Our very own Dr. Peter Gregory recently returned from a service trip to Honduras. Organized by the Hackett Hemwall Foundation, this week-long trip was an opportunity for vascular specialists to provide much-needed treatment to the Honduran people.

Dr. Gregory arrived in San Pedro Sula, on Saturday, March 21^st. While the weather here in Seattle had not yet bloomed into spring, Honduras was already sweltering and humid. Immediately after their plane landed, Dr. Gregory and other vascular doctors and volunteers boarded a bus and drove three hours to the city of La Ceiba. Here they attended a conference preparing them for the next leg of their journey. 

In total, three vascular clinics were set up across the country of Honduras by the Hackett Hemwall Foundation. Each clinic was staffed with ten doctors and approximately ten other volunteers. The volunteers ranged from high school students to certified nurses, but all involved helped assist patients and their families through the course of the week. Dr. Gregory was impressed by the willingness of those with no medical experience to roll up their sleeves and contribute to the healing of the people who visited the clinics. While some volunteers struggled initially with the hands-on nature of the medical treatments, by the end of the week everyone felt empowered to make a difference in the lives of the Honduran patients. 

Dr. Gregory was stationed in the town of Olanchito. The doctors and volunteers spent all day Sunday setting up the clinic in a rural community center so they could open to the public that Monday. While the conditions were a far cry from the vascular clinics in the United States, for the patients it was the best and only option to treat their illnesses. Some individuals with advanced vascular disease traveled all day by foot and bus in hopes of care. Because of limited medical resources and a lack of sanitary conditions, many issues that normally would be resolved early in a patient’s life had been left to develop and worsen over many years.

One of the most dramatic examples of this situation was a thirty-year-old female patient in need of immediate medical care. Upon Dr. Gregory’s initial examination of this young lady, he was shocked to discover an infected ulcer on her lower leg that revealed the bone. The lesion had not been effectively treated in the eight or nine years of its development. Consulting with other doctors and a surgeon, it quickly became apparent that she would need an amputation from the knee down. Doctors and volunteers worked together to secure an operating room at the nearest hospital. A woman offered her own home as place for the young woman to recover for two weeks after the operation, and a local physical therapy practice pledged their time for her rehabilitation. Observing the entire community, as well as the Hackett Hemwall volunteers, come together to support this woman during a difficult medical procedure moved Dr. Gregory immensely.    

After a week of treating the Honduran people, Dr. Gregory and the other volunteers boarded a plane and returned to their respective homes and clinics. Since his return, Dr. Gregory’s suntan has faded, but his desire to return on many more Hackett Hemwall Foundation service trips has only increased. He looks forward to helping more people, and in the future perhaps being accompanied by his eldest daughter. Though she is still too young to participate, stories about her father’s trip have her looking forward to joining him.