Twenty-three "angels of mercy," most from Coosa Valley Medical Center and the Sylacauga area, were in the Dominican Republic Oct. 2-10 to provide medical treatment to those in need.The mission trip was sponsored by Coosa Valley Medical Center in Sylacauga and Solid Rock Missions in Ohio.
Those taking time to travel to San Juan de la Maguana in the Dominican Republic included doctors, nurses, Spanish teachers, who served as translators, hospital volunteers and a local family.
The ages of the volunteers ranged from 10 to 87.
The group carried medical supplies and medications provided by Coosa Valley and Kimberly Medical Supplies for the hospital in the town.
The volunteers said it wasn’t actually a hospital but a two bed clinic.
Coosa Valley Medical Center’s Drs. Phil Smith and Jim Crook and anesthesiologist Gene Gordon did 42 surgical procedures that one week and saw more than 100 medical patients.
Other members of the mission team included Melissa Crook, Jim Crook’s 14-year-old; Jim Jones, certified registered nurse anesthetist; RNs Linda Jones, Rachael Gordon, Ruby Vickers, Brian Kissic, Nyree Conville, Becky Worthan, Judy Williams, Pam Nelson and Jenny Hickman; Spanish teachers and translators Judy McMurphy and Krystal Rodgers; hospital auxiliary volunteers Ann Williamson and Francis Carter; Lil Vogel, a CPA, who worked as an operating room technician on the trip; and the Higginbotham family, Tony, Carol, Travis and Benjamin.
Jones said the average yearly income in San Juan de la Maguana is less than $200.
"There is no public medical care available. This is the third year I have supported a team that went to the Dominican Republic. Dr. Crook has been our group leader. We carry an assortment of medical and other Christian personnel when we go," Jones said.
The surgical procedures the doctors and nurses performed included hernia repairs, removal of gallbladders, abscesses and small tumors and tubal ligations, Crook said.
This year was the fifth Crook has gone on a medical mission. He got interested because of his brother.
"He was a member of the board of Solid Rocks Missions. He made several trips and convinced me to become involved," Crook said.
Vickers, a nurse in the recovery room at Coosa Valley Medical Center, said the trip was an eye-opening experience for her.
"You don’t realize the poverty people in these countries live in. There are no hospitals, or at least what we know as hospitals or clinics, no air conditioning in these facilities and a general lack of electricity. We nicknamed the recovery room the sauna," Vickers said.
She said team members had to make do with what they had because of the lack of equipment and supplies there.
Crook said going to the Dominican Republic is almost like going home. "I love going there."
He said his father got him interested in becoming a doctor. "My father had an eighth-grade education. He said once, ‘If I could have gone to school, I would have been a doctor because there are loads of people who need a doctor,’" Crook said.
He said there were many things the team couldn’t do there due to the primitive facilities and lack of equipment.
When it came to gallbladder surgery, Crook said doctors had to do it the old-fashioned, instead of performing laparoscopic surgery.
"The people there are very grateful for our help. It is a poor country," he said.
This year’s mission trip was the first for Kissic, who is a surgical nurse. He said after seeing photos from last year’s trip, he made up his mind to go this year.
"It was a humbling, eye-opening experience and I plan on going next year. It is so hard to explain the level of poverty there. Pictures and television just don’t do it justice. It makes you grateful you live in the United States," he said.
Frances Carter, 87, a member of the hospital auxiliary, said it was a great experience spiritually and socially.
"We had people from 10 to 87 who were on our team. I fixed sheets, wiped tables and cut children’s hair in the school and orphanage. We gave small bags of gifts to the kids in the orphanage. Words can’t express how I felt or the joy I got from this," she said.
Ann Williamson, another auxiliary volunteer making the trip, said she was inspired by the experience.
"I was a gofer. I did what anyone needed me to do. One patient said God sent me to the Dominican Republic to care for her," she said.
Jones said every person on the team was needed and served without question, doing whatever they could.
The team also took 158 pairs of shoes and 125 Bibles to the community.
"We got the greatest blessing from this," Jones said.
Crook said the hospital was gracious beyond belief with what it could do, such as sending equipment that was no longer used here.
The Bibles and school supplies were provided by churches in the area, Kissic said.
Jones said there are early plans to take two teams to the Dominican Republic for two weeks in 2005.
"This started as 23 individuals wanting to do good and ended up being a medical team with spiritual roots. I believe God picked these people to serve. We saw hunger and poverty, but these people are extremely proud and compassionate. Their health is generally good even with all they face," he said.
The team was transported to the town in two small pickup trucks and stayed in a missionary compound provided by Solid Rock Missions.
They also did work at a school Solid Rock sponsors and an orphanage.
