Once a year we hit the shopping malls, brave the parking lots, and make our way through the crowds to find that one perfect gift — the toy our child just has to have or the jewelry someone can’t live without. We spend months making wish lists and watching commercials selling the newest, the best, the must-have possession.
But there are those who give every day, not toys or jewelry, but a gift of health, of normalcy.
“We try to do the best work we can,” Robbie Jackson says.
During a normal week, Jackson works for Dr. Craig Hobar at Baylor University Medical Center. But for other weeks, she is mission director for the LEAP Foundation, a nonprofit organization founded by Dr. Hobar. Jackson travels with Dr. Hobar and his medical team to Belize, the Dominican Republic and Laos about three to four times a year. A cosmetic surgeon, Dr. Hobar takes his gift to less affluent countries to help enrich the lives of children living with facial deformities.
Each mission trip is for one week. During that week, the LEAP team will work 12 to 14 hours a day to get as much work done as possible. They try not to turn anyone away who is in need of medical attention.
“In the third world, they do not have the resources to offer their indigent children quality medical care. Many countries simply can’t help their own and if wealthier countries like us don’t help them, it won’t happen,” Dr. Hobar says.
The LEAP Foundation, Life Enhancement Association for People, was created by Dr. Hobar in 1991 to enhance and enrich the lives of people around the world by providing specialized medical services. LEAP started with Dr. Hobar and two nurses packing supplies from the hospital in his backhouse to prepare for their first mission trip. Today, LEAP includes more than 300 medical specialists and general volunteers, and has performed over 25 mission trips. The medical teams have operated on more than 1,000 patients with deformities (70 percent children) and have two full-time indigenous programs in the countries they regularly visit.
“He comes alive on the mission field,” Jackson says of Dr. Hobar. “He sees this as an effort to give back the blessings God has given him.”
Dr. Hobar treats 50-80 children during a single mission trip. He and his team will operate on children with facial deformities and birth defects, including cleft lips, cleft pallets, missing ears or extremities, and neurofibromatosis (“elephant man’s disease”).
Frequently outcasts in their villages, these children live their lives in hiding. In some countries, birth defects are explained with superstitions — the children are evil or their parents did something evil to cause the defect. Families come into the medical center with fear. They don’t speak English and don’t fully understand American medical practices. But within two hours, mothers get to see that their children can lead a normal life.
One of those stories, is the story of Rocilla. A beautiful little girl born without a right ear, Rocilla was too traumatized to go to school because the other kids tormented her. Her mother brought her to Dr. Hobar, telling her story with tears. But because ear reconstructions are so specialized, Dr. Hobar did not plan on doing the surgery himself. Then hospital officials told him there was no-one to do it in the country; in fact an ear reconstruction had never been performed in the Dominican Republic. So Dr. Hobar and team decided to take the responsibility.
“It didn’t take much to convince us to do it,” he says. “On our next visit, this very shy little girl ran up with a big smile on her face and gave us all hugs and kisses.”
Families in host countries travel for miles, either by foot or whatever form of transportation is available, to receive care. Some may journey eight to 10 hours before reaching the hospital. But once they arrive, the medical facilities and teams are prepared to provide the best care possible to as many as possible.
“On a LEAP mission trip, patients show up with joy to see us, looking at us like we may be answers to their prayers,” Dr. Hobar says. “We don’t charge the patients anything, there are no insurance companies to get approval from, the patients have unconditional trust in us … and we answer that with a sense of responsibility and commitment to excellence. We strive to offer the same excellence in technical care and safety, that we can in the major hospitals in Dallas — sometimes a considerable challenge in a third world country.”
Organizations like LEAP, send in teams of doctors and specialists to treat cases of disease and deformities, even dental and oral disease. Whatever treatments are required, teams of medical volunteers are willing provide their time and expertise to help care for those less fortunate.
“My faith got me interested,” says Dr. James Bates, an oral and maxillofacial surgeon with Baylor. He has been a volunteer for more than 15 years.
Dr. Bates began his contribution while in medical school. He and a group from a local church would cross the river into Juarez, Mexico. The area was poverty-stricken, but he worked to give them the best dental care under the situation.
After moving to Dallas, Dr. Bates was approached by a local dentist to go to Matamoras. The experience was so rewarding that since that time, he has continued to travel on mission trips at least once a year. He travels with Global Missions Fellowship, Christian Medical and Dental Association and independent groups. In addition, he provides volunteer services for local indigent-care clinics such as the Stewpot Clinic.
For one week out of the year, Dr. Bates takes a mission trip where he performs surgery, primarily for oral and dental problems. The procedures may seem simple and routine compared to our dental care, but in other countries these dental problems can develop into severe abscesses and infections requiring extensive treatment.
Though most of his trips are to Mexico, last summer he got the opportunity to travel to Romania. A well-educated, once-developed society, Romania now lives in extreme poverty. Since the fall of Communism, the country lacks the money to support its existing infrastructure — its plumbing, electricity and roadways are in chaos.
To be prepared for any possible situation supplies are delivered to the host country weeks before the mission. They usually consist of two 40-foot containers full of surgical and dental equipment. In addition to that, Dr. Bates takes some of his own surgical supplies. But even with all the preparations, some things happen that no one expects.
One of the most memorable moments for Dr. Bates, was during the treatment of a 2-year-old girl. The girl had a mouthful of abscessed and decayed teeth, but the team had only local anesthetic for the discomfort of the procedure. So while her mother helped to restrain her, Dr. Bates and his assistants began operating. During the procedure, the building’s electricity went out, forcing the team to move outside. Once situated outside, Dr. Bates began operating again. Then it began to rain. Understanding the gift they were receiving from others, the people of the town gathered together and held a tarp over the team while Dr. Bates completed the operation.
“One of the reasons I went into medicine was to provide a service to people,” he says, “a service they really need. It’s a good frame of reference going to a place where there is an intense need.”
People like Dr. Bates and Dr. Hobar remind us that giving is more than buying a piece of merchandise. It is giving something of one’s self that touches the souls of others without expecting anything in return. During this Holiday season, we may look at these men and their acts as humanitarians, but they simply look at themselves as people who are doing what is right.
“When you take a baby born with a deformed cleft and fix it, and hand that baby back to its mother and see the tears of joy, and you know how that baby’s life will likely be dramatically changed for the better … it is a very small world,” says Dr. Hobar.
“That baby, no matter what color it is or what language it will speak, is your closest neighbor.”
