| I was 14
when my eyes were opened. Now, over 30 years later, my eyes
were opened again - by a wonderful experience that I was able to share with my
family earlier this year.
It was at the small, rural Albert
Schweizter
Hospital in Haiti, (which still seems to be serving its population)
that I visited on a church youth mission trip to Haiti in 1977, when I
had "seen" what I wanted to do with my life - be a physician - a
pediatrician in particular. Seeing the simple, yet effective
and much needed care provided to crippled children in that facility
provided me an initial incentive and direction in my life. The
whole 10 day experience, visiting rural areas of Haiti, Cap Hatien, and
the poor downtown areas of Port-au-Prince, affected me to the
core. I knew, then, that I was very blessed to be raised in a
wonderful small upstate New York town, with a loving family, and every
opportunity available to a young person in America. I was also
blessed to have good grades in school, and somehow grew up with a
competitive determination to never quit.
Day-to-day reality set in, and I "closed my eyes" to
work hard to get into the best undergraduate liberal arts
pre-health program I knew of. I focused on completing my
requirements to get into medical school, and with hard work, I was successful in opening
my own doors to make my dream come true - to become a
doctor.
Coming from a middle-class family, I was forced to
take out a significant debt to complete my medical school training (six-
figures in 1989 dollars). I then pushed to get into the best
residency program I could find - a combined Internal Medicine and
Pediatric residency at Penn State University Hospital and Children's
Hospital in Hershey, PA. Along with one other fellow physician, I
was the first to complete the combined program at Penn State (it has now
grown to have 6 graduates each year).
Unlike many of my fellow residents, I decided
not to pursue a sub-specialty fellowship training, but rather go
into primary care medical care. I was daring (and
entrepreneurial) enough to start my own medical practice in a
small town in a different region of the country. I was determined
to make a personal and financial success of my decision to go in to
medicine, to go into primary care, and to serve a smaller town with a
huge need for a pediatrician.
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I was blessed to have plenty of backing from my
family, to have a wonderfully happy marriage partner, and to start a
family during this "hectic" time. In one year's
time, I had completed my residency, obtained board certification in two
specialty fields, moved to a new town, built a new home, built a new medical
office building, started a medical practice, and had our second
child! Within 4 or 5 years ,my medical school debt was completely
paid off and I was enjoying my success.
Fast forward 15 or so years,
and I find myself primed to have my eyes opened once again!
After the 2010 Haiti Earthquake, I contacted a college
friend who is a career US Marine Flight Surgeon. I asked Scott to
see if I could volunteer my services on the USNS Comfort to the victims
of the Haiti disaster. When it seemed they had plenty of
professionals helping them out, I pursued other options of helping serve
an underserved population. Enter Orphanage
Outreach.
With the help of the professionals at Orphanage
Outreach, I was able to quickly ( 6 weeks) complete all of the needed
logistics and paperwork requirements to make the trip.
We were quickly approved by Orphanage Outreach to
visit; I completed applications for obtaining $ 13,000
worth of medications from the Heart-to-Heart International program, and
two "MAP Kits" with approximately $ 12,000 worth of
medications from MAP International (thanks to support from Merck and
Glaxo Smith Kline). These huge pharmaceutical donations
made the
trip even more worthwhile and more effective. THANK YOU Merck and
Glaxo Smith Kline.
Within this 5 or 6 week time, we were also able to
raise over $4,000 from donations from our wonderful friends and
family. We were touched by everyone's willingness to give, money
and clothing and food. Some "old friends" we haven't
heard from since high school were eager to donate! So many of them
wished they were able to do something like this, and admired us for
actually doing it! THANK YOU, each one of you, for your
kindness.
The travel date soon came and went - and we found
ourselves immersed in another culture with some of the most wonderful
professionals, volunteers and students you could ever meet.
Young kids were eager to help, eager to learn, and eager to grow.
It was a huge "family" of people living together at the
orphanage with the simple and profound goal of serving. Everyone met
their goal that week.
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We loaded up 6 sets of "clinic" supplies,
thousands of medication bottles in suitcases (the pharmacy) and loaded
the buses to head to four different remote sites in the northwestern
coast of the Dominican Republic.
Students unloaded, set up,
and ran clinics all day long - seeing 300 patients of all ages each
day. People stood in line for many hours in the 90 degree heat to
see us. Each clinic had college students serving as an
interpreter, a scribe, and a "runner" to escort patients to
the pharmacy after their examination was complete. It was hard work
in hot weather under challenging circumstances, but not one person
complained.
I was able to talk and teach to my heart's desire -
very fun for me! Students learned about simple medical issues and
examination techniques, as well as complex and sometimes unusual
conditions and findings. I felt I was in my element - teaching an
honored skill in an honored profession to eager students, and serving
people in need. It doesn't get much more fulfilling than
that for a professional.
At the end of each day,
everyone was sweating and hot and tired. Everyone pitched in,
though, to break down the clinics, pack up the pharmacy, and
reload the buses - all with a great, positive spirit.
The group of 300 volunteers were able to collectively
serve together, play together, "camp out" together, eat
together and just be together the whole week. It was a wonderful
personal experience for each of our family members, and a gift for our
family as a whole.
I am blessed to have my "eyes opened again"
with this experience. I will return to Orphanage Outreach -
hopefully many many times - to obtain another dose of fulfillment.
Next time, we plan to take more family and friends
with us to share something that brings us all closer to God - cheerful service to
others.
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