Volume 48 No. 2 • Summer 2017
Today’s
Christian Doctor The Journal of the Christian Medical & Dental Associations
TRANSFORMING ECUADOR
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CEO EDITORIAL
O
DO IT, BUT DO IT RIGHT
by David Stevens, MD, MA (Ethics)
ver the last few years, criticism has been swirling around about short-term healthcare missions, but we shouldn’t throw the baby out with the bath water. Just as there are good, bad and those in between who practice healthcare, the same can be said of short-term missions. There are right ways and wrong ways to do it. A group of career missionary healthcare professionals were complaining about the work involved in orienting, hosting and supervising physicians coming to their overseas hospitals for a month or two. A physician working with the agency, who is the one responsible for sending volunteer physicians overseas on a short-term basis, commented that perhaps they shouldn’t send these short-term missionaries. The career missionaries immediately exclaimed, “We couldn’t keep our doors open without them! They bring expertise we don’t have. We all came short-term and God used that experience to call us long-term. We need shortterm help.” I would have said these same things as a missionary. After all, God used a short-term mission trip to Haiti when I was 15 to call me into long-term missions. Short-term missions can have the same effect and transform the healthcare professionals and volunteers who are on the trip. When God gets us out of our power zones and dependent on Him, He can take us to new levels of commitment that change our practices and us. Here are some principles for doing quality short-term missions: • Provide pre-trip training. • Always work with a local church or healthcare ministry. Build them up, and then give them the credit for everything that is done. • Get proper licensing for professional staff and follow all government regulations. • Involve national healthcare professionals in your efforts
so they can provide orientation, follow up on chronic patient problems and give you access for referrals. • Charge something. Free isn’t worth anything. Give the money to the local church so they can pay for the care of those who can’t afford it. • Do quality medicine and dentistry with adequate follow-up. • For chronic conditions, use medicines available in the country. • Give adequate supervision to students and residents. • Except in emergencies, don’t perform procedures if you lack the expertise, infrastructure or post-operation care to ensure safety. • Do evangelism and connect new converts to a discipleship-training program in local churches. • The number one goal should be to transform individual team members. Facilitate that. • Train participants how to renter their “normal” world before they return. • Bathe everything in prayer. Every time I lead a short-term mission trip, I’m scrambling to get ready and half wishing I hadn’t agreed to go. When I return, I’m rejuvenated and so thankful I went. You will be too, especially if it is done right! Transformed Doctors ➤ Transforming the World www.cmda.org 3
TO DAY ’ S C H R I S T I A N D O C TO R
contents
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SUMMER 2017
The Christian Medical & Dental Associations ®— Changing Hearts in Healthcare . . . since 1931.
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Announcing Empower 10 34 ransformed Doctors, 12 TTransforming the World 14 Cover Story
featuring Dr. David and Carol McFarland
Transforming Ecuador
by Ron Brown, with Marilyn Guido, RN
Highlighting the results of GHO’s long-term strategy
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Send Them, & Go With Them
by Jill Mattingly, DHSc, PA-C
Shared mission experiences among teacher and students
A Life Broken by Overmedication
by Sandy Dettmann, MD, DABAM
How one physician overcame chronic illness, opioids and trauma to help others
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Imagine
by William Polk Cheshire, Jr., MD, MA
The importance of relationship and fellowship for Christians in healthcare 4 TODAY'S CHRISTIAN DOCTOR Summer 2017
Classifieds
EDITOR Mandi Mooney EDITORIAL COMMITTEE Gregg Albers, MD; John Crouch, MD; Autumn Dawn Galbreath, MD; Curtis E. Harris, MD, JD; Van Haywood, DMD; Rebecca Klint-Townsend, MD; Robert D. Orr, MD; Debby Read, RN AD SALES Margie Shealy 423-8441000 DESIGN Ahaa! Design + Production PRINTING Pulp CMDA is a member of the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability (ECFA). Today’s Christian Doctor®, registered with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. ISSN 0009-546X, Summer 2017, Volume XLVIII, No. 2. Printed in the United States of America. Published four times each year by the Christian Medical & Dental Associations® at 2604 Highway 421, Bristol, TN 37620. Copyright© 2017, Christian Medical & Dental Associations®. All Rights Reserved. Distributed free to CMDA members. Nondoctors (US) are welcome to subscribe at a rate of $35 per year ($40 per year, international). Standard presort postage paid at Bristol, Tennessee. Undesignated Scripture references are taken from the Holy Bible, New In-
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ternational Version®, Copyright© 1973, 1978, 1984, Biblica. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved. Other versions are noted in the text. Christian Medical & Dental Associations P.O. Box 7500, Bristol, TN 37621 888-230-2637 main@cmda.org • www.cmda.org If you are interested in submitting articles to be considered for publication, visit www.cmda.org/publications for submission guidelines and details. Articles and letters published represent the opinions of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy of the Christian Medical & Dental Associations. Acceptance of paid advertising from any source does not necessarily imply the endorsement of a particular program, product or service by CMDA. Any technical information, advice or instruction provided in this publication is for the benefit of our readers, without any guarantee with respect to results they may experience with regard to the same. Implementation of the same is the decision of the reader and at his or her own risk. CMDA cannot be responsible for any untoward results experienced as a result of following or attempting to follow said information, advice or instruction.
TRANSFORMATIONS
NEW CMDA PRESIDENT AND PRESIDENT-ELECT Every two years, the CMDA membership elects a new President-Elect. This year, Gloria Halverson, MD, was elected as the new President-Elect. She will begin her two-year term as CMDA President in 2019, and then she will continue her service for an additional year as Past-President. Dr. Halverson is retired from working at Waukesha Memorial Hospital in Wisconsin, and she is an adjunct professor at the Medical College of Wisconsin. She served as a CMDA Trustee from 2008 to 2016.
Regional Ministries Connecting you with other Christ-followers to help better motivate, equip, disciple and serve within your community Western Region Michael J. McLaughlin, MDiv P.O. Box 2169 Clackamas, OR 97015-2169 Office: 503-522-1950 west@cmda.org
Northeast Region Scott Boyles, MDiv P.O. Box 7500 Bristol, TN 37621 Office: 423-844-1092 scott.boyles@cmda.org
Midwest Region Allan J. Harmer, ThM 951 East 86th Street, Suite 200A Indianapolis, IN 46240 Office: 317-257-5885 cmdamw@cmda.org
Southern Region William D. Gunnels, MDiv 106 Fern Dr. Covington, LA 70433 Office: 985-502-7490 south@cmda.org
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Outgoing CMDA President Dr. James Hines (right) passed the gavel to incoming President Al Weir, MD (left) at CMDA's 2017 National Convention.
MEDICINES FOR MISSIONS
The new President-Elect was announced at the same time as the gavel was passed from outgoing President James Hines, MD, to incoming President Al Weir, MD, at this year’s CMDA National Convention in Ridgecrest, North Carolina. Dr. Weir is an oncologist at The West Clinic in Memphis, Tennessee, as well as a professor at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center. He served as a CMDA Trustee from 1997 to 2003, and he previously served as President from 2001 to 2003.
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HEALING THE HURTING, BUILDING HEALTHY COMMUNITIES AND TRANSFORMING LIVES SINCE 1981
Transformed Doctors ➤ Transforming the World www.cmda.org 5
TRANSFORMATIONS
TRANSFORMING LIVES IN OUR COMMUNITY by Michaella Thomas In January, the CMDA chapter in Athens, Ohio joined together with Sigma Sigma Phi, an honorary osteopathic service fraternity, in a service opportunity with Good Works. This is an organization that helps those struggling with poverty and homelessness in rural Appalachia. They wish to transform lives by providing shelter for those in need and offering other life-changing opportunities. In addition, they serve a free dinner for the community at a local church each Friday night. A different organization sponsors the event each week, so our group volunteered to serve a spaghetti dinner with salad and garlic bread for about 130 people, plus brownies and strawberry banana dessert. What a process it was to organize for so many people. How often do medical students get the chance to organize a dinner for such a large group? Not very often!
It was a great opportunity to get out of our comfort zone and serve a great cause. Not only were we able to provide them dinner, but also the leftovers were available for anyone in need to take home. In addition, the church provides paper grocery bags full of food for people to take home with enough food for about a week. I know that week their bags were overflowing, and what a blessing it was to witness. This experience was one I will never forget. From organizing and preparing the food, to eating and spending time with the community, as well as cleaning up the kitchen and packing bags for people to take home, it was such a humbling and transforming experience. Michaella Thomas is a second year osteopathic medical student at Ohio University Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine in Athens, Ohio.
