SELFLESS SURGEON
On the day that changed 7-year-old Boi’s life, he arrived at a thatched-roof hospital near his home in Mali, red dust clouds swirling from his uncle’s motorcycle. A softball-sized tumor bulged from Boi’s right cheek. The tumor had dislocated his jaw and disfigured his face, pushing his elongated mouth past his chin. He could barely drink water. Without surgery, the growing tumor would soon block his airway.
Tammy Neblock-Beirne, M.D., was in Mali with the Medical Missions Foundation when she met Boi (pronounced “Boo-uh”). MMF sends volunteer doctors and nurses to underserved communities around the world, and Neblock-Beirne — a general surgeon with Saint Luke’s Health System in Kansas City — was
