Steve Petty, MD​​​​​​​ 

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I have followed a calling to do short term medical missions work since my first year of medical school.  It was in the summer of 1976 that I had a chance to work in a clinic in Tijuana, Mexico.  I crossed over the border each    day from San Diego, to work in a small children’s hospital for the poor people of the area.  It was that summer  that it struck me that although the need for medical care in the USA is profound, the need is far greater in        other countries. This thought stuck with me through my medical school years, and I got a chance to go on a    second project in 1979.                                                                                                                                                       

     This second trip took place in the Dominican Republic, to the west of Santo Domingo, where I spent two      weeks working on an Eye Project for the poor people of that area.  People came from all over the region, and    many of them actually “camped” in line for days, sleeping and eating in line, in hopes of being able to get the  care that they needed. During those 2 weeks over 20,000 patients were seen, with 500 surgeries performed,  and several thousand pairs of glasses distributed.  This project could only be achieved with the help of a large  medical team, and I learned on that trip just how much work could be achieved in a short period of time with  the proper medical team in place.                                                                                                                                     

     This trip was instrumental in fostering a desire in me to dedicate part of my time each year to medical          missions.  Since 1979 I have participated in over 100 trips as a Retina/Vitreous specialist.  These trips have         ranged from one week to ten weeks in length, with most being one to two week trips.  Some of the trips have been like the one described above, but as the years have gone on I have been more and more committed to      trips which involve teaching my specialty to doctors living outside the USA.  I have helped teach numerous        physicians how to do retinal surgery, by visiting them over and over again, teaching a little at a time, until the  doctor has become proficient in retinal surgery and laser procedures.                                                                        

     I have also taught in fellowship and residency programs in my home state of Colorado, as a clinical                professor, as well as in several other countries, in an effort to educate others in retina work.  I have taught in  a number of countries including the Dominican Republic, Honduras, Mexico, Peru, Ecuador, China, Nigeria,          Rwanda, and Azerbaijan. I received a national award from the Azeri government for helping to educate the first retina specialist in that country, and received the Outstanding Humanitarian Award from the American              Academy of Ophthalmology in 2017. I have contributed to the education of the first retina specialist in            several  countries, through my teaching in training programs in the Dominican Republic, Honduras, and            Mexico.                                                                                                                                                                                  

    Almost all of these trips have been paid for out of my own pocket, but I have also done some fund raising to help pay for the expensive equipment needed to take care of retina problems. I am very grateful to the              physicians of Colorado who have donated the the money required to purchase numerous retina instruments.  

    Because of the huge need that is present in other countries for medical care, I have encouraged other            doctors to participate in these projects and have accompanied numerous residents-in-training as well as other doctors on their first trips to international projects to try to get more people interested in international              medicine.  I have also hosted foreign doctors in my home so that they could come and observe how medicine  is practiced in the USA.                                                                                                                                                        

    In the last 30 years I have served on the board of directors of a mission hospital in Honduras and also served on the international board of directors for Medical Ministry International.                                                                  

    To become more active in medical missions I decided to retire from private practice at the end of 2016.  I      have been able to go on several trips in 2016, 2017, and 2018, and I hope to continue my work into the            future.