2017 Induction Ceremony, Awards Presentation and Reception
The University of Toledo - Health Science Campus
Howard L. Collier Building, