Department of Medicine
Connecting Tec h n olog y, Educ ation a n d D iscov e r y w i t h H u m a n i s m i n M e d i ci ne
Vol. 2 Issue 2 April 2013
Resident Physician Joins Medical Mission to Ethiopia
Children play in the street of an impoverished village in Ethiopia.
Hands of a patient in Ethiopia who once had leprosy
David Graham, M.D.
David Graham, M.D., a third-year Internal Medicine resident, recently returned from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, where he was a participant in the Mission to the World’s HIV/ AIDS Care and Treatment (ACT) Project. Graham cared for 25 to 35 patients a day, many with HIV and several other conditions. “I saw babies with the most severe form of malnutrition, people who had previously suffered from leprosy and patients who had goiters so big that they caused life-threatening stridor,” Graham recalls. Graham says the poverty was beyond anything he had ever seen. “For two days I served in an area that had 500 families and only one toilet. The mission trip was an eye-opening experience,” he said. “I’ll never be the same.”
Points of View
Rajiv Dhand, M.D., Chair
Recently, I reviewed personal statements practice of medicine. Medical students have a simple and abiding faith in the fundamental ethos of medicine, to provide service to the ill and from medical students applying for restore them to good health. This message can get lost in the daily residency positions in our department. grind of patient care, but to provide Their passion and “I slept and I dreamed that life is all joy. excellent care, one must have a heartfelt deep-seated desire I woke and I saw that life is all service. desire to help patients surmount their to help people are suffering. Many patients and their refreshing. Skeptics I served and I saw that service is joy.” may argue that the Kahlil Gibran families view physicians as authority figures who provide them not only with applicants have a medical care but also comfort and help to transition from illness to motive to appear altruistic and show health or to cope if they cannot be healthy again. In this newsletter, we empathy toward those suffering from recognize members of the Department of Medicine who are engaged in illness. To me, the statements are genuine activities that go beyond the realm of “fee-for-service” patient care to reflections of young people’s desire to generously serve the community. be of service to mankind through the 1