Dr. Amber Stein

Pediatric anesthesiologist Amber Stein has worked at Chippenham Hospital for 24 years, and she is part of a large network of HCA Virginia physicians who volunteer their personal time to help others in need. Since 2010, Stein has traveled to Belize, Honduras, and Saint Vincent in the Caribbean to assist with surgeries like cleft lip and cleft palate repairs. Unlike some throughout the healthcare system, her 2021 trip was not deterred by COVID-19. In June, she traveled to Belize with a group of doctors to change the lives of approximately 20 children.

“I feel fortunate to have the opportunity,” she said. “It felt like it was just a blessing to be able to go. The families are also so happy to see us, but this year, they were especially appreciative … it was a particularly emotional year.”

Belize is strict about COVID-19 precautions in terms of masking and social distancing because resources are limited and there are only a small number of ventilators for the whole country. Since she and her team were only there for part of a week, they concentrated on high priority cases to help patients develop, eat, and speak.

“Infants and children with cleft lip and palate need a series of staged procedures, and oftentimes we see children from when they are babies and continue to see them through adulthood,” Stein said. “Some of the older ones volunteer to help with the mission trips.”

Other Capital Division physicians who normally travel to underserved nations include urogynecologist Quinn Lippmann and her colleague, urologist Tim Bradford.

“Tim goes to Belize and I go to Rwanda with a group called Global Surgical Expedition to do pelvic reconstructive surgeries, fistulas, prolapse and incontinent surgeries,” Lippmann said.

She has been going on medical mission trips for five years and was able to go in 2020 right before the pandemic restricted travel.

“It’s tough because all of these countries have to be super careful about COVID-19 because they have such limited resources and need to be strict about lockdown,” she said.

Plastic surgeon Isaac Wornom operates out of Chippenham and Henrico Doctors’ Hospital, and his interest in helping children extends to yearly missionary trips to Honduras with World Pediatric Project. Typically, he goes for a week in January for approximately 50 cases, and said he hopes to return in 2022.

Another plastic surgeon, Nadia Blanchet, operates out of Johnston-Willis, and she and her husband, Kent Rollins, have donated their time to help people in Saint Vincent since their honeymoon 25 years ago.

“It adds a level of meaning and value to your own life that you know you can really make a difference,” Blanchet said.

Blanchet said she worked on a lot of burns initially because not everyone on the island had electricity and sometimes a candle would start a fire. She has also worked on benign tumors, congenital abnormalities, hand injuries, non-healing wounds, breast reconstructions, and more. Now, she just operates on children.

“At the end of the day, you look back and can say you helped someone,” Blanchet said.

All physicians said they were looking forward to returning to their medical mission trips in 2022.