an eye-opening experience."

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How to help

For more information about the work of the Friends of the Children of Haiti, go to www.fotcoh.org or call (309) 369-2634. The group is interested in volunteers and donors. The organization, with a yearly budget of $240,000, relies on donations, fundraisers and volunteers.

SOURCES: Sharon Hoy, Friends of the Children of Haiti