> On a Mission continued
Haitian people
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Dr. Bush’s phot
Innovative solutions
Ruth L. Bush, MD, MPH, vascular
surgeon at Scott & White Healthcare, has
traveled to Haiti every year since 2001.
Dr. Bush’s trips have been associated with
LivingWordHaiti.org. The island nation’s
south coast has little running water and no
electricity. “Farm equipment is nonexistent and people can’t afford a mule, so
it is all manual, back-breaking work,” she
says. Hernias are common, so she figured
out a way to use only local anesthesia with
oral pain medication in less-than-sterile
conditions. Dr. Bush also trained a pastor
there to remove stitches and deal with
minor problems. She takes along nurses
and medical students from Texas, but
keeps groups small because it’s easier to
manage and everyone stays in the same
building where operations take place. “We
just put our cots up and sleep there,” she
says. The recent addition of a propane
tank to heat water allows Dr. Bush and her
team a real luxury—warm baths.
In developing countries such as Haiti,
people dress in their best clothes and walk
hours to see an American doctor. The need
is so great, Dr. Bush often feels she isn’t
making a dent. “But I remind myself that
if I can give one person hope for one day,
then I have fulfilled a purpose,” she says.
“And going there is probably the best
thing that I do.”
After her experience in Haiti, Dr. Bush
“It certainly opens your eyes to what it is like in the
rest of the world, and makes you so appreciative
of the environment we live and function in here.
You can’t do something like that and escape
without having your horizons broadened.”
— Dr. Verheyden
32
THE CATALYST Spring 09
finds she is more willing to tell patients at
home when she doesn’t know something,
or when something may not work. “In our
country, that isn’t always acceptable,” she
says. “People want everything to go well
and to have a perfect outcome. There,
people are just happy to have someone
touch them and give them pain
medication.”
Experience of a lifetime
“Medicine has given me the opportunity
to interact with people I might not have
otherwise,” says Dr. Weber. “People will
listen to a physician more than someone
who is thought of as a professional
missionary. As a surgeon, I have the
opportunity to help people have a better
life physically. Spiritually, I can offer
people hope through the churches we
build. It is up to them to do what they can
with what I can offer.”
Sometimes, Dr. Weber is able to help
patients without performing surgery.