$xml = '<wellmed>MessageList><MessageItem msgtype="5" subject="Bookmark from Health Coach"><Patient loginname="' ."$ss|$name|$dob" . '" sponsorid="303" /><DocumentList><DocumentItem date="' . "$theDate" .'" from="HealthDialog" time="">abc</DocumentItem></DocumentList></MessageItem></MessageList></wellmed>';

use XML::Simple;
use SOAP::Lite +trace; 

my $data = SOAP::Data->name('data' => "$xml")->type('string')->uri('');

##</code><code>##

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><SOAP-ENV:Envelope xmlns:SOAP-ENC="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/encoding/" SOAP-ENV:encodingStyle="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/encoding/" xmlns:SOAP-ENV="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/1999/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/1999/XMLSchema"><SOAP-ENV:Body><namesp1:PerformUpdate xmlns:namesp1="http://di.wellmed.com/SoapService"><data xmlns="" xsi:type="xsd:string">&lt;wellmed>MessageList>&lt;MessageItem msgtype="5" subject="Bookmark from Health Coach">&lt;Patient loginname="111111111|LYNN|19407202" sponsorid="303" />&lt;DocumentList>&lt;DocumentItem date="09/17/04" from="HealthDialog" time="">abc&lt;/DocumentItem>&lt;/DocumentList>&lt;/MessageItem>&lt;/MessageList>&lt;/wellmed></data></namesp1:PerformUpdate></SOAP-ENV:Body></SOAP-ENV:Envelope>