Dr. Helen Kornblum started the non-profit mission organization AMIGA
RICHMOND HEIGHTS, MO – SSM St. Mary’s Health Center’s Helen Kornblum, M.D., leaves on a medical mission trip with the non-profit organization AMIGA, which she founded. She will be accompanied by SSM St. Mary’s Nurse Practitioner Fiona Aronberg, R.N., two physicians from Boston, Mass., and a nurse from Kansas City, Kan. The mission teams leaves for Honduras tomorrow, Oct. 26, and returns late Nov. 11.
A Mission in God’s Amore (AMIGA) – The beginning
When Dr. Kornblum agreed to visit a new clinic in Honduras in 2005, she had no idea how much it would alter her life. On her first visit, a girl about 5 years old traveled six hours with her mother to have an abscess excised. Or as a young nurse put it, “She is here to have the worms cut out of her head.” And with only one small dose of lidocaine available, the young girl held still for the procedure.
Four months later, Dr. Kornblum returned and insisted on visiting the young girl, who lived in a remote mountain village in a house with a thatch roof.
“I was determined to understand how this could happen,” said Dr. Kornblum, who once at the house ended up seeing 100 patients from the mountainous region. The next visit, she saw 200. As a result, Dr. Kornblum left emergency medicine and returned to internal medicine, joining the IPC hospitalists at SSM St. Mary’s Health Center, where she also completed her residency. Then in 2007, she co-founded A Mission In God’s Amore (AMIGA) with Sr. Raquel Ortez of the Sisters of Notre Dame, who is originally from Honduras.
“Sister Raquel gave me a tremendous perspective on the culture, helping me understand the patients,” said Dr. Kornblum.
In January 2011, Dr. Kornblum escorted her thirteenth group to Honduras where AMIGA now has a house to accommodate the 15-20 high school, college or medical resident students who assist each trip. Dr. Kornblum and her group treat patients with parasitic and skin diseases, asthma, diabetes, gynecological conditions, hypertension and musculoskeletal conditions.
“In a week’s time, we’ll see about 1,000 patients,” said Dr. Kornblum. “People will walk for hours, wait for hours and be grateful for a bag of vitamins and a bar of soap.”
With her own funds, whatever she can get donated and the help of the Our Lady of Perpetual Help parish in San Antonio, Texas, Dr. Kornblum and Sr. Raquel travel 2-3 times per year on medical brigades and preparatory trips to help their patients in the region of La Lima, Honduras.
“We spend a lot of time educating people,” said Dr. Kornblum. “We also give scholarships to deserving young students with little opportunity for education who make good grades, help AMIGA and serve the community.”
“You touch one life... and you don’t know what that one life will go on to do,” said Dr. Kornblum. “The practice of medicine is a great privilege. I am just an instrument of God’s work through me.”
Learn more about AMIGA at http://www.HondurasAMIGA.com.
About SSM St. Mary’s Health Center
Conveniently located in Richmond Heights, Mo., SSM St. Mary's Health Center is a contemporary, 525-bed hospital with distinctive capabilities in high-risk obstetrical services, fetal surgery, state-of-the-art heart surgery, a chest pain center, advanced stroke care, and the latest imaging and outpatient services. Also a teaching hospital, SSM St. Mary’s Health Center is home to an accredited internal medicine residency program and to Saint Louis University School of Medicine’s Obstetrics/Gynecology and Family Practice residency programs. SSM St. Mary's Health Center is winner of the Premier QUEST High Performing Hospital award. It is a member of SSM Health Care – St. Louis, a Missouri Quality Award winner. To learn more, visit www.ssmhealth.com/stmarys.
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