PARAMUS, NJ — For the sixth year in a row, Dr. Al and Sue Phillips have led a group of Medical Professionals and volunteers on a 10 day Medical Mission trip to Armenia. This year the group was quite large with 40 volunteers and 6 Armenian translators. The team consisted of 3 physicians, 1 physician assistant, 4 nurses, 1 dentist, 1 lab technician and many willing workers. The majority of the team members arrived in Yerevan on June 19, 2014 and spent the weekend touring the city and outlying areas. They also attended the Sunday Worship Service at the Evangelical Church of Armenia on Baghramyan Street in Yerevan.
The first two days the clinic was set up in the Armenian Evangelical Church of Vanadzor, where patients came from Tumanyan, Spitak, Shirakamut, Gyumri, Dilijan, Ijevan, and Alaverdi.
Following Vanadzor, the team travelled to Stepanavan and set up the clinic in the Social Services Center of the Armenian Missionary Association of America (AMAA) and Evangelical Church in Stepanavan.
Each patient that came through the clinic entered through the triage section. First the patient’s vital signs were obtained and urine screened for diabetes and kidney disorders. The patient’s medical history was obtained by our nurses and medical students. If necessary, an EKG or lab work was obtained. From triage, the patient was sent to the physicians. Here each was examined and medications prescribed. They then went to the pharmacy where their prescriptions were filled and were consulted on how to properly take the medication. While the patients waited, lectures on medical topics were given by our nurse educator and they were educated on smoking cessation, diabetes and proper eating. This year we had with us a dentist who educated and treated with fluoride the children and young adults. As in the past, reading glasses were also distributed to those with poor vision. This year the Team reached an all-time high record for number of patients seen by physicians: 1,005. If included those seen by the dentist and those who just wanted glasses, over 1,250 patients were impacted in the one week.
At the conclusion of the week, the Team returned to Yerevan via Lake Sevan and went to Echmiadzin and Khor Virap and had a celebration banquet, recounting the miraculous ways how God worked among the people the Team members saw and how God touched the team members personally a
This year there were some exciting advances in the Team’s ability to care for the patients. First, a very generous donation was received to purchase an EKG machine and two professional quality blood pressure machines. Second, over the last year, the AMAA staff in Armenia had scanned all the medical records of patients seen over the past five years. Surveying these records it was surprising to know that up until this year over 2,500 people had received medical treatment. With this year’s mission, that number exceeds 3,500.
The Medical Mission Team has been blessed to have an operating budget from the AMAA to purchase medications to provide a one year supply to the patients.
The Team will return to Armenia in June 2015 for their seventh mission trip. Please consider monetarily supporting this mission. All donations are specifically used for purchasing supplies and medications. If you want to serve, it is not required that you are a medical professional, but that you only have a servant’s heart. To get more information and an application, please see the link to the Medical Mission website on the left column at amaa.org.
AMAA's 6th Medical Mission Trip To Armenia
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