In 1993, recent med-school grad Ulrike Steuerwald traveled to the Faroe Islands between Norway and Iceland to play violin as part of an orchestra. Once there, she learned that the Islands’ only pediatrician was on sabbatical, leaving the local population with only nonspecialists to care for children.
Having just finished her training in pediatrics, Steuerwald promptly accepted an offer to fill in for the traveling pediatrician. “You can learn as much in 1 year as a pediatrician in the Faroe Islands as you would learn in 10 years in another place,” she says. And more importantly, the nearest pediatrician was in Copenhagen—“1,200 kilometers away,” she says. The families on the islands needed her help.
She moved to the Faroes in November, and stayed for 5 years, working full time at the central hospital in the capital city of Tórshavn. During that time, she saw several patients who suffered from glycogen ...
