BJIT MISSION: TO IMPROVE THE LIVES WE SERVE … IN FRANKLIN, TENNESSEE AND CENTRAL AMERICA

It really is our mission statement. In March of 2018 when we founded the Bone and Joint Institute of Tennessee, the surgeon partners sat down and developed the following mission statement: To improve the lives we serve through superior, patient-centered, orthopaedic care.

Sure, it was intended to be the mission statement for the practice, but it is also a way of life.

We strive each and every day to serve our patients in Franklin and those who travel to visit us with the highest level of care. Our goal is that every patient who walks through our doors leaves with a clear path forward to healing and confidence in their care. While we’re dedicated to our practice in Franklin, we also believe our mission calls us to help other communities whose residents may not have access to the level of care the Bone and Joint Institute is able to provide.

One of our colleagues at Williamson Medical Center connected us with Mission UpReach, an organization serving patients without any current access to orthopaedic care. Recently, in partnership with Mission Upreach, Dr. Chris Stark (my partner), Lyndsay Sullivan (our business development officer), 13 other highly trained professionals and I traveled to Gracias, Lempira, Honduras, for a weeklong orthopaedic surgical mission trip.

This area of western Honduras is second in poverty only to remote parts of Haiti. The need is great.

There, we were able to provide orthopaedic care – including knee scopes, shoulder scopes, rotator cuff repairs, ACL reconstructions and more – to people who would otherwise have zero access to care. We partnered with and operated in a local public hospital. The medical staff there were essential to our mission. I wish I could name them all. Thank you is not enough.

While orthopaedic surgeons do work in this hospital year-round, due to lack of equipment and inadequate exposure to the latest techniques, the only orthopaedic surgeries performed there are typically emergency trauma cases.

Because of the generous donations of surgical equipment by Williamson Medical Center (including arthroscopic cameras, pumps and tourniquets), the first knee scope ever was done at the Juan Manuel Galvez Hospital in Gracias, Lempira, Honduras, on Sunday, Oct. 30, 2018, during our first MissionUpreach Orthopaedic Surgical Brigade. As the surgeon for the case, I knew this marked only the beginning of something amazing.

During our second and most recent Orthopaedic Surgical Brigade trip to Honduras, Sept. 28 to Oct, 5, 2019, we were able to evaluate over 80 patients and perform nearly 50 surgeries. While there, we dedicated ourselves to the patients, strove to educate the local staff, and tried to make a difference in the lives of each person we met both physically and spiritually. The work was hard. The hours were long. But the reward – and I mean for us – was overwhelming.

To have the opportunity to share our Bone and Joint Institute of Tennessee mission with the great people of Honduras is something for which I will be forever grateful. We are just starting this important work, and are planning future trips. Follow us on this amazing journey.

– Dr. Cory Calendine See pictures from both MissionUpreach Orthopaedic Surgical Brigades on Facebook @CoryCalendineMD