When I was 16 years old, I had an opportunity to go to the Dominican Republic (DR) on a dental mission. At the end of my 3 weeks there, I saw a group of people in the village that were sleeping and waiting in line for something. Out of curiosity, I asked what they were waiting for and they answered “doctors from America.” I thought it would be great to see how the doctors worked and asked, when they would be there so I could observe. I was shocked to find out 3 days later! At that moment, at age 16, I decided that I wanted to become a doctor who would come earlier to help the many people who had traveled and were sleeping outside for 3 days/nights. When I found out about this opportunity to go back to the DR with Bridge of Life (BOL), I had to return 30 years later!

To start, this was an amazing experience – I worked long hours, in heat and at times difficult conditions, but loved every minute of it. I anticipated a similar experience as I had 30 years ago – and I was pleasantly surprised that the accommodations were very nice – with A/C, good food and the location was beautiful.

Each day we went to a batay (a small village) and would see 67-150 patients. Each morning we traveled 30-40 minutes to each batay and set up a triage area, lab, clinical area, and pharmacy. There was always a line formed before we arrived. We also had a dental team – which was a bonus! I worked directly with an interrupter, a scribe (a Wayne State or CSU student) and used a great Electronic Medical Records system (EMR) – called Timmycare, used by BOL’s in country partner Timmy Global Health. The EMR allowed me to review previous visits for each patient as well as previous treatments, etc. There is a full time doctor, Dr. Garcia and Anna (the coordinator) who helped with each and every aspect of the day. We had 3 volunteers to provide clinical care – myself, a Nurse Practitioner from a Philadelphia DaVita clinic and a DaVita Medical Group family practitioner from the LA area.

One thing that stood out for me was all the wonderful children that I saw – sadly many had infections, lice, as well as allergies. As I look back, I think one particular 38-year-old mother of 4 children stands out to me. I diagnosed her with new onset type 2 diabetes (her glucose was over 300). Normally in the U.S. I would discuss diet, food choices and start medications. I learned that there is very little availability for green vegetables in the DR. Most patients in the Dominican eat root vegetables potatoes, yucca, maybe carrots occasionally – none of these are ideal for diabetes patients. In spending time with this patient, I remembered that here in the U.S. it is a privilege to have availability of so many healthy vegetables.

On this trip I was reminded from my trip 30 years ago that there continues to be a strong need in the DR for adequate medical care and of the amazing people that reside there. I was so grateful to share this special experience all my colleagues from the US (my fellow volunteers). And on this trip, I relearned why I went into medicine in the first place.

I would encourage all of my teammates who have an interest, to apply to volunteer. This is a wonderful opportunity to practice medicine where there is such a tremendous need and each person appreciates you being there. Each day, as we pulled away from the batay, I knew I made a difference – truly a full circle experience for me.