EVENTS For more information, visit www.cmda.org/events.
Spring Canyon Summer Conference June 24 - July 1, 2017 • Buena Vista, Colorado White Sulphur Springs Summer Conference July 14-21, 2017 • Bedford, Pennsylvania New Medical Missionary Training July 20-23, 2017 • Bristol, Tennessee Montana CMDA Conference August 11-13, 2017 • Big Sky, Montana Alaska Cruise August 20-27, 2017 Resident Restoration Retreat September 15-17, 2017 • Mineral, Virginia Women Physicians in Christ Annual Conference September 21-24, 2017 • Big Sky, Montana Marriage Enrichment Weekend October 13-15, 2017 • Palm Coast, Florida CMDA Dawson Retreat October 25-29, 2017 • Avon, Colorado
Download the CMDA app
Global Missions Health Conference November 9-11, 2017 • Louisville, Kentucky Remedy Medical Missions Conference March 23-24, 2018 • Orlando, Florida
MEMORIAM & GIFTS Gifts received January through March 2017
Dr. Sloan Hildebrand in honor of Dr. David C. Hildebrand Open Door in honor of Dr. and Mrs. Van & Angie Haywood Mr. and Mrs. Philip Hedges in honor of Joe & Miriam McCrosson Rob, Sarah & Harrison Goudiss in honor of Rick & Laurie Boden Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Titkemeier, RPHs in memory of Ms. Carolyn Ellenberger Mr. and Mrs. Chris Patrick in memory of Amal Habashy Ms. Wanda Speas in memory of Ms. Robin Rodgers Dr. and Mrs. Carl E. Haisch in memory of Mrs. Kit Sillin For more information about honorarium and memoriam gifts, please contact stewardship@cmda.org.
6 TODAY'S CHRISTIAN DOCTOR Summer 2017
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TRANSFORMATIONS
CMDA 2017 MEMBER AWARDS 2017 EDUCATOR OF THE YEAR AWARD Dr. William and Mrs. Judith Wood
2017 MISSIONARY OF THE YEAR AWARD Dr. Ken Chapman
Bill and Judy both committed their lives to Christ as young children. He graduated from Harvard Medical School in 1966 and began his internship and residency in surgery at Massachusetts General Hospital. He stayed at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard for the next 15 years, serving in a variety of clinical and academic capacities. In 1991, he became Chair of the Department of Surgery at Emory University School of Medicine and Chief of Surgery at Emory University Hospital. Currently, Dr. Wood is the Distinguished Joseph Brown Whitehead Professor of Surgery at Emory University School of Medicine. Since 2012, he has also served as Academic Dean of the Pan-African Academy of Christian Surgeon’s 10 surgical residency programs in Africa. Dr. Wood has devoted his research efforts to oncology, first in the immunology of autoantibodies to tumor associated antigens, then in clinical trials of multimodality treatment of breast cancer. Dr. Wood’s dedication to education and research is shown through his countless professional, board and committee assignments and appointments. Throughout it all, Judy has been by his side supporting his efforts and offering encouragement and counsel. They have three grown children and live in Atlanta, Georgia.
During Ken’s first year of dental school at the University of Texas, he met classmates who were excited about their relationship with Christ. He wanted to have that relationship, and eventually he attended a Campus Crusade seminar to learn how to share his faith. After that experience, Ken began growing in his faith. His first missions experience was between his third and fourth years of dental school when he spent six weeks in Korea. After graduating with his dental degree in 1974, Dr. Chapman worked in a private dental practice in Texas until 1977. Beginning in 1980, Dr. Chapman began working as a dentist at Mengo Anglican Hospital in Kampala, Uganda. He has since spent the majority of his professional career working and living in Uganda. Ken met his wife Lynn in Kenya on a bus trip to a conference in 1989. Lynn, a registered nurse, was working in community health evangelism in Uganda at the time. They were married in 1997 in Orlando, where Ken also completed graduate courses in theology at Reformed Seminary. Their daughter Brianna was born in 1999, and they returned to Uganda in 2000. They adopted daughter Sophia in 2005 in Uganda. Ken has been attending CMDA’s Continuing Medical and Dental Education conferences in Kenya since in the 1980s.
Dr. William Wood (left) and his wife Judith accepted the Educator of the Year Award from outgoing CMDA President Dr. James Hines (right).
The Missionary of the Year Award was presented to Dr. Ken Chapman (left) by CMDA President Dr. Al Weir (right).
8 TODAY'S CHRISTIAN DOCTOR Summer 2017
TRANSFORMATIONS
2017 SERVANT OF CHRIST AWARD Dr. Ed and Mrs. Debby Read
2017 PRESIDENT’S HERITAGE AWARD Richard A. Swenson, MD
Ed and Debby's journey together began when they met and became high school sweethearts at age 15. They then both attended the University of Delaware and were married in 1973. Ed attended medical school at Jefferson Medical College while Debby worked as a pediatric nurse until they moved to Florida to begin Ed’s family medicine residency training with the U.S. Navy in 1977. Debby accepted Jesus as Lord and Savior after attending a Bible study, and Ed became a believer a year later. After eight years of active duty service that included stints in Guam and Rhode Island, Ed began working as an emergency room physician in Pennsylvania in 1985. In 2003, they became the Area Co-Directors for CMDA’s Campus & Community Ministries in Richmond, Virginia. In their time as field staff for CMDA, they had an amazing influence on hundreds of students, residents, graduates and spouses in the local ministry. In 2013, God began calling Ed and Debby to a new ministry, so they spent two years praying to discern God’s will in this next step. It was difficult for them to leave their roles with CMDA, but they continue to be very involved with the ministry. God has led them on an amazing faith journey as they have founded The Journey Home in Mineral, Virginia, a transitional home for those in need of a temporary place to live while they rebuild their broken lives.
Richard received his bachelor’s degree in physics from Denison University in 1970 and his medical degree from the University of Illinois School of Medicine in 1974. After five years of private practice, he accepted a teaching position at the University of Wisconsin Medical School where he taught for 15 years. He currently is a full-time futurist, physician-researcher, author and educator. He is the author of nine books, including the bestselling Margin: Restoring Emotional, Physical, Financial, and Time Reserves to Overloaded Lives and The Overload Syndrome: Learning to Live within Your Limits. Dr. Swenson has presented widely, including both national and international settings, on the themes of margin, life balance, contentment, stress, overload, complexity, societal change, healthcare and future trends. He also has researched extensively and written on the future of healthcare. He has been a member of CMDA since 1974, and he speaks at a variety of CMDA conferences and meetings on a regular basis. He has served as a member of the editorial board for Today’s Christian Doctor, as well as a consultant whose insights significantly shaped CMDA’s ministry perspective and initiatives. Dr. Swenson and his wife Linda live in Menomonie, Wisconsin.
Dr. Ed Read (left) and his wife Debby received the Servant of Christ Award from CMDA President Dr. Al Weir (right).
Dr. Richard Swenson (left) and his wife Linda accepted the President’s Heritage Award from outgoing CMDA President Dr. James Hines (right).
GET INVOLVED
The following awards were presented at this year’s National Convention. These articles are excerpted from the actual award citations which can be viewed at www.cmda.org/awards.
Transformed Doctors ➤ Transforming the World www.cmda.org 9
GIVE TODAY
Make a donation to the EMPOWER Campaign today at www.cmda.org/empower.
