Caring for the world: Giving medical treatment in foreign lands

The need is great -- as is the appreciation and fulfillment, say physicians who donate their time and money to medical missions overseas.

By Damon Adams, AMNews staff. Jan. 14, 2002.

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On more than a dozen occasions, Grat Correll, MD, has given up the comforts of Bristol, Tenn., for adventure abroad.

He volunteered to vaccinate villagers for yellow fever in the Amazon jungle, where the only source of water for drinking and bathing was a piranha-filled river. During political turmoil in Ecuador, the bus in which he rode had to plow through burning barricades to reach safety. He provided care to the Quechua tribe in Ecuador, including many men and women who had never seen a doctor.

"I take my vacation time to do this," said Dr. Correll, a family physician whose family accompanies him on his worldwide trips. "Instead of spending it golfing or skiing somewhere, we go to South America."

Dr. Correll and scores of other U.S. doctors devote anywhere from a week to a year overseas, caring for the needy in foreign lands. Some travel as teams with fellow hospital employees; others go with organizations such as Doctors Without Borders, Health Volunteers Overseas or Operation Smile.

Most of these volunteers pay their own way -- sometimes an average of $2,200 for a month-long journey. And they get partners or other doctors to fill in for them while they're away.

For Dr. Correll and the other physician volunteers, going on overseas medical missions in countries such as Honduras, China, Uganda and Russia allows them the opportunity to give medical care to those who might not otherwise get it.

"The need for us to be there is pretty obvious," said Randy Sherman, MD, professor and chief of plastic and reconstructive surgery at the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. He has done reconstructive surgeries around the world with Operation Smile. [...]