To date, I have participated in four Medical Wings International’s Missions, they are, Dakar Senegal, Phuket Thailand (Tsunami hit area), New Delhi, India and San Pedro Sula, Honduras. Although each country has unique challenges, our patients are similar, indigent population from low-income villages.

In Dakar, Senegal, the challenge is Malaria, in Phuket, Thailand suffering from the ravages of the Tsunami, is the loss of life, with shock, grief and the collapse of the infrastructure. In New Delhi, India, the challenge is the heat, and diarrhea related illness. In San Pedro Sula, Honduras, the challenges are due to parasites.

Medical Wings International’s missions resembles a group practice with Executive Director, Glenda Johnson, Mission Director, Anne Leduc, pediatricians, internists, ophthalmologist/optometrist, dentists, doctor of osteopathy medicine, pharmacists, other allied health professionals, and the host country’s string of volunteers that are used mostly as translators.

A typical mission includes a five to eleven day trip. The first and last days are travel days. A normal day starts with a group breakfast at 6:30 AM, an hour traveling by bus to the clinic site; the location can be a school, an open tent, or a indigent hospital if we are lucky, once the clinics are set-up, each disciplinary sees an average of 100-150 patients during the twelve-hour day.

I am a pediatrician and have been practicing in Savannah, Georgia for 31 years. I joined Medical Wings International in 2004 with my first mission in Dakar, Senegal. I have always appreciated my blessings; however, these missions place a different emphasis on that blessing. The missions are very humbling. I also realize that some conceived our contributions as a band-aid approach to medicine; I disagree and believe it gives the patients hope as well as medical care. The patients’ rewards to us are the heartfelt gratitude they exemplify.

W. Esther McAlpine, M.D., Pediatrician, CEO