“Christian healthcare professionals are being attacked from all sides, and our world is facing some of its greatest challenges ever.” —David Stevens, MD, MA (Ethics)
A
t CMDA’s 2017 National Convention, CEO Dr. David Stevens introduced EMPOWER, a new fundraising campaign to help us meet the great challenges we now face in healthcare and around our world. EMPOWER is designed to provide the needed resources for the battles ahead and ensure the ministry’s continued growth well into the future. That means we need your help. With an initial goal of $8 million, it will require the prayer and generous support of
10 TODAY'S CHRISTIAN DOCTOR Summer 2017
all those who see the role of CMDA as critical to keeping Christian in healthcare and taking the gospel to this country and the world. $1.56 million has already been committed, primarily from current and former CMDA trustees. In addition to the $8 million goal in current gifts, we also have a goal of $20 million in planned and estate gifts. As of the printing date, the total committed in that area is $10.72 million. “We live on current gifts,” Dr. Stevens explained. “It’s what allows us to have boots on the ground in public
EMPOWER DETAILS
This is only a small window into the opportunities available to CMDA through this fundraising campaign. For more detailed information about each project, visit www.cmda.org/empower. • • • • • • “At a time of such change in our country, clinicians are often called to stand in the gap for their patients. This means defending the rights of Christian healthcare professionals to practice according to their faith. CMDA accomplishes this in a way no other organization does. They also are continually working to encourage, empower and exhort me, as well as others like me. We have unique opportunities to put down a firm foundation for the future at this time and the Empower Campaign does that. The Lord impressed upon me the importance of being ‘all-in’ for supporting His work through CMDA, with not just service, but with our resources. This campaign is going to use these resources to accomplish the most for current and future generations of Christian healthcare professionals and their patients.” — CMDA Trustee John H. Gill, MD
• • • • • •
Campus & Community Ministries (CCM) — $2,050,000
Center for Medical Missions (CMM) — $1,975,000 Church Relations — $200,000
Continuing Medical and Dental Education Conference — $105,000 Defending Conscience and Religious Freedom — $950,000 Dental Initiatives — $400,000
Global Health Outreach (GHO) — $275,000 Human Trafficking Efforts — $105,000
Medical Education International (MEI) — $275,000 Membership Growth — $800,000
Pan-African Academy of Christian Surgeons (PAACS) — $105,000 Strengthen Organizational Capacity — $760,000
EMPOWER CAMPAIGN CURRENT GIFTS
$8 million
$20 million
$7 million
$18 million
$6 million
$15 million
$5 million
$12 million
$4 million
policy, missions and campus ministries. But estate gifts make it possible for us to plan long-term and respond to opportunities that may not even exist today.” The vast majority of money raised will be invested in “human capital,” allowing us to expand our efforts in campus and community ministries, public policy, healthcare missions and even membership.
20%
Giving to date: $1,568,594
EMPOWER CAMPAIGN ESTATE GIFTS
54%
$10 million
$3 million
$7 million
$2 million
$5 million
$1 million
$3 million
Giving to date: $10,723,949
We are poised as never before to carry the message of health and hope to our campuses, our practices, our communities and our world. Will you join us?
Transformed Doctors ➤ Transforming the World www.cmda.org 11
TRANSFORMED TRANSFORMED Doctors
Featuring
R. DAVID & CAROL D MCFARLAND
C
arol and I met at a gathering of the Christian Medical & Dental Associations and the Nursing Christian Fellowship in 1982. We were married four years later and have three grown children. I grew up in Poulsbo, a small town in Western Washington. Carol was originally from Taiwan but grew up in Bellevue, Washington. I work as a family physician with the Swedish Medical Group, while she is a nursing professor at Seattle Pacific University. We are both avid cyclists which allows us the opportunity to be involved in the lives of many who are outside the church. Carol sticks to the road, while I bike most every day by road biking during the week and mountain biking on Saturdays. I did my undergraduate training in history at Stanford University, and then I obtained my MD from University of Washington. I took a year out of medical school to attend seminary at Regent College in Vancouver, Washington. My residency was at Providence Hospital in Seattle, and I also completed a fellowship at Duke University. I first became involved with CMDA as a student while attending meetings at the home of one of the local physicians. I have been a member for years and have gone on mission trips with CMDA for the last six years. My wife and I have hosted medical students for monthly dinners for the last couple of years. We have attended each of the mission trips as a couple, and Carol helps maintain contact with the medical students and spouses we have gotten to know through the trips. Besides our involvement with CMDA, we try to maintain an active ministry life through our local church where I 12 TODAY'S CHRISTIAN DOCTOR Summer 2017
teach and through Carol’s ministries at Seattle Pacific University. I also attend a midweek dinner reaching out to visiting scholars to the United States, where we have a chance to discuss the gospel with future leaders from other countries who are here studying for a year or two. I went into medicine as a means to serve people with the hope of sharing the gospel. My faith has always been important to me, so it influenced the speciality I chose and has guided my time commitments. As physicians, I believe we are called to do more than just medicine and that ministering to the spiritual lives of individuals is important. My wife and I have gone on mission trips to Central America for the last six years. We have taken two of our daughters on these trips, as well as nursing students from Carol’s school and now a medical student from the University of Washington. The trips have been challenging and life changing. Our first two years we worked in Nicaragua at a clinic serving women who were or had been trapped in sex trafficking. The last four years we have worked with the Oasis Church in El Salvador. We serve in communities the church there chooses, which are places Oasis is establishing satellite churches.
TRANSFORMING TRANSFORMING
the World
Our translators are high school students from the Oasis Christian School. The students are outstanding servants of Christ and many are very adept at sharing the gospel with the patients we serve. One of the highlights of this trip is the relationships we have established both with the local church and students. This provides a unique opportunity to share the gospel, to teach nursing and medical students and to encourage and challenge the local high school students we work alongside. CMDA has impacted me in multiple ways. I have benefited from its training in evangelism such as through the Saline Solution and have learned from the various conferences we have attended with CMDA. I appreciate the stances CMDA takes on various social and national issues and the voice it provides for Christian healthcare professionals. I listen to the monthly podcasts and have been challenged by many of the speakers in considering various changes I need to make personally and in my practice. Without CMDA, we would not be able to participate in the type of mission trips we have been privileged to serve on.
CMDA vision of “Transformed Doctors, Transforming the World” encapsulates what I believe the Scriptures call us to do. God left us here on earth to serve Him and to serve others, but we can only really meet the needs of others if we are looking to engage their spiritual needs. To be a transformed doctor means that I must spend time daily with God and allow him to set my priorities and to be involved in a community of like-minded individuals, such as through CMDA. I believe all Christian healthcare professionals should be supporting CMDA through prayer and their finances. CMDA provides a wealth of options that are available only because of those who support it. Ministry involvement is like exercise: it will not occur unless you prioritize it in your schedule. We will always have competing demands for our time, especially from work. Just as Jesus worked hard not to let others dictate His schedule and priorities, I believe as Christian healthcare professionals we must do the same and use healthcare as a platform for service and not an end to itself.
Transformed Doctors ➤ Transforming the World www.cmda.org 13
TRANSFORMING ECUADOR by Ron Brown, with Marilyn Guido, RN
14 TODAY'S CHRISTIAN DOCTOR Summer 2017
S
top me if you’ve heard this before:
“Short-term mission trips are a waste. They do more harm than good. Americans only go on mission trips to help feel better about themselves and their lives. Short-term teams aren’t trained to serve cross-culturally. It’s a waste of time and money. After all, why spend all that money on travel when you could just donate it instead? These trips only create dependency on the help of others. They travel across the world, give out presents and then leave without ever thinking about those people again.” Sound familiar? I could go on and on with a list of negatives about short-term mission trips that have been written and expounded upon in books, magazines and on the internet by a host of theologians, missionaries and others. Now, some of these arguments are definitely valid in certain circumstances. But I have spent the last 17 years of my life and career leading Global Health Outreach’s short-term healthcare mission trips to countries around the world, using healthcare as our avenue of seeking and saving the lost. And I know without a doubt that these teams have made a difference and have helped introduce thousands and thousands of people to the transforming love and grace of Jesus Christ. So why are our mission trips so successful when other trips seem to cause more problems than they solve? It’s because we have a long-term vision and strategy that we see come to life through short-term trips.
LONG-TERM STRATEGY
As a ministry of CMDA, Global Health Outreach (GHO) sends 45 to 50 medical, dental and surgical mission teams around the world each year to address people’s physical, emotional and spiritual needs. Our teams minister in outpatient primary care medicine and dentistry, as well as in small and large hospitals to provide surgical services. We serve the poor and needy who often have no access to any healthcare services because of poverty, geographic distance or social status. We often work in rural settings, in urban squatter settings and with women and children in bondage to sex trafficking. Our primary role as healthcare professionals is to help patients and do no harm to them. How does this play out on a short-term mission trip? Just because we can do something, doesn’t mean that we should do something. We are traveling far from home to use our professional skills to serve others, not to be busy and productive. After all, mission healthcare is about caring for people—not about numbers.
Everywhere we go, we try to support and augment the local healthcare delivery system. In many places, it is nonexistent or very poor, so we adjust accordingly. Sometimes that means shifting our focus to treating what the local system can support when we are not there. As a result, we do very little chronic care. If we prescribe medications for diabetes, hypertension or depression, what happens when the medications run out in a month?
