The results speak for themselves. During that same mission, we met a 15-year-old boy—tachycardic, febrile, and struggling to breathe. He had been sick for days, but like so many others in the village, he had no access to diagnostic imaging, no way to determine the cause of his worsening condition. Within minutes, our residents used teleguided ultrasound, connecting him to expertise nearly 2,000 miles away, and diagnosed him with an empyema—potentially from an oncologic source.
Explore This Issue
ACEP Now: April Digital 02-DWithout this technology, he would have gone undiagnosed—his condition left to worsen until it was too late. But because of the Emergency Project’s approach, not only were we able to initiate his treatment immediately, but we also sponsored his access to follow-up care—offering him a chance he otherwise wouldn’t have had.
In a world where two-thirds of humanity lacks access to basic diagnostic imaging, what we accomplished that day was more than just a single saved life—it was proof of what is possible. It was a glimpse into the future of global health, where the right tools in the right hands can turn “too late” into a story of survival.
Thanks to Envision’s commitment to global health, the Emergency Project’s missions reflect a level of social responsibility rarely seen in U.S. health care. By supporting initiatives like these, they’re not just investing in global health—they’re investing in the well-being of their own clinicians and humanity. Envision’s partnership in these missions have sponsored initiatives spanning across five continents–utilizing the skills of their clinicians to the furthest reaches.
Dr. Bryan Luu reflected on his experience as a first-time volunteer with the Emergency Project and how it helped him to renew his passion and calling to be an emergency physician as a senior resident:
“Working in a hospital day after day can become monotonous and impersonal. You see the same walls; you become burdened with catching up on charting, and you even get used to the recurrent pathology of your presenting patient population. My experience in Guatemala was a shock to that routine. The practice of medicine was different. For patients who were too incapacitated to come to the clinic, we even made home visits in the mountains. We made diagnoses and treated unfamiliar pathologies with less resources, and it was invigorating. For example, diagnosing an empyema on a 15-year-old while performing a POCUS ECHO that may have saved his life all while working closely with local community members deeply involved with making the clinic sustainable. At the end of the day, I realized that the team became my community there. Ultimately, I felt the experience refreshed and refocused my attitude towards medicine when I returned to the States.”
Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 | Single Page
One Response to “Rekindling the Fire in Emergency Medicine”
April 27, 2025
Thomas Giberson, DO, FACEPIt is impportant to realize what a great honor it is to care for those who need us. If we live our lives accepting that honor,then we don’t need the outer gratification any more. what is missing in Emergency Medicine is the time to connect to our patients. I would suggest picking up a few shifts in Urgnt Care clinics. Yes, it’s seeing runny noses, etc, but it is also diagnosing Avute liupus nepritis and pulmonaru edema. Our skills developed over a lifetime of emergency care can help to pick up subtle findings FP’s would miss. I expect evey room I walk into has someone in it just waiting to die. It’s the acute meningitis that looks like every other URI, or the PE when everyone has a URI. We KNOW those people and know how to find them. When demanding the opportunity to connect with people we can exercise the cution we were trained to use. That is the voice of 43 years of Emergency Medicine in high volume-high acuity care. Burnout, which I have also experienced, is coming out of every room thinling we hate people. It is no more than transfering the inner suffering we feel by being pushed too far too fast to make money for someone else. Each of our patients become an invisible curse who are named illnesses rather than an MIT graduate engineer or crust 45 year old woman who is a train conductor and serves as the engineeer for return trips, the 17 year old woman who is a diesel mechanic, or the illiterate 75 year old who worked his butt off who has been married for 55 years and put all of his children through college becaue it was a goal too farr for him to ever reach. Go to another country and see the desparate lives people live because they have zero opportunity or care for the peole here who are given the opportunities and spit on that opportunity. Either way, you can still find the gratification kn owing it is an hoor to care for people who have zero opportunity. The cause of our suffering is not outside each of us, it lives within ourselves. We are honorable men and women of courage, integrity, deep compassion, and commintment who see, know, and feel too much while being pushed to do more with less time (half of which is documentation) for sicker, more vulnerable, patients who have become society’s throw-aways. You go to work to care for the homeless, addicts, alcoholics, irreponsible people – thos who need us. You see and feel the children beaten to death, or young mothers who are dead because of a drunk driver, and the elderly who are dumped in a nursing home to become wards of the state. And when it is donme, at the end of the day, we ask ourseles “what the hell was that about?” Our souls are depleted by those who try to drag it from us. But we go bak to work the next day. And going back each day is an act of great compassion because you see the need and have the drive to meet those needs. Take great pride in that, becaause it is a great honor to be given the chance to exercise that compassion. You have the gift of being able to do what we do and it has been an incredible honor to have worked along side sme of you.