A week after taking my board exam, I flew into Cusco, Peru, with a team of physicians and a cohort of VCOM Auburn first- and second-year osteopathic medical students, all members of the Christian Medical and Dental Association. My classmates and I were eager to apply our classroom knowledge to real-life scenarios. We spent the first day acclimating to the 11,000-foot elevation and preparing for five days of treating patients at pop-up clinics promoted for months by our in-country partner, Medical Ministry International Peru. I later learned that patients were informed they would not only receive care for their physical ailments but also be prayed over by the American physicians.
During the clinic days, I worked alongside internists with a range of specialties, including PM&R, hematology/oncology, and gastroenterology, as well as emergency medicine physicians, surgeons, and family medicine physicians. I learned how to perform both blind and image-guided joint injections and saw how ultrasound can be effectively used in low-resource settings to support diagnosis. As a second-year student, I often worked with a first-year student, which meant handling cases outside their current training. I responded by including them in every part of my history and physical exam approach. By the end of each day, they shared how empowered they felt to perform exams they hadn't yet studied, and I realized I hope to one day teach at a medical school and support others in their educational journey.
As osteopathic students, we are taught that a person is a unit of body, mind, and spirit. In addition to expanding my clinical experience, this trip deepened my understanding of how the spirit plays a role in healing and how prayer can offer peace to those in pain. On the fourth clinic day, I was assigned to triage in the morning and, if time allowed, to join a medical team in the afternoon. Initially, I felt disappointed, but I believe we are placed where we’re meant to be. Just before lunch, an elderly woman hobbled to the triage table, assisted by her daughter. She wept as she told me about her months-long struggle with hip and knee pain and her fear that nothing could help. I held her hands and prayed with her, asking for strength, peace, and healing. After finishing her intake, we helped her find a seat in the waiting area.
Later that day, I joined a team seeing new patients—and to my surprise, it was the same woman I had prayed with at triage. I was able to perform steroid injections in her knees, and as she walked pain-free around the exam room, her eyes filled with tears of joy. She prayed over us and insisted that if I ever returned to Cusco, I must visit her home and let her cook for me.
To any student considering a medical mission trip: I cannot overstate the impact they have—not just on the patients but on you. These missions reaffirm why I chose medicine. When I’m up late reviewing the TCA cycle for the hundredth time, I reflect on how medical knowledge is a gift, entrusted to us by our professors and mentors, so we can one day share it with those in need no matter their race, language, religion, or nationality.