“God gave me the chance to sit with patients who struggle with their own personal lives and with their families and hear their stories and they asked me to pray for them, more than the skilled therapy that I can provide to numb their physical pain.” —Physical Therapist, Ecuador But we don’t stop there. Our mission is to demonstrate the love and compassion of Jesus, and we do that by offering hope to mind, body and spirit through medical and dental care. After all, a healthcare mission trip is not just about using professional skills to cure the sick. It is not just about seeing a lot of patients and producing great results. Healthcare is certainly important, but sharing Christ’s love through our words and our actions is our chief objective. And healthcare is well-suited to sharing the gospel because we spend time with our patients. God can use these opportunities to open doors to Him. Another focus of our trips is making disciples. We focus on disciple-making within our team members, by taking them out of their comfort zones so they can depend more on our Lord, and we also focus on disciple-making with our patients, interpreters and others. Again, our medical, dental and surgical efforts are only a means to these disciple-making ends. But sharing the gospel and making disciples of all nations is hard to do in a one or two-week period. We know it can take weeks, months or even years for someone to open their eyes and heart to Christ. Even if they do accept Christ while we are in the country, how can we continue to help them grow in their faith if we leave only a few days later? That’s where our long-term strategy truly comes into play. Before we take any teams to new countries, we work to develop partnerships with national ministries and longterm missionaries who are already working in-country. Then when we arrive with our healthcare teams, we work hand-in-hand and join forces with these national partners. Typically, those national partners are evangelists and church planters, and our teams help them open doors into Transformed Doctors ➤ Transforming the World www.cmda.org 15
who have been long-term missionaries in Cuenca, Ecuador for almost 30 years. When they first arrived in Cuenca, they formed “Fundación Hogar del Ecuador,” when means Family Health Foundation, a non-profit organization that seeks to holistically minister to the needs of the family. Their goal was to have the highest quality healthcare available for people of all economic levels, something many of the poor in Ecuador were denied. They began by providing a family practice doctor to work a few hours a day out of the church office, and John and Marilyn both began serving as translators for healthcare mission teams. From the beginning, they placed a strong emphasis on evangelizing by using different methods. In fact, they were so focused on evangelism that they sent locals to the Dominican Republic to learn strategies, methods and models from Oasis Church, another GHO national partner. unreached areas. They help us build relationships with the area communities, local governments, churches, pastors and more. Plus, they are able to navigate complex cross-cultural issues, while also making arrangements for our housing, interpreters, transportation and other details. But most importantly, they remain in the area long after we return home. The medications we prescribe will eventually run out, but our national partners will still be there to provide support. They are able to follow up and begin discipling those who make decisions for Christ, they continue building relationships with others and they carry on the work that was started during the trip to share the love of Christ with the world. That’s why our partnerships with the local churches and national ministries are so imperative. Our trips are merely the tools that open doors for our national partners to have a long-term impact on the local communities.
GHO began partnering with them in 1999, and since then we have sent four or five teams each year to Ecuador. From 2003 to 2015, these teams saw more than 75,000 patients. That is 75,000 lives touched by the love of Jesus through the hard working short-term teams that gave their time and money to serve the people of Ecuador.
“Working together with the Ecuador church made me understand the reality of the Body of Christ and how we all fit together.” —Dentist, Ecuador
So what does this long-term strategy look like when you put it into practice? And is it actually working? A great example of how we are making an impact and transforming the world for Christ is our ministry in Ecuador. I’ve been leading trips to Ecuador for more than 16 years, and it’s easy to see how the Lord has been using these short-term trips over the years to grow His kingdom.
But the far-reaching impact on this ministry, this local clinic, this community and this country is even more amazing. When Marilyn and John were translating for the teams, the local physician was able to serve with the team as well. So the patients and their families were able to return to the local clinic for continued care after the team returned home. Because the physician was seen working alongside the healthcare professionals from America, his “prestige” within the community greatly increased. The clinic began charging a small fee for the doctor’s appointment while giving the patient their medications for free. This tripled the number of patients they were seeing, and it allowed them to expand the hours of the family medicine physician to full-time.
Our partners in Ecuador are John and Marilyn Guido,
After seeing what they were able to accomplish in build-
SEEING THE STRATEGY COME TO LIFE
16 TODAY'S CHRISTIAN DOCTOR Summer 2017
ing a hospital with a small annual donation from the municipal government, a generous donor gave them a $25,000 donation and brought a construction team to help finish the building. They installed convenient features, such as centralized bedside suction and oxygen in the walls, and some of the best operating room facilities in the city. Another donor saw the need they had for equipment, so he collected used medical equipment and supplies, donating a container that included all of the major furnishings, including beds, bedside tables, over-bed tables and operating room lights and tables that are still in use today. Through Bob Coulter, a team leader, and Dr. Dave Cromer, a team physician, they received a $15,000 grant to purchase needed supplies to open a dental facility. And the transformation is even more apparent outside the walls of the clinic, because they have seen such a cultural change in the local people. It was only after GHO teams began arriving in Cuenca that the local doctors were motivated to help their own people. They saw the dedication, time invested and love of Jesus shown by the foreigners to “their” people, and they were inspired to do the same. The clinic now has a full roster of national healthcare professionals who sign up to see patients in the clinic. Plus, many of them are active members of the local church and now hold leadership roles. They work outside in the community to help provide ongoing healthcare to the children of La Esperanza, a home for at-risk children. In fact, the clinic’s administrator went back to school to get a degree in social work after becoming involved with this aspect of the ministry. In addition, a pastoral care person is available to minister to patients on a daily basis.
cal church in ways we couldn’t have even imagined. The local church in Cuenca now has more than 2,000 people in attendance each week. They have numerous ongoing ministries to attend to the needs of these people, and GHO team members have directly impacted some of these ministries. For example, SOS, a ministry to addicts, was helped by Eric Valentine who shared his testimony several times with both leaders and members of that group. It was so encouraging and inspiring, and they now have an ongoing group of around 60 people who meet several times a week.
“I learned many lessons during the mission but two things seem to stand out. First of all is the realization of just how evangelism is such an essential element of a Christian life and how it is not enough to wait for opportunities to spread the word of salvation; that in my daily life, I must focus on those who do not yet have the glory of God in their lives as I do. Secondly, was the realization of how critical it is to fellowship with other Christian people such as the wonderful group that comprised our team in Ecuador.” —Logistics, Ecuador The men’s ministry and the ministries of other churches in our area were impacted by the efforts of Downline Ministries, which came with a team to provide biblical training in how to make disciples. Many of the men involved with
Because of the sphere of influence of their relationship with GHO, John and Marilyn have made connections with several institutions in the U.S. They are now a rotation site for Ohio Northern pharmacy students, Midwestern physician assistant students and Taylor University semester-abroad students. And plans are in the works to strategically become a rotation site for a U.S.-based family medicine residency program. When it comes to evangelism, our partnership has helped to grow the lo-
Transformed Doctors ➤ Transforming the World www.cmda.org 17
GET INVOLVED
Sign up to travel on one of GHO’s short-term trips this year and join us in our efforts to transform the world. To find a trip that fits your schedule, visit www.cmda.org/gho.
this ministry learned how to disciple others, while they also learned more about how to study the Bible and teach others. Dr. Grat Correll helped lead teams to the province of Chimborazo, and the number of churches in the area doubled. In the province of El Oro, there was only one church when the first team arrived. There are now seven churches in the area. The church in Cuenca planted a church in El Guabo, which is now the largest church in the province with more than 900 members.
“My greatest blessing was seeing the change in the lives of the people—both fellow team members and people we served.” —Physical Therapist, Ecuador Influenced by members of the healthcare teams, the local church members developed relationships with the local authorities and became involved in municipal projects, and the churches are now allowed to use buildings rent-free. The churches have a presence in citywide celebrations and parades. Through GHO teams, we have donated close to 30 wheelchairs as part of a campaign to eliminate begging in the streets. These relationships with government authorities and local health professionals have increased the testimony of the local churches, and this influence in the community is fortifying evangelistic efforts in these towns and many others.
18 TODAY'S CHRISTIAN DOCTOR Summer 2017
The church in Manta was also able to see influence locally, and it is now is stable and strong. The church in Gualquiza had land donated for their building by a former patient, and they now have a building and will be opening a branch of the clinic. I could go on and on—about the growing churches and evangelism in Loja, Vilcabama, Malacatos, Catamayo, Naranjal and even more cities and provinces. The Lord is using the work of our healthcare teams to open more and more doors and grow His kingdom more and more through the country of Ecuador.
