Villager Spotlight: Billy Le, GSMDM 2004: An Adventure of a Lifetime

Billy Le is now DO Candidate from Touro University.  He shares about how he first became interested in medicine.

July 2004 – I am sitting in an old building located deep in the remote villages of Vietnam, my native country to which I have returned for the first time since 1991 as part of the Good Samaritans Medical Ministry.  As I begin to place the blood pressure cuff on the arm of the elderly woman sitting across from me, I ask why she is here today to see the doctor.  In a sorrowful voice, she replies, “Son, my entire body is in pain, especially my back because of the hard labor that I do everyday in the fields.”  As I listen to her story, I am filled with a flood of emotions. I know that the only way to relieve her pain effectively is to have her cease working in the fields, but this is an option she cannot afford with children depending on her. There is no such thing as a retirement plan for Vietnam’s elders, which means for this woman there is no escape from the pain and sorrow.  While my time in Vietnam turned out to be one of the most emotionally, physically, and intellectually challenging times of my life, it was also the most inspiring and fulfilling, confirming the depths of my desire to become a physician, so that I might help to provide the care of which the people of my home country are so desperately in need.

The goal of our Christian missionary team was to bring hope and healing to those who have none.  During my travels across Vietnam, I was able to help treat over 5,000 patients in a very short period of time.  The weather was hot, the roads were anything but smooth, and there was little time to rest, but what made the hardships worthwhile were the faces of the people we met each day who had literally traveled hours on foot to our clinic with the hope that we would be able to help them in some small way. Their perseverance, optimism, and sense of human dignity in the face of almost unimaginably adverse circumstances bolstered my flagging spirits, and I found my frustration and sadness transformed into resolve.

During my time there, I witnessed levels of pain and suffering for which I was totally unprepared, but I also experienced the power of human connection and felt the rewards that come from giving freely of oneself in the service of others.  I left with a renewed sense of determination and purpose, knowing for sure that I have been called to the field of medicine.  It has become my deepest conviction to learn the discipline so that I can return once again to Vietnam, armed with the skills and knowledge to make a real difference in the lives of my native countrymen and women.  Vien Doan, D.O.,  Director of The Good Samaritans who I’ve known for the past few years, had a vision.  His mission statement was “For the needy will not always be forgotten.  Psalms 9:18” While I am unsure exactly where I will be ten years from today, I am certain that the needy will not have been forgotten in my heart and that I will have given, and will continue to give, all that I have to help them, one family at a time.