All That Counts Can’t Always Be Counted

US Missioners are one of the bridges that connect our US community to our partners and patients in South America. Through the shared lexicon of medicine, they develop partnerships across languages and cultures and are transformed by their experiences. 

General Surgery Mission Trip, Aiquile, February 2012.

Each year at our Fiesta gala, we honor one missioner who has gone above and beyond, exemplifying the spirit of solidarity that distinguishes our mission. Last month, our 2022 Solidarity Award was presented to general surgeon and ten-time missioner Dr. John Gregory. 

John has made multiple tangible contributions to expand access to surgery in Bolivia. He helped found our General Surgery Program, taking leading roles on trips to Cochabamba every year between 2010 and 2016 to mentor his Bolivian peers in minimally invasive surgical techniques. More recently, he helped establish our program’s new focus on surgical oncology during mission trips to the Cancer Institute of Eastern Bolivia.

Over the years, John also recruited half-a-dozen of his colleagues at Billings Clinic in Montana to join him on trips to Bolivia, including anesthesiologists, surgeons, PAs, and others. He has inspired dozens more as well as various medical product distributors to join him in this work through in-kind and financial donations. In this way, John has helped procure well over a quarter of a million dollars’ worth of high-quality, specialized surgical equipment and supplies—much of which he himself packed and hand-carried to Bolivia. 

That is a brief recap of John’s tangible contributions to our mission. But it doesn’t fully capture who John is for Solidarity Bridge, for his fellow missioners, for our Bolivian partner doctors or our patients.

General Surgery Mission Trip, Cochabamba, 2014.

Missioner Solidarity Award Winners

Enrique Via-Reque, MD
John Watson, MD
Jeff Shaw
Kate Scott, RN
Bruce Leech
Beatrice Ramirez
Isaac Goff
Richard Moser, MD
Dan Yousif, MD
Kurt Florian
Fr. Bob Oldershaw
Danielle Lum, MD
Bob LaPata, MD
Margaret Flanagan
Malcolm Bilimoria, MD
Gay Garrett, MD
Jay Herrmann, MD
John Gregory, MD

Everyone who knows John knows that he is a master at listening, whether it’s listening to his Bolivian counterpart detailing the complex history of a cancer patient, or to a patient describing not only the specific throb of his physical pain but also his desperate hope to recover his health and go home to his family. John listens deeply, and has a gift for centering us on what is important. He is not one to claim he has the right answer, but rather often knows the right question to ask. He seeks the best for the patient, and for the team. And although he may hold back his words, he doesn’t limit the hours on his feet in the O.R., giving every ounce of his abilities to serve others.

Accepting the award at Fiesta, John shared the following reflection: “A lot of us in health care are afflicted by metrics, this notion that any activity that can be measured and quantified will lead to better outcomes, better decisions. But of course we know that all that can be counted might not count, and all that counts can’t be counted. We’ve all seen that when Solidarity Bridge and Puente de Solidaridad get together, the only thing that counts is love…. I thank you all who have contributed so much to allow me and my companeros to—we hope—do God’s will.” 

Thank you John. It has been our blessing to count on you!