STRATEGIZING FOR THE FUTURE
This is only a small window into the countless ways the Lord is influencing and impacting the lives of people in Ecuador through GHO’s healthcare mission teams. And there are so many ways we can continue to use programs just like this one to further the gospel in this country. It’s hard to calculate the impact, and in the end only God knows. Programs just like this are being replicated in countries all around the world through the national partnerships we have cultivated. And that’s why we continue to strategize and plan for sending more teams to more countries that are desperately in need of God’s love. Limited access countries have become our priority, as that is where most of the unreached people groups still live. These countries by definition are further away, so it’s harder to get there and more expensive in terms of travel and time
costs, but these are the countries where we are needed and are blessed to go.
“I have never considered myself ‘called’ to the mission field and felt fine with leaving even short excursions like this up to others—more experienced Christians or people who have more of a passion for helping others. Going on this trip required me to finally stop finding excuses and just say, ‘Yes.’ And it seemed like almost every day there was a new challenge or opportunity that required me to say, ‘Yes.’ God was right there with me and giving me confidence to do stuff I’d never done and wouldn’t dream of doing: get up close and personal with a team of total strangers, ask patients if I could pray with them and lay hands on them or play and sing with a whole church full of people. And it was fantastic!” —Pharmacy Student, Ecuador These countries have been bound for centuries by false religions, religious political structures and pagan and animistic beliefs, and they need to hear and see the supernatural power of a risen Savior, the Great Physician. Teams to these countries are smaller, under the radar, more like special ops teams that require mature, culturally sensitive, wise and courageous members. Prayer must guide us, inform us and cover us in order for spiritual breakthroughs. As our long-term strategies begin focusing more and more on these closed countries, we
rely on the successes of our short-term work in places like Ecuador to guide and direct us. And, of course, we depend on our Lord to bless our efforts so that we are truly making a difference and transforming the world for His glory.
RON BROWN serves as Associate Director of Global Health Outreach. He majored in biology and secondary education at Asbury University, completed a master’s degree in guidance and counseling at Eastern Kentucky University and has done graduate study at Fuller Seminary’s School of World Mission in California. He and his wife Becky served 10 years with Native Americans in Arizona, six years in Spain and six years recruiting for World Gospel Mission. They have four children and seven grandkids. Since joining CMDA in 1999, Ron has assumed responsibility for GHO’s Latin American outreaches as well as some limited access areas. He has traveled to more than 40 countries on mission trips with World Gospel Mission and GHO. MARILYN GUIDO, RN, has been serving as a missionary in Ecuador and Latin America since 1988. As a registered nurse, she has a passion for reaching the under-privileged with the gospel message through providing integral healthcare. Together with her husband of 43 years, John, they started the Family Health Foundation in 1988, which now has a full service medical clinic in Cuenca, Ecuador. She has been hosting GHO teams since 1999. She is a mother of three and grandmother of eight.
Transformed Doctors ➤ Transforming the World www.cmda.org 19
MY CMDA STORY
Sherry-Ann Brown, MD, PhD (right) with Ruth Bates, MD (left).
“I appreciate the legacy of CMDA and the tremendous opportunity it has been to be a member since I was a student.
Linking arms with others around the country who are at my stage in training helps me feel connected, supported and molded. As a fellow member of CMDA, I know I contribute to the largest group of Christian healthcare professionals in the country. I support my brothers and sisters in healthcare, because we are in fellowship and community with one another. I know I stand in unity with others who face persecution in healthcare for their faith. And I am so grateful that when the time comes that I may be faced with persecution in my area of healthcare, I will have the backing of thousands of healthcare professionals around the country. None of us know the details of what is ahead, but all of us know that ‘together we stand, divided we fall.’” —Sherry-Ann Brown, MD, PhD
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Send Them, Go With Them
& I
by Jill Mattingly, DHSc, PA-C
n July 2012, I was lying in an emergency department in Destin, Florida, wondering how a little gallbladder could cause me so much pain. I prayed for the pain to stop, and thankfully it did. The problem, however, did not go away. And as I headed home from the beach the next day, I grew more and more anxious about the upcoming healthcare mission trip to Haiti I was scheduled to go on in just two weeks with CMDA’s Global Health Outreach (GHO). Great disappointment came over me as I cancelled
22 TODAY'S CHRISTIAN DOCTOR Summer 2017
my involvement due to my medical condition. I felt much better physically, but I did not want to risk a repeat attack while I was in Haiti. This was the first trip with CMDA I had ever considered going on, and I was secretly relieved that I had to cancel. Actually, I was scared to death. I am not the type of person who launches easily into unknown adventures, and the thought of my first healthcare mission trip as a phy-
sician assistant was nerve wracking. On top of that, I was supposed to go with 10 physician assistant students from the PA program at Mercer University in Atlanta, Georgia. As their professor, they would be looking to me for leadership, medical expertise and spiritual guidance. I was not ready. Thankfully, the Lord knew I was not ready and allowed those gallstones to pile up at just the right moment. At that time, I was the Academic Coordinator for Mercer’s PA program. Mercer University attracts compassionate students of all faiths and creeds. They all have an incredible passion to help the underserved and are willing to do anything to share their gifts with others. I think back to my motive for wanting to go on the GHO trip, my reason for signing up, and I remember it was not about a call to minister or a passion to serve. It was more in line with not wanting to disappoint the students encouraging me to go. I mean, who else would play the guitar for them during devotions?
Then it happened. Bill came to Mercer’s campus and began recruiting students for a fall GHO trip he was leading to Nicaragua. I did not hesitate at all, and several months later I found myself stepping off the plane in Managua, Nicaragua along with seven of my students. The feeling was nothing short of electric, and even an eight-hour bus ride through the mountains felt exhilarating.
“I’ve always thought that it’s really important as a healthcare professional to give back to my community. This trip reinforced that belief and showed me that it’s not just about giving back, it’s about living a Christ-centered life and serving others. It showed me to not be afraid to incorporate my faith in my own practice, because healing the spirit is much more important than healing the flesh in the long run.” –Physician assistant student serving in Nicaragua The students on this trip were from all different backgrounds and beliefs. They were all types of personalities: brainy and bashful, clever and brash. But all of them had one thing in common—I had no idea who they really were.
Then something happened. I’m not sure exactly when, but during the next few years the smoldering coals of my Christian walk started to glow hotter and burn brighter. I started experiencing an insatiable appetite for Scripture and study. The deeper things of God were wooing me irresistibly. I began going to Bible studies, doing prayer walks in the woods, practicing repentance and developing an attitude of surrender. I began surrendering to the unknown adventure that serving Him brings. As I look back, there was no fear. I was driven by love—love for my amazing Savior, and love for the people He wanted to love through me. I started throwing myself into every service opportunity available for healthcare professionals in our local community in Atlanta, and, like an energetic mom, I dragged every willing student along with me. Former Atlanta Area Director Bill Reichart (who now serves as CMDA’s Vice President of Campus & Community Ministries) was instrumental in helping me participate in all of these opportunities with my students. I pestered him incessantly to keep me in the loop of what God was doing through CMDA in Atlanta, and Bill did not disappoint. Transformed Doctors ➤ Transforming the World www.cmda.org 23
“I learned the importance of leaning into His word while on such a spiritually demanding trip. I finally realized the obvious: Christ is the main thing we can offer anyone, even in our practices back home!” —Physician assistant serving in Moldova One day during the trip, Bill chose several of us to perform home visits in the local area. We walked down the muddy roads of El Serrano led by the pastor who knew of seriously ill patients who could not come to our temporary clinic. Several students came with us, stocked with supplies and medicines, not knowing what we would find in the ramshackle houses. PA school is an extremely tough 28 months. The old adage of “drinking from a wide open fire hydrant” is not far off from the truth. So I can’t imagine spending a small chunk of money and using a precious week of vacation during PA school to volunteer for a healthcare mission trip. They knew it would be a week of guaranteed exhaustion, long sweaty days and emotional peaks and valleys. As I thought about their sacrifice, I started respecting them in an entirely new way. As a volunteer healthcare professional at the Good Samaritan Health Center of Gwinnett, I spend time each week precepting my students as they care for uninsured patients. I am used to students watching me interact with patients in a fully functioning medical clinic. Nothing, however, prepared me for what caring for patients in the third world would be like. I was faced with using my raw skills, history taking and physical exam to secure a diagnosis. This was back to the basics with few tools other than a stethoscope and otoscope. The students’ skills blossomed in this environment, and as their professor, I was able to witness their exponential growth. As an educator, I cannot begin to tell you how inspiring it is to see students operating on all levels of skill, communication and compassion. I was able to come behind the experiences they were having and instill confidence in their abilities and further guide their learning by using their patient experiences. I was inspired. I became a better teacher, healthcare professional and person while watching all of this transpire. 24 TODAY'S CHRISTIAN DOCTOR Summer 2017
Rashes, asthma, hypertension, back pain and reflux are the typical maladies we encountered. Diagnosing left lower lobe pneumonia with the help of tactile fremitus, bronchophony, egophony and whispered pectoriloquy is something I have not done very often in the U.S. House to house, we encountered people who needed our help, and we were welcomed warmly in every home. At one point, Bill and I sent two of the students, Megan and Magdalena, to the next house with the pastor and an interpreter to collect the history and start the physical exam. We headed to the house long after the students had left our group. As we came into the home, we were led to a back room where the sunlight coming in through the wall of uneven board slats was the only light in the room. On a wooden bench lay a man who reminded me of the terminally ill patients I have cared for in my career. He was under a layer of blankets, shivering and quiet. He was a 38-year-old man, surrounded by his children, wife and other family members. The family had brought him down from the mountains for care, but he worsened during the journey, so a compassionate family took these strangers in and allowed them to stay in their dirt-floored back room. They had no way to get him to a hospital, and they had no idea why he was deathly ill. The looks on the faces of Megan and Magdalena struck me first. They told us the information they had gathered, and then they gave me vitals and results from their limited exam. I examined his cachectic frame and realized he could not survive much longer without being hospitalized. As I
stood up, the students searched my face for hope and waited for orders to get something from the medicine pack. At that moment, I knew how I responded to this man and his family would impact my students for the rest of their lives. I gave Bill my little bottle of olive oil and we knelt down beside this man with our hands on him. Bill anointed him and prayed. It was a powerful moment as we acknowledged that sometimes we do not have anything to give but our faith. We came back to the clinic and shared the story. In a matter of minutes, we had gathered enough money to get the man and his family immediate transportation down the mountain to the hospital several hours away. That was the miracle. In the face of the impossible, the impossible happened for this patient. I pray it saved his life. Later that evening, we attended a Wednesday night church service. Still in our muddy, sweat-stained scrubs, the worship music swirled around our heads. I sat with my students, and I felt a familiar tug in my spirit. In the darkened room, my tears began flowing. Since this experience, I have encountered many more deeply impactful moments with my students during mission trips and volunteer opportunities. I developed an attitude that I will not expect my students to participate or volunteer for anything that I would not do myself. If there is an opportunity to love my neighbor, then count me in, and come with me.
The shared mission experience creates a new space for the teacher and the student, a place of mutual respect and a foundation where faith can anchor. If I had not gone to Nicaragua with the students, I would have missed all of this. I would have missed knowing them, really knowing them. By revealing my heart to serve to my students, I found that they were willing to reveal their hearts as well. More open to believing where there was no belief, more open to hearing the words of life, more open to choosing to become disciples. Whether or not they follow the Lord after the experience is up to the Holy Spirit, but they will come away with a visual of what it means to love God and love people. A vision of how a disciple of Jesus lives, works and loves.
“Mission trips allow me to focus on how to be Christ-like with no pre-conceived ideas of who I am. It allows a fresh environment for me to focus on being the eyes, ears, hands and feet of Christ with none of the daily distractions I experience at home. When I get home I can carry that focus to change my daily life and those around me.” —Physician assistant serving in the Ukraine If you are an educator, I encourage you to experience service opportunities with your students. Even if it is not oversees, you can still participate in local and regional opportunities. We all want our students to grow, and growing together while serving together reaps huge benefits for all involved. So if you can, send them, and go with them!
JILL R. MATTINGLY, DHSc, MMSC, PA-C, is the program director and department chair of Mercer University Physician Assistant Studies in Atlanta, Georgia. She practices family medicine as a volunteer provider at Good Samaritan Health Center of Gwinnett in Norcross, Georgia and at the Clarkston Refugee Clinic in Clarkston, Georgia. She attended Emory University Physician Assistant Program in Atlanta. She received her Doctor of Health Science from Nova Southeastern University in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. She currently serves as a board member for the Fellowship of Christian Physician Assistants (FCPA), a ministry of CMDA. Georgia Association of Physician Assistants (GAPA) awarded Dr. Mattingly the Humanitarian of the Year Award in 2015 and again in 2016. She and her Mercer PA students have served on medical mission teams in El Serrano, Nicaragua; Jalapa, Nicaragua; and Antsirabe, Madagascar.
Transformed Doctors ➤ Transforming the World www.cmda.org 25
I
n my previous life, I was Dr. Sandy Dettmann, the director of pediatric emergency services at Butterworth Hospital in Grand Rapids, Michigan. I lived in a 6,000 sq. foot, custom-built home in the affluent suburb of Ada, had a gorgeous husband, was mother to five beautiful babies, served as president of my young children’s PTO and was my daughter’s Girl Scout leader. It was an idyllic and seemingly perfect life. But it didn’t last. Chronic illnesses would befall me some years later, rendering me fully disabled. I was crippled with rheumatoid arthritis and had multiple gastrointestinal problems from a repeat Nissan fundoplication operation gone awry, necessitating a complete gastrectomy, leaving me without a stomach. I became a GI cripple, with gastrostomy tubes, jejunostomy tubes and home total parenteral nutrition to sustain my life. My desperate situation was treated with multiple, powerful, mind-altering medications. These medications were designed to either help me live in peace or die in peace. The medications, namely opiates and benzodiazepines, were prescribed to treat my pain and anxiety, not drugs designed
to make me high. I became chemically dependent on them, but I never abused them. These powerful and dangerous medications wiped out my memory and any semblance of a normal life, leaving me vulnerable, easy to take advantage of and completely dependent on my husband for medical decisions and my very life. My life became a series of hospitalizations, operations, procedures, tubes, bandages, ventilators, medications, emergency department visits, anxiety, depression, desperation and pure madness. The same individual who had been named “Medical Student of the Year” at Butterworth Hospital, who had a brilliant future ahead of her, would ultimately be wheeled out of that same hospital adorned with tubes, abused, abandoned, alone and clinging to her very life. By 2011, I was bedridden 23 hours a day with care tantamount to hospice care. Going to the hospital became my new norm. Everyone who knew me fully expected me to die. Alone, depressed, anxious and abused, I took an overdose of my prescription medications on January 21, 2011. To this day, I cannot explain my actions. I certainly had the skill set to end my life, and I maintain that was not my intent. However, in my confusion from the multiple mind-altering
A Life Broken by
Overmedication by Sandy Dettmann, MD, DABAM
26 TODAY'S CHRISTIAN DOCTOR Summer 2017
We are in the midst of the largest manmade epidemic in the history of the United States—the opiate epidemic. According to the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (HHS), drug overdose deaths are the leading cause of injury death in the U.S. HHS has made prevention, treatment, research and effective responses to rapidly reverse opioid overdoses a top priority to help fight the epidemic.
medications, my desperation about my situation, including my reticence to reveal it, I convinced myself that this “cry for help” would draw attention to the abuse I was suffering in my own home, where I had become isolated from even my closest friends. On that day, the trajectory of my life was forever changed in a way most people would see as tragic, but I see it as life sustaining. It was also the last day I was in my home with my family. Following my “escape,” my body began to heal and my physical ailments suddenly ceased to exist. I stopped taking all of my medications and became healthy. However, through a series of sinister events, my family abandoned me and left me to die in an empty house. I was ultimately left homeless and eating at shelters while I tried to relearn normal functions of daily living and things like simple math. I was completely alone in the world with a brain that barely functioned, damaged by the effects of the illnesses that had once consumed me. I had danced with death on multiple occasions during those years of chaos, even requiring CPR on one occasion, leaving me with resultant anoxic brain damage, so I was told. Even worse, and harder to recover from, my psyche was devastated by the chronic effects of abuse, depression, anxiety and PTSD from what I had endured. In summer 2011, while I was still on the streets struggling to simply survive, I was hit with divorce proceedings. I eventually learned my husband had retained a powerful divorce attorney four years prior to filing. My divorce case
As healthcare professionals, we are on the front lines of this crisis. Numerous experts say doctor training is key to dealing with the epidemic. U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Mirthy sent a letter to millions of healthcare professionals in 2016 calling for a “national movement of clinicians” to help fight the opioid epidemic. In the letter, he wrote, “I know solving this problem will not be easy... But, as clinicians, we have the unique power to help end this epidemic.” He calls for healthcare professionals to educate themselves first, screen patients for substance use disorders and connect them with treatment options and treat it as a chronic illness, not a moral failing. So what can you do? To start, visit www. turnthetide.org. This website has a variety of resources with treatment options, training tools and more to assist you as you seek to help your patients. Some individual states have laws and regulations requiring continuing education on pain management and opioid use for healthcare professionals. And more states are launching campaigns and monitoring programs to help save lives. CMDA groups in places like New York have gotten involved in training programs to encourage others to learn more. Dr. Mirthy challenged healthcare professionals, “Years from now, I want us to look back and know...it was our profession that stepped up and led the way. I know we can succeed because health care is more than an occupation to us.” As Christians in healthcare, we also share a burden to seek and save the lost, so we have both a moral responsibility to our patients and a responsibility to our Lord. As it says in Luke 9:2, “And he sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal” (ESV). We have to respond to this epidemic, and we have to respond now. How are you responding?
