A Life Changing Experience

Walter Halloran, M.D., is among numerous Beacon Health System physicians who volunteer their time and talent to help serve the poor and sick around the world. Allison Hartman, R.N., (left) and Holly Bragg, R.N., both Beacon nurses, also contributed their talents to the trip.

It’s no secret that Beacon physicians are dedicated to serving patients and striving to improve illness and disease. But some Beacon doctors not only share their time and talents locally, they also go beyond U.S. borders to improve the health of impoverished populations. Physicians like Cameron Gongwer, M.D. and Curtis Gongwer, M.D., who have been traveling to Africa for years, and Donald Zimmer, M.D., who has ventured regularly to Haiti, illustrate the big hearts of our physicians.

One person at a time

One such physician is Walter Halloran, M.D., a cardiothoracic surgeon at Elkhart General Hospital who traveled to Vientiane, Laos in February. The people of Laos are stricken with diseases rarely seen in the U.S., including malaria, typhus and tuberculosis.

Dr. Halloran spent his time in Laos treating and performing surgeries on patients with Spinal TB or Pott’s disease, a condition arising from untreated TB that causes severe spine deformity and immobility. But taking care of patients in Vientiane was no simple task. Plumbing was functional in less than half of the city hospital and electricity was unreliable. Transporting patients from the operating room to the ICU meant taking them outside and down a sidewalk. Despite the difficulties, Dr. Halloran said the kindness and graciousness of the patients and their families were priceless.

“This experience was life changing for me,” he says. “There is simply too much for us to do to fix the world, so we have to start with small works like these. Beside the help that we provided, the people of Laos have played a role in helping me. Not just to realize how fortunate we are as a country, but how dignity, warmth and love can have such a place in a people who have so little.”

Going home

Despite a busy practice, Elkhart General psychiatrist Majid Malik, M.D., recognized the desperate need for medical care in the village of Mangloor, a small community in his home country of Pakistan. Residents of the remote, mountainous community live in mud houses, have one small shop and face a trek of more than 20 miles to the nearest doctor.

The village “lacks clean drinking water, which causes waterborne infectious diseases that take numerous children’s lives,” says Dr. Malik, director Elkhart General’s Sleep Disorder Center. “Providing access to clean water would save many lives by preventing these diseases. If they become sick, access to IV hydration and antibiotics can be life-saving.” In September 2013, Dr. Malik founded the Mangloor Clinic, which provides free acute and preventative care to an estimated population of 30,000 in Mangloor and surrounding communities.

“This whole experience has been rewarding for me,” Dr. Malik says. “It makes me appreciate of the quality of care I am able to provide for my patients with the resources this country has to offer.”

Here is a list of just some Beacon Health System physicians who have voluntarily served impoverished areas around the world:

• Mark Walsh, M.D.
• Timothy Noveroske, M.D.
• Richard Skupski, M.D.
• Pedro Miro, M.D.
• Cameron Gongwer, M.D.
• Curtis Gongwer, M.D.
• Kristen Jacobs, M.D.
• John Jacobs, M.D.
• James Blechl, M.D.
• Fred Ferlic, M.D.
• Donald Zimmer, M.D.
• James Norman, M.D.
• Randal Bladel, M.D.
• Randy Suttor, M.D.