One Physician’s Extraordinary Calling James W. Srour, MD 10,000 people and most of these are located near the cities, leaving a large percentage of the population with virtually no medical care.
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Enter Dr. Beattie. At the age of 15 years-old, Amanda Beattie went on her first medical mission trip. What she experienced on that trip set the stage for the rest of her life. Her mission was to be a doctor for the express purpose of helping the underserved people somewhere in the world. During medical school, a rotation in Ghana further cemented her decision. For her, there was no turning back. While she was in her general surgery residency, she began to consider sites for her practice. Unlike most of us, she was not looking for a wellequipped hospital in a nice city with good schools and a comfortable climate. She already knew what she wanted- a place where most would not go voluntarily, a place with little or no medical care was available.
On the west coast of Africa lies the nation of Mauritania, a desert country covering an area about 8.5 times as large as Pennsylvania. Bordered by Mali, Senegal, Western Sahara and the Atlantic Ocean, it is a difficult environment with a population of about 4 million mostly Arab and French speaking people. With such a small population in this vast land, medical resources including doctors and healthcare workers are spread very thinly. There are approximately 2 physicians per
After arriving in Mauritania, Dr. Beattie spent a year learning
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French and then Arabic. At that point, she was able to converse with the medical board to explain what she was trying to do and convince them to grant her privileges to work in their country. And convinced they were! In the meantime, she found a village called Chinguetti, 300 miles from the coastal capital of Nouakchott. There she found a small hospital building with virtually no equipment and no physicians. Perfect! The dream job she had been looking for. With no other medical facilities within a vast perimeter, Dr. Beattie found herself taking care of all manner of medical problems, including primary care. For any but the simplest of lab tests, she needed to have patients travel 2 hours each way by bus. If she needed x rays or more technical studies, patients had to travel 7 hours. Knowing that she would need to upgrade the hospital services, Dr. Beattie contacted charitable donors and was successful in setting up her own diagnostic and x-ray facility. She trained herself to use the equipment,
