Governor DeWine Issues Statement on Death of Dr. Paul Farmer

(COLUMBUS, Ohio)— Ohio Governor Mike DeWine issued the following statement on the death of Dr. Paul Farmer. 

“Fran and I are heartbroken at the death of Dr. Paul Farmer, a man who has saved countless lives around the globe.

“We first met Paul many years ago on a visit to Haiti when I was still in the U.S. Senate.  We got to know him and learned about the amazing community health work he was doing in rural villages in Haiti and Rwanda. 

“He was instrumental in drastically reducing the AIDS rate in rural Haiti by recruiting and training community members to serve as health workers, who would go out and help villagers with AIDS receive and stay on life-saving anti-retroviral drugs.  He proved that even in the poorest of countries, where many are illiterate, that patients could effectively take the multi-regimen of anti-AIDS pills. We visited the hospital and facilities he founded in Cange, a rural village in the east-central part of Haiti, and saw first-hand this miraculous work.    

“Paul Farmer was just a good and decent human being.  He was a man of great passion, vision, and hope.  He spent a lifetime in service to others, fighting every day for a better, healthier world for all.  He touched so many lives in so many ways, and Fran and I are grateful that we had the chance to know him, to work with him, and to call him our friend.  We extend our deepest sympathy to his wife Didi Bertrand and their children, Catherine, Elizabeth, and Sebastian.”

 

Information courtesy of the Governor of Ohio