Volunteer Reflection: Dr. Gary Clark for Uganda I, 2023
Gary Clark, MD, is a retired General, Endocrine and Acute Care surgeon. His wife, Linnette Clark, RPT, PhD (Women’s Health) is a retired Physical Therapist. Here is their story on the 2 weeks they spent in Uganda with our team.
For the Clarks, this was our 3rd trip to Africa but our first with M2H. Our last mission to Kenya was more than 10 years earlier where we had provided both medical and surgical services to the local folks of the Siaya District. Although that was a very satisfying experience, in our opinion, what it lacked was a more concerted effort to mentor the local providers in being able to provide for themselves once we left. Thus, we turned towards M2H whose primary goal is encapsulated by the old adage of “Give a man a fish & he will eat for the day. Show a man how to fish & he can feed himself & others every day.” We had met Dr. Geelhoed on several occasions in the past prior academic meetings, including those of the UCSF-EB Grand Rounds, AAES & ACS conferences. We were duly impressed with his extraordinary worldwide experiences and knowledge base, not only of medical topics but also of cultures worldwide!
We were fortunate enough to be able to vacation & acclimate for more than a week in Zanzibar & Uganda prior to meeting up with the team. We once again experienced the beauty & culture of the local people, as well as the magnificence of the local flora & fauna, especially the gorillas, chimpanzees, monkeys, lions, elephants & other wild animals.
When we connected with M2H, it was an extreme pleasure to be welcomed at our base site by Peter & his wife Lianna who run a Palliative Care Organization in Kabale. Peter, Muki & Muhamad were just a few of the local volunteers who, along with Dr. Glenn & Sam, made the mission run so smoothly with their multiple organizational, interpretive & medical skills. As we had experienced more than 10 years earlier, when in Africa, one is on “Africa-time”, meaning that scheduled clinics &/or OR sessions happen when they happen, not necessarily when they’re scheduled.
In serving “the furthest people first”, we were blessed to be able to be part of the missions to the highlands around Bwindi, including Ruhija. The scenery & valley was just breath-taking!! The local school children were so much fun to entertain & to be entertained by. Their colorful dress were really something to behold, as were their abilities to dance to whatever music we played for them.
As for the surgical clinics and OR sessions, we were unfortunately limited in scope by whatever resources the local district medical clinics had. Because we had no general anesthesia providers, we had to limit our procedures to whatever we could do under local anesthesia, which included hernias, hydroceles, breast masses & other lumps, bumps & smaller neoplasms. The local medical providers (Godfrey & Remegious) were greatly appreciative of our efforts to teach them how to take care of surgical & dental problems. Remegious stated that he was thankful to us for being able to “pass on the light to others”. Godfrey was especially appreciative of being taught how to “google” how to do certain procedures, such as excising a lipoma.
As to be expected, it was humbling to see how these “furthest people” lived day to day and how they put up with such extreme medical conditions. Many of the more complex patients had to be referred to the “big city” hospitals to try and obtain the care they needed. However, we also realized that the majority of them would probably never make it there as most of them didn’t have the money or transportation to get there, which was quite unfortunate.
We would be remiss if we didn’t mention a particularly delightful highlight of our mission which was the weekend in between the 2 mission sites where we took a trip out to Birds Nest Resort for lunch followed by a boat tour of Lake Bunyonyi, which was quite pleasurable & educational. This was followed the next day, which just so happened to be Fathers Day, by an excellent rabbit dinner at Peter & Lianna’s lovely home.
In the end, it was a very rewarding experience for us to partake in this M2H educational adventure. We look forward to many more adventurous missions in our future. M2H was a very worthwhile, heart-warming experience in which we received so much more than what we gave. Thank you Dr. Glenn, Sam & M2H for all that you do!
