For a number of years, Gregory Champion, MD, of Gastroenterology Associates in Birmingham has taken his family and his medical knowledge overseas on mission trips with World Medical Missions. World Medical Missions is the medical arm of Samaritan’s Purse, a nondenominational evangelical Christian organization that provides spiritual and physical aid to hurting people around the world.
Champion has used his knowledge and medical skills to care for patients and to teach doctors about advances in gastroenterology treatments. On his last trip to Bomet, Kenya, he spent a month working with the staff at Tenwek Hospital, along with the Pan African Academy of Christian Surgeons, to teach surgical residents endoscopic procedures in addition to providing care to hospitalized patients.
The 300-bed hospital, located in western Kenya, is a large regional referral center serving five million people. “There are one million people in the immediate area and five million in the larger area, but it is the referral center for all of them,” Champion says. “Tenwek Hospital has endoscopic services, which was one of the reasons I chose that location. I can use my endoscopic skills not only to treat patients, but also to train the next generation of endoscopists. In addition to having surgeons at the hospital, they also have a training program for medical residents, so I was able to train a medical resident while I was there. It’s like the fishing adage: I can teach someone what I do, so they can do it after I’m gone.”
In addition to using his endoscopy skills at Tenwek, Champion used his internal medicine knowledge as well. “I covered the internal medicine ward service which is usually quite busy. There were as many as two or three patients per bed, many of whom had unusual illnesses. The African people have a variety of infections that we don’t see in the United State, as well as parasitical illnesses, later stage HIV and tuberculosis,” he says. “On my first night on call, I saw someone who had TB peritonitis, another person with TB pericarditis, and another with TB pleuritis. We don’t see these conditions at home.”
Treating patients with exotic diseases, coupled with a lack of resources, often required Champion to make significant decisions that he would not have faced at home. “We had only one functioning ventilator in the ICU, so when we had several patients who needed it, we had to decide which person we thought would do the best and have the greatest chance of survival. Then we gave the ventilator to that person,” he says. “In the states, we have incredible resources, but in Africa the resources are limited. Often they don’t have the diagnostic tests we need, nor equipment or supplies, so we just had to make a decision and be creative to make do with what we had. Then we prayed and asked God to provide.”
Champion saw some memorable cases in the trauma center (emergency room). “One patient came in with a spear in his head, and another came in with a markedly distended abdomen which appeared to be a bowel obstruction,” he recalls. “He was taken to surgery where surgeons filled a large bucket with worms from his intestines that were causing the blockage.”
The hospital does have a varied medical staff with surgeons, internists, obstetricians, pediatricians and even ophthalmologists. Despite that, situations often would occur where a certain specialist would be needed. “Many times, it seems, that during a critical moment the appropriate specialist would ‘just happen’ to be visiting and available to deal with the need at hand,” Champion says. “It seems that God was orchestrating the different specialty physicians to be there at the right time to take care of a patient, whether it was the neurosurgeon, the ENT or the orthopedic specialist. When we looked back on those times, we said, “Wow. That was providential.”
Champion says that the goals for these mission trips are to care for not only the people’s physical needs, but also their spiritual needs. Tenwek Hospital is a Christian mission hospital that has existed since the early 1900s.
“At the hospital, we prayed with every patient before we performed a procedure. This was a way to remember that we trust God for His direction and thank Him for the skills and wisdom He has given us and which allows us to care for our patients,” Champion says. “I remember Franklin Graham saying that Tenwek is one of the great Christian outreach hospitals in the world today, and it does a great job of caring for needy people and also meeting their deeper spiritual needs.”
Champion’s family has been accompanying him on these trips for years, since his children have been old enough to participate. “When I became a Christian in 1980, I had a desire to help and serve others. When we started our family, one of my goals was to teach our kids to serve others. I remember a quote about there being two types of people – givers and takers. I wanted my children to be willing to help others and not be focused only on themselves,” he says.
The Champion family has traveled to a number of different places, including the overseas trips their father has taken. The children have seen how others around the world live and have learned that they can live a lifestyle without conveniences and still be happy. They also have seen how one life can impact another. “Any time we go on a mission trip, our family thinks we are going to give, serve and bless others,” Champion says. “What always happens is that we end up receiving the bigger blessing. We always are blessed more than we ever give.”
