After working side by side on Adventist Health Glendale’s medical mission trip to a contested region in the Caucasus, near Armenia, volunteers now “automatically hug each other” in the hospital hallways, according to Dr. Mikayel Grigoryan.
“It’s a bond that gets created from an out-of-this-world experience” over less than two weeks, said Grigoryan, who traveled with a team of about 45 doctors and other personnel to Stepanakert, the capital of the Republic of Artsakh, and nearby villages from late September to early October.
During that time, the team performed more than 100 surgeries and procedures ranging from oncological to orthopedic, many of them life saving, according to hospital’s president Alice Issai, who joined the mission.
Knees were replaced, embolisms removed and, in some cases, hope restored.
A 28-year-old man, suffering from a congenital heart problem and struggling to provide for his family as the sole breadwinner, was sent to Armenia’s capital, Yerevan, for open-heart surgery, Issai said.
Along with the personnel came 7 tons of medical supplies and medications, as well as some cutting-edge equipment, Issai added. Primary-care physicians traveled to the outskirts of villages to make more than 500 visits.
“It complements our big mission,” of helping specific populations, Issai said of the now-annual mission trip that targets Armenians and the Armenian diaspora.
Beginning last year, the mission began traveling to the Republic of Artsakh, a territory internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan that is home to a large population of Armenians with limited resources.
Many critical procedures can only be performed for cash in Armenia’s capital, Yerevan, several hours away, “which for many is just impossible,” Issai said.
The decision to work with the Stepanakert Republican Medical Center came after a several-year joint project at the rural Noyemberyan Hospital in the Tavush region of Armenia.
Grigoryan, who was born and raised in Armenia, said he was one of the people who advocated expanding the mission to Artsakh, which experienced war as recently as 2016.
“It takes a lot of courage to go there, especially as an American citizen, but I don’t think anyone views it in that light,” Grigoryan said. “There are people in need there, so it doesn’t matter.”
Adventist’s main objective at both medical facilities is the same — to provide local staff with the knowledge and equipment so that the end of the mission doesn’t mean the end of the benefits.
“[The local doctors] were so grateful for the opportunity to learn, so they could continue some of that work,” Issai said.
Everyone from Adventist pays their own way and volunteers their time. Some people at home call the doctors, nurses, technicians and others that go on the missions “heroes,” Grigoryan said.
Grigoryan rejected the title.
“To me, it’s a duty,” he said.