Last summer, otolaryngologist Ronda Alexander, MD, extended her practice beyond the walls of UT Physicians and Memorial Hermann-Texas Medical Center to Honduras, where she spent a week on a medical mission sponsored by Time for Christ Ministry in San Antonio, Texas, and Baptist Medical and Dental Missions International in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. This was her second medical mission with Time for Christ Ministry.
The mission group, which included a gynecologist, an orthopedic trauma surgeon and three otolaryngologists, worked at the Baptist Mission Hospital in Guaimaca, a small town in the Francisco Morazan region of Honduras. The five physicians treated about 130 patients during their stay.
“As otolaryngologists, we treated a variety of conditions, including chronic throat infections, sinus disease, nasal polyps, thyroid nodules and other pathologies,” says Dr. Alexander, who is an assistant professor in the Department of Otorhinolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth) Medical School.
On the last three days of the mission, the otolaryngology team traveled to the capital city of Tegucigalpa, where they worked with faculty and residents at Hospital Escuela, the main teaching hospital for the University of Honduras School of Medicine, situated in the heart of the city.
Dr. Alexander plans a return trip to Baptist Mission Hospital. “It was an amazing experience,” she says. “The hospital was well run, and the people were very welcoming. It makes one realize what luxury we have here as physicians. We had very little equipment and had to cooperate to provide the best care possible to the people. It was inspiring.”