Dr. Eric Gokcen, an orthopedic surgeon at St. Mary Medical Center, is quite the busy guy … but he wouldn’t have it any other way.
When he’s not treating patients for foot and ankle problems in Bucks County, Gokcen can be found in Kenya, where he regularly visits for multi-month (or sometimes multi-year) medical missions to treat patients and educate Kenyan surgeons on advanced procedures.
Gokcen’s work began in the ‘90s, when the Christian Medical and Dental Association invited him to go on a short-term trip to remote areas in Russia, where he practiced general medicine. However, he was trained in and had a passion for orthopedics, and wanted to find a way to help people in this area.
Through a friend, Gokcen learned about CURE International, a Christian nonprofit that operates several charitable children’s hospitals around the world. Gokcen quickly took an interest in the Kenya location and, for his first visit, stayed for two weeks.
“I loved it. I went back the next year for three weeks. And the next year, I went for seven years,” he said with a laugh. “I just loved seeing what they were doing. They were predominantly doing pediatric orthopedics for children that had disabilities that could be surgically corrected. And I just discovered that it makes a huge difference in these kids’ lives.”
For Gokcen, this international work is extremely rewarding. While operating on one young patient, a visitor who was sitting in on the surgery explained to him that by dedicating an hour or two of his time, he’s changing a child’s entire life.
“I thought about it and I was like, ‘Wow, that’s pretty profound.’ But it does because if you don’t operate on these kids in the developing world with these deformities, they can’t walk, they can’t go to school, they can’t get a job. They usually won’t get married. They’re pretty much shunned and hidden all the time, and they end up being beggars on the street.”
In 2019, Gokcen was invited to celebrate the 10th anniversary of an Ethiopian hospital that he helped start while previously living there. At the celebration, he saw some of the kids whom he operated on a decade prior, many with their significant others and their own children in tow.
“That was really, really satisfying to see that, wow, the work I’m doing is really making a difference in these kids’ lives,” he said.
During his most recent mission, an 8-week trip throughout January and February of this year, Gokcen took along an orthopedic resident from Temple, allowing them to experience global health on a firsthand basis and maybe, someday, helm a mission trip of their own.
In addition to the resident gaining first-hand experience, so, too, are the Kenyan surgeons.
“I can go there and do a limited number of surgeries, but then when I leave, if they don’t know how to do them, then no one else is doing them,” he said.
While residing in Kenya in the mid-2000s, he helped launch a residency program there. Now, those residents are attending surgeons who are able to learn more specialty techniques each time Gokcen returns.
Sometimes, creativity and “MacGyver” thinking must be utilized, as Kenya has limited medical resources. For example, he once operated on a teenager with a painful deformity that forced her to walk on the edge of her foot. The surgery required tendon transfers in the foot and ankle, and the realignment of her bones. A 22mm screw was needed to hold everything in place, but only 12mm and 48mm screws were on hand. So, bolt cutters were used to get the larger size down to the correct length.
“No one would ever do that here, but that’s just an example of how you have to make up things as you go along,” he said.
After spending weeks, months or even years in Kenya, it’s always a little disorienting for Gokcen to return to the U.S. for a few reasons. One is the overwhelming experience of stepping foot in an American grocery store, where food is available in excess. He explained how, while Kenyans have one breakfast cereal option, Corn Flakes, Americans have dozens.
The second is returning to “first-world problems,” like the coffee maker not working and the morning being ruined because of this setback. In Kenya, many people’s problems involve just trying to survive each day.
“In Kenya, utter poverty is in your face all the time. Beggars are on the street everywhere. You can’t forget it. They don’t have a safety net like we have with welfare, even medical insurance. There’s a different level of poverty there,” he said.
Ultimately, this is why Gokcen does what he does. A firm believer in his Christian faith, he takes the message, “Love your neighbor as yourself,” to heart.
“We’re a very wealthy country, and we have the ability to be able to travel to these different areas in the world and help other places that are our ‘neighbor’ that are in need,” he said. “For others, ‘neighbor’ might mean someone local, and they should help them. If we all did something like that, then the world would certainly be a better place.”
Looking ahead, Gokcen will continue to balance his time between Bucks County and Kenya for the foreseeable future.
“As long as there’s an interest to do this, I’m gonna keep going,” he said. “I love being able to do the teaching. I love being exposed to the residents, to be able to see a different part of the world. It’s just very gratifying to be part of it.”
Samantha Bambino can be reached at sbambino@newspapermediagroup.com
