My passion for providing quality healthcare to those in need started during a summer I spent in Fiji.

“Praise God! Thank you, God! Praise God!” With tears streaming down her face, the patient screamed muffled expressions of praise and joy for over an hour as I held the suction tools, and the dentist endlessly scraped away the plaque coating the teeth she had yet to lose. Her friend stood by her side, iPhone out, videoing the entire procedure with an enormous grin on her face. After traveling on a boat and multiple buses, this woman’s dreams came true as she received her first teeth cleaning at the age of 45.

As my shift in the dentistry wing ended, I washed my hands, grabbed my clipboard, and quickly headed to the next patient room to scribe for the only primary care physician on site as the waiting room was bursting at the seams. As the patient entered the room with a hopeful smile on her face, I saw the physician’s eyes move to the grapefruit-sized bulge in her neck and I noted the silence of the experienced clinical staff around me.

With hope in her eyes, she asked about seeing the surgeon coming into town. It was now clear that after spending a fortune at the local hospital for a biopsy, no one had communicated to the patient that the mass in her neck was in fact cancerous and had been growing at an accelerated rate for months since her test. The physician then took a deep breath, held her hand, and explained that because of the location of the tumor and resulting skyrocketing blood pressure, there was no possibility of surgery.

Seeing the hope drain from that woman’s eyes will never leave my memory as she realized what she hoped would be a quick fix, was no longer possible and she was beyond medical help. Silent tears begin to stream down all of our faces as the physician and I held this woman’s hands and began to pray for her and the time she had left. During my time spent as a volunteer at the Mission at Natuvu Creek in Venua Levu, Fiji, my eyes were forced open to the countless tragedies that people deprived of basic health care face every day.