‘Christians first, student-doctors second’: LUCOM students help provide health clinics in El Salvador

The student-doctors at Liberty University’s College of Osteopathic Medicine (LUCOM) are actively training to be high-caliber medical professionals, but first and foremost they are being trained to be lights and vessels for Christ in the medical field. During the medical school’s Spring Break, March 24-29, a team of 11 student-doctors and three faculty traveled to El Salvador to care for close to 150 patients at area health clinics.

The free clinics were held in collaboration with Harvesting in Spanish and its ministry for orphaned or abandoned children, the Shalom Children’s Home. LUCOM’s group used the organization’s four-story clinic in the town of Santiago Texacuangos as its main location for the clinics. For two days, they also used a mobile bus clinic to visit two villages — Cuyultitan and Santo Tomás — and a Youth with a Mission compound in the region. At night, the team spent time with the children at Shalom and slept in the organization’s separate apartments set aside for visiting workers.

“We did this trip because it gives the students hands-on experience in a supervised environment,” said LUCOM professor and trip leader Dr. Russell Melton. “There’s interaction between students, there’s certainly a cultural experience, and it’s a mission opportunity. We have students who are interested in missions, and we want to give them the opportunity to explore that and let God use that in their lives and futures.”

But most importantly, he said, “The bedrock of the trip was being a light as Christians,  spreading the Gospel and working with Christian organizations to help build the Kingdom around the world. This has been a great place for that, because they’re a great partner and we get the two-fold ministry benefit of working medically and ministering to these adults and children.”

This was the third time Melton has led a trip to El Salvador to work with Harvesting in Spanish, including last spring and fall.

At the clinics, student-doctors paired up and gathered the patient’s medical history, did a physical examination pertinent to his or her symptoms, and then presented it to a LUCOM professor who continued assessing the patient and provided treatment.

OMS-II Moses Choi said the experience was essentially his introduction to interacting with a real patient, as LUCOM students spend their first two years in the program doing pre-clinical simulations in addition to lectures and course reading.

“As much as LUCOM does a fantastic job at simulating those different patient encounters through our standardized patient examinations, we know in the back of our heads that it isn’t real. But this was truly interactive, like we were part of the medical team, and that was really cool to experience,” Choi said. “It was a refreshing experience to talk with actual people who have actual medical issues.”

He shared about a mother who came into one of the clinics with a child who was experiencing tremors and involuntary muscle contractions but had gone unseen by a doctor because the mother could not afford it.

“We were able to see them and diagnose (the child) and provide spiritual comfort as well,” Choi he said. “The mom was very emotional that day, and we were able to sort of give them more direction and guidance. Seeing the emotions of that mom and just how we were able to take care of her, not just medically but spiritually as well, was impactful. It’s tied into how at Liberty, and as an osteopathic medical school, we truly do emphasize the spiritual aspect.”

Thanks to Spanish translators, the team was able to communicate fully with the patients, which was crucial to providing the care they needed. Having effective communication is at the core of medical care, and the opportunity to embody and even share God’s love with their patients was something the students valued during the trip. OMS-I Logan Murphy said a verse he found purpose in during the trip was 1 John 4:16, “We know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.”

“One of my biggest takeaways was seeing God’s work in a totally (different) part of the world,” Murphy said. “I feel very privileged and honored to have the opportunity to pursue medicine and that God gave me this opportunity. I’m a Christian first and a student-doctor second. Down there, people are not opposed to you praying for them. We’d see patients, and a lot of times we’d pray for them at the end of seeing them. It was a beautiful experience to be a part of.”

Choi agreed that the trip fostered opportunities to speak into the lives of hurting people and reflect Christ.

“One of the cool things about being in this field is that we have such an intimate relationship with patients, and we see them at such a vulnerable time. In that type of circumstance and those moments, I feel like that is the best way to invite spiritual counseling. The position that we are in, how we can help them physically, invites a certain level of intimacy and connection. Only the love of Jesus enables us to provide that kind of next-level care.”