Anthony Vazquez / Sun-Times
Serving in the Peace Corps had been Bernice Heiderman’s dream since high school.
When the north suburban resident finally got accepted during her senior year of college, she wept with joy at the news, her family says.
But just 18 months into her tour, the 24-year-old volunteer from Inverness was dead in a spartan hotel room in the East African island nation of Comoros, the victim of what her family calls a “preventable tragedy.”
They say Heiderman endured a painful death from malaria that went undiagnosed by a local Peace Corps physician as well by a medical officer in Washington, even though the disease is endemic in Comoros.