Transformed Doctors ➤ Transforming the World www.cmda.org 27
would live, let alone practice medicine. I began turning to community members for support and love as I rebuilt the life I enjoy today, one soul at a time, always with God’s wisdom and guidance.
began with me being painted as a drug addict, due to all the medications I had been prescribed, and crazy, due to my “suicidal ideation.” In July 2011, I fell into the care of a therapist who would change my life forever. He walked with me over the ensuing years, guided me through the madness and helped me heal my psyche. I began realizing no one cared where I’d been, but rather, they cared where I was now and and where I was going. Having spent the first 50 years of my life chasing diplomas and awards, raising children and pursuing the American dream, I had never stood still enough to allow God into my life. My life had been one of pleasing others, but not Him. However, on September 16, 2011, that all changed. That was the day faith and science collided in my life, and faith won. I went from thinking that nothing was a “God thing,” to thinking some things were “God things,” to eventually realizing God is involved in everything, good and bad. I began experiencing miracles on a daily basis. I found new purpose in life and set out to be all God intended me to be. Faced with ongoing allegations of drug abuse and mental health disease in the divorce proceedings, despite multiple evaluations by professionals stating otherwise, I realized how stigmatized and punished those diseases are in our society. So I got to work—God’s work—to help others. I dedicated my life, my career and my passion to caring for and protecting the rights of individuals who had been marginalized, shamed, blamed and even punished in our society for their diseases—alcoholism, drug addiction and mental health disease. In 2012, I was relicensed to practice medicine, a license that had simply expired in 2008, when no one thought I 28 TODAY'S CHRISTIAN DOCTOR Summer 2017
And throughout the rebuilding process, I constantly reminded myself that God gives us back everything we lose, and even more, if we follow His guidance. I went from relearning multiplication tables to being board certified in addiction medicine and teaching jobs at Michigan State University College of Human Medicine and Grand Valley State University. Today I hold board positions, have a prominent position in my community as a volunteer and community advocate and am a provider of medication-assisted treatment for private citizens and for drug court participants at the very courthouse where my messy divorce played out. I have acquired professional accolades beyond my wildest imagination. I have become the person people turn to with their problems when they themselves have been abandoned, because I know that feeling all too well. I am hungry to help the sick, abused, abandoned and broken. Those individuals have become “my people.” I am on a journey to repair broken lives and families, just as my community, led by a loving God, helped me repair mine. When I finally stood still enough to feel God’s presence and hear His voice, after 50 years of thinking I could do it on my own, I felt as though I had finally been give the “password” to my calling in life. Although I experienced many defeats and lost everything that meant anything to me—my home, children, money, reputation and nearly my life—I finally understood the promise of eternity and began standing in truth and following God’s direction as I worked to put my life back together. And I found comfort in the blessings I received from God on a daily basis, instead of focusing on the lure of financial compensation for my work and falsely believing money was my “ticket” to being worthy of love. Today I am truly rich, rich with a sense of peace most people have trouble understanding, given the losses I endured. I spent the first five decades of my life being chased by God, and now I am spending the rest of it chasing Him. I seek to bring others to find Jesus, because I want them to find what I found in Christ.
For those who think there is no God and miracles don’t occur, I invite you to open the door to my life. The mere fact
that I am still alive after the trauma and loss I experienced is evidence that speaks for itself. Systematically dismantled, alienated and left to die in an abandoned house in the name of greed, no one thought I would live. By the grace of God, I did. No one thought I would recover from all the mindaltering substances I was prescribed. By the grace of God, I did. No one thought I would speak publicly about allegations rallied against me of substance abuse and mental health disease. By the grace of God, I did. And by His grace, God is using my story to open the door for others to follow my journey and escape their own chemical dependencies and diseases. Today, I am the CEO and president of The Dettmann Center, P.C., where I use medication-assisted treatment to help people dependent on alcohol and/or drugs. I am a public speaker and community advocate, focused on addressing the opiate epidemic, the largest man-made epidemic in the history of the United States. I am even writing a book to share my story, entitled She Finally Stood Still. Two days remained etched in my mind: January 21, 2011, the day I nearly died and thought my world was ending, and September 16, 2011, the day I realized my life had only just begun. It may have felt like I had lost my life when I overdosed
and was abandoned by my family, but I truly lost my life when I turned it over to God. And through His grace, I started a new life, a better life, a true life centered on the hope and love and grace and mercy of our Savior. And I’m just getting started.
SANDY DETTMANN, MD, DABAM, is a board certified addiction medicine specialist. She is a graduate of both the University of Michigan and Michigan State University, and she teaches at Michigan State University College of Human Medicine and Grand Valley State University. She is a member of the AMA, Michigan State Medical Society, CMDA, American Society of Addiction Medicine, National Association of Treatment Court Professionals, Michigan Association of Treatment Court Professionals, the Michigan Chapter of ASAM, the Grand Rapids Chamber of Commerce and the Kent County Medical Society Alliance. She is a medical director for the Grand Rapids Red Project, serves as a delegate/ alternate delegate to the Michigan State Medical Society and serves on the board for Kent County Medical Society. She is active in legislation involving the disease of addiction. Her favorite activity is that of public speaking, addressing first and foremost, the opiate epidemic and ways to combat it.
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EDITOR’S NOTE: The original version of this article was given as an address at the inaugural meeting of the CMDA chapter at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. It has been modified for use in Today’s Christian Doctor.
I
n 1971, John Lennon published a song by the title “Imagine.” In a slow, dreamy cadence, the Beatles musician invites the listener to, “Imagine there’s no heaven; it’s easy if you try; no hell below us; above us only sky.” He continues, “Imagine there’s no countries; it isn’t hard to do; nothing to kill or die for; and no religion, too. Imagine all the people, living life in peace.”1 Living life in peace is a beautiful image. And peace is well worth pursuing. But is Lennon’s path the true way toward peace? I submit to you that John Lennon’s vision is deficient because his imagination did not reach nearly high enough. I would like to encourage you to ignite your imagination beyond John Lennon’s words, to a vision that greatly exceeds his in beauty, unity and, yes, peace.
Lennon asks us to imagine there’s no religion. Is religion truly the culprit in a world that continues in suffering, disease, enmity, war and maldistribution of resources? The factual record of history tells a different story, one of ambition and greed hijacking religious language to motivate others to join in quests for political power and conquest. We have to look only as far back as the 20th century to find tens of millions of graves filled by and trampled under the feet of communist totalitarian regimes that ruthlessly enforced godless ideologies.2 No, religion is not the disease responsible for human sin, hatred and malice. Understood properly, it is the medicine for it. Lennon’s vision of a world without religion is like the child’s preference of doctors’ offices without shots or bitter pills. When I refer to religion, I have in mind the ideas that inspired the noblest achievements of Western civilization. As our culture has become more secularized, we sometimes take for granted the enduring benefits the Judeo-Christian tradition provides for the benefit of all. One example is science. The scientific enterprise, which appropriately holds an esteemed
by William Polk Cheshire, Jr., MD, MA
30 TODAY'S CHRISTIAN DOCTOR Summer 2017
position in our culture, owes its unique birth in history to the Christian worldview from which it emerged. The earliest scientists—Copernicus, Bacon, Galileo, Kepler, Descartes, Pascal, Newton, Boyle, Faraday and many others—were devout Christians who had the confidence to investigate the universe systematically because they understood it to be rational, and thus open to study, testable and comprehensible, all because it was created and ordered by a rational God.3 We have seen how science can become sterile, even absurd, when severed from its theological roots. Francis Crick, co-discoverer of the DNA double helix, writes, “that ‘You’, your joys and your sorrows, your memories and your ambitions, your sense of personal identity and free will, are in fact no more than the behavior of a vast assembly of nerve cells and their associated molecules.”4 And yet, life in all its complexities, from its moments of awe and exhilaration to the discouraging depths of despair, teaches us there is much more to a human being than bits of matter smashing against one another. As healthcare professionals dedicated to healing, we know we are more—our patients are more—than mishmashes of molecules. Humans are metaphorical double helices: one strand matter, the other spirit, inextricably intertwined. We are neurons with freedom, creatures with dignity, bodies with a purpose. Another example of Christianity’s contributions is the hospital. Dr. William J. Mayo asserted in 1926, “The hospital should be a refuge to which the sick might go for relief as they went before our Savior, their distress the only condition of admittance, not their social or financial status, race or creed.”5 Although one finds healing traditions in many ancient cultures, it was Christianity that originated the hospital as an institution devoted to the provision of organized care for anyone who comes and is in medical or surgical need.6 The emergence of hospitals during the first few centuries of the Christian era testifies to the earnestness and, I would submit, also the validity of the convic-
tion of their founders that Jesus of Nazareth, descendant of Abraham and David, the wounded healer of Isaiah 53, was none other than the long-awaited Messiah of Israel. Acts of healing saturate the gospel narratives, which proclaim that, in Jesus, the kingdom of God has, at last, broken in upon our hurting world. In Jesus is the promise of fullness of life and ultimately the restoration of all things. The sick may find profound encouragement that, through Jesus, suffering has purpose and death is defeated. While it is not necessary to be a Christian to be an excellent healthcare professional, the Christian healthcare professional recognizes a transcendent aspect to healthcare that fills the healing art with further meaning. The CMDA ethics statement on professionalism articulates that the Christian healthcare professional “appreciates and encourages a deeper meaning of health and illness in the context of the special value and eternal destiny of human life.”7 From this perspective, the Christian healthcare professional appreciates the profound truth that “the patient’s dignity derives from having been created in the image of God.”7 Christian healthcare professionals appreciate that, in their actions toward others, people of faith are responsible to a righteous, merciful and loving God who is deeply concerned for the sick and suffering. If we love God, and if we truly believe Transformed Doctors ➤ Transforming the World www.cmda.org 31
He is present and active in the world, manifesting His power and goodness even in the small things of personal experience, then we, too, share in His concern and consider it a privilege to assist in bringing healing to others. But unlike the dictates of bureaucracies or laws that enforce compliance through rules and by penalties, and unlike the cold, calculating code of computer programs, God’s commands are backed by love, which infuses the Christian healthcare professional with an ethic of care that reaches far beyond what any of us can do through our own strength.
When I refer to religion, I also have in mind the divinely revealed teachings that guide my understanding of the world, teachings that have consistently held true when put to the test in my own life journey. This religion is much more than a set of Scriptures, doctrines and prayers, more than scenic buildings and uplifting music. Real religion isn’t a matter of rules; rather, it is a relationship. The Christian lives in personal relationship with the Creator and Sustainer of the universe through His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Guided by the light of His teaching, we walk by faith.
Faith in Christ also supplies the healthcare professional with humility. Our Lord teaches us to examine ourselves and confess our sins to God who, in His mercy, generously grants forgiveness. Christian healthcare professionals know they are accountable to God for the care provided to fellow human beings. Yet, despite diligent effort and the best of intentions, “medical and dental care is sometimes imperfect or inadequate,”7 and faith encourages us to improve and persevere. Humility is also the basis for trustworthiness. There are some things the Christian healthcare professional, as a person of moral integrity, will not do.8
When I refer to religion, I also have in mind the heartening fellowship that is possible among a community of believers such as are assembled on campuses and in homes across the country through CMDA. There are people involved in my local CMDA chapter and in national and international CMDA ministries who have enriched my life beyond measure. In coming together to share a meal, to support one another, to learn from one another and to bear one another’s burdens, we encounter boundless opportunities to discover joy. In the pages of Scripture, we find incomparable moral guidance to inspire a team of healthcare professionals. Much in Scripture aligns with and provides a foundation for the Mayo Clinic Values, which are of Franciscan origin.9 I will cite just a few relevant verses. First, our primary value, that “the needs of the patient come first,” is affirmed in Philippians 2:3, which says “in humility value others above yourselves,” as well as in the example of Jesus Himself, who willingly endured the cross and gave up His life for the sake of others. The value of respect brings to mind 1 Peter 2:17a, “Show proper respect to everyone.” The value of integrity: James 5:12, “Let your ‘yes’ be yes and your ‘no’ be no” (ESV). Of compassion: Matthew 14:14, “When [ Jesus] went ashore he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion on them and healed their sick” (ESV). Of healing: Mark 1:34a, “And [ Jesus] healed many who were sick with various diseases” (ESV). Of teamwork: Mark 6:7 and Luke 10:1, he sent them out “two by two.” Of innovation: Isaiah 43:19, “Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?” (ESV). Of excellence: Colossians 3:23, “Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord” (ESV). And of stewardship: 1 Corinthians 4:2, “...it is required of stew-
32 TODAY'S CHRISTIAN DOCTOR Summer 2017
What amazing future is in store for you as a Christian healthcare professional and for healthcare in general through the faithful efforts of Christians? I can only imagine. BIBLIOGRAPHY
ards that they be found faithful” (ESV). These are words of life, words of healing, words on which to build an effective and compassionate healthcare community that honors the Great Physician. So when John Lennon asks us to imagine a world without religion, he is asking for a world without Christians. That means, if we consider his words carefully, civilization without Christian contributions and without science, hospitals that have never known the parable of the Good Samaritan and healthcare without Christian healthcare professionals. Whether we could imagine such a world is a less difficult question than whether, if we did actually live in a world devoid of religion, deprived of the love of God and impoverished of the knowledge of God, could we possibly have imagined this one that in so many ways has been touched by people of faith? John Lennon is not the only music artist who invites us to imagine. In 2001, Bart Millard composed a song entitled “I Can Only Imagine.” This song, performed by MercyMe, looks ahead to the day when we will see Jesus face to face. It goes like this: “I can only imagine what it will be like, when I walk by your side. I can only imagine what my eyes will see, when your face is before me. I can only imagine. Surrounded by your glory, what will my heart feel? Will I dance for you, Jesus, or in awe of you be still? Will I stand in your presence, or to my knees will I fall? Will I sing hallelujah; will I be able to speak at all? I can only imagine.”10
1 Lennon J. Imagine. Apple Records, 1971. 2 Malia M. Foreward. In: Courtois S, Werth N, Panné J-L, et al. The Black Book of Communism: Crimes, Terror, Repression. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1999. 3 Jaki SL. Science and Creation. Edinburgh, UK: Scottish Academic Press, 1977. 4 Crick F. The Astonishing Hypothesis: The Scientific Search for the Soul. New York: Touchstone, 1994, p. 3. 5 Mayo WJ. Address delivered at the dedication of the teaching hospital of the University of Michigan. Journal of the Michigan State Medical Society 1926, pp. 9-12. 6 Cheshire WP. Twigs of terebinth: the ethical origins of the hospital in Judeo-Christian tradition. Ethics & Medicine 2003; 19(3): 143-153. 7 CMDA Ethics Statement on Professionalism. Accessed at: https://www.cmda.org/resources/publication/professionalism-ethics-statement 8 CMDA Ethics Statement on Healthcare Rights of Conscience. Accessed at: https://www.cmda.org/resources/ publication/healthcare-right-of-conscience-ethics-statement 9 http://history.mayoclinic.org/impact/mayo-clinic-values. php 10 Millard B. I Can Only Imagine. INO Records/Curb Records, 2001.
WILLIAM POLK CHESHIRE, JR., MD, MA, is a Professor of Neurology at Mayo Clinic and Chair of the CMDA Ethics Committee. Dr. Cheshire received his AB in biochemical sciences from Princeton University, his MD from West Virginia University and his MA in bioethics from Trinity International University. He completed his neurology residency and pain fellowship at the University of North Carolina. He is board certified in neurology and in autonomic disorders. Currently he is president of the American Autonomic Society. He was named after his fourth great-grandfather, Lt. Col. William Polk, who served in the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War and, though wounded, survived the encampment at Valley Forge in the winter of 1777-1778. With Doris, his wife of 35 years, and four children, he lives in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida and attends the Church of the Redeemer, which is affiliated with the Anglican Church of North America.
Transformed Doctors ➤ Transforming the World www.cmda.org 33
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