In March, his willing attitude landed him on the USNS Mercy just off the coast of Indonesia, responding to December's devastating tsunami.

This week, his home base is the USNS Comfort, a hospital ship anchored off the coast of Pascagoula, Miss.

Hurricane Katrina called him this time.

"I've seen stuff I normally wouldn't see," Leckman said in a phone interview Thursday. "We're treating a lot of injuries related to cleaning up afterward: chain saw injuries, lacerations, poison oak."

Leckman, a volunteer with Project Hope, arrived in the area Saturday and spent the weekend working with a federal Disaster Medical Assistance Team.

They operated out of three tents set up next door to a storm-damaged hospital in Gulfport, Miss.

"As we treated patients, the hospital was able to get back to normal operations," Leckman said.

All told, they saw about 300 patients a day. On Monday and Tuesday, Leckman began working in the hospital's emergency room. Besides "sewing up lots of lacerations and draining lots of pus," Leckman said he lends his ear.

"Everybody has a story. When you're asking questions about their health, they're fine. As soon as you ask how they're doing, the tears start," he said.

Leckman treated a 39-year-old maintenance supervisor with an abscess so painful he couldn't work.

"He wept as he said people were depending on him and he had to get back to work," Leckman said. "They'd lost 19 buildings, 27 bodies were recovered and now he's working to get people back into livable apartments."

Leckman's appointments at his home office in St. Mark's Hospital have been put on hold, and at this point, his stay is open-ended.

"I don't know how long I'll be here," Leckman said. "We want to be supportive. It's a day-by-day thing. If a place looks up to speed we'll go elsewhere."

The volunteers are also helping to fill vital prescriptions for people who rely on them every day.

Many have lost contact with their physicians, who evacuated when the storm hit. Those connections are just starting to be re-established and in some cases, the doctors lost their lives or their homes in the disaster, Leckman said.

Also serving with Project Hope from Utah are surgeon Dirk Noyes and surgical nurse Sheila Cardwell. The international humanitarian aid organization has 75 medical volunteers at Pascagoula, some who arrived in early September. About half of them are veterans of the tsunami aid.

"Salt Lake City and the best of its health care is well-represented in the gulf state region today," said John Howe, president and chief executive officer of Project Hope. "They represent the spirit of America as well."

On board the USNS Comfort, volunteers are treating about 200 patients a day, mostly for infections rather than complicated surgeries, although the ship is outfitted to handle both, Howe said.

Leckman, at times his voice cracking, said he is humbled to be there, adding there is nothing else better that he could be doing right now.

cmckitrick@sltrib.com