Tulsa Medical Team Returns From Nepal

The pictures are devastating and the death toll is even worse.

That's exactly why a group of Tulsans took it upon themselves to go to Nepal after a massive earthquake hit and provide relief to people there.

The team returned Friday after forty hours of traveling, but that's probably nothing compared to what they endured while in Nepal.

They were able to help many people hurt by the disaster, but said there's a long way to go.

The emergency medical relief team is happy to be home, now with a new worldview, after helping the people of Nepal, both physically and mentally.

4/30/2015 Related Story: Tulsa Medical Team To Help Nepal Earthquake Survivors

"Reminding them that God loves them, and God remembers them and God is present there,” team member Jennifer Jung said. “That there's hope to rebuild."

The doctors volunteered to go to Nepal as soon as the 7.8-magnitude earthquake hit and killed more than 7,000 people died.

They went, knowing full well they, too, could be victims of an aftershock, and they were, one that measured 7.3.

Team member, Chase Ledbetter said, "The massiveness of feeling the whole earth shake side to side, up and down, you have no control. You're out in the middle of nowhere. There is no safety."

Ledbetter said it still shakes him to his core.

"Bad things happen in the world. You can't control them. So if you're going to let things like that deter you, you're not going to be able to help anyone," he said.

They continued to help a man, part of a big family that lost two people in the rubble.

"He was broken from all that he was going through and on top of that, we had to talk to him about some new chronic problems he had developed from his lifestyle and the trauma of this earthquake," said team member Josh Li.

He needed more emotional support while others had aches, pains and fractures.

Jung said there are dozens of stories of hurt.

"A rock had literally hit her that day and so she had an open fracture and we were able to like clean it and bind it," she said.

As for what the Nepalese need now, team member Erin Morgan said housing, safety and safe water sources along with compassion and empathy.

The doctors hope they provided some of that while they were there.

The organization they're a part of is called In His Image International which is part of St. John Health System.