India 2008

Dr. Williams traveled to Hyderabad, India in 2008 to provide medical relief to patients. Dr. Williams recounts that people traveled from over 100 kilometers to be evaluated by the team of surgical specialists and subspecialists. Once they arrived at the hospital, patients were housed temporarily in a large conference room. There was no time to waste, as the mission team had patients waiting for exams the minute they arrived on site at the hospital.

On the last day of the trip and with 8 hours of surgery to go, with Dr. Williams recounts walking over to see how many patients were left in the conference room. During their time there, the conference room had swelled with patients.

“I remember walking in and asking the registration clerk how many people were left to be seen. With the characteristic head nod, he offered to show me. I walked into the conference room and there were hundreds of people sitting on the floor. There was no empty space in the conference room. They all stood as I walked in. Chills went down my spine and I could barely hold back my emotions. I walked through the room and touched as many people as I could, knowing well that we didn’t have time to operate on them.” Dr. Williams left and found fellow surgeon Dr. Adnan Alseidi. He took him over to see how many folks were left. We operated as long as we were able…until the buses came to pick us up to take us to the airport. The team performed 89 surgeries during the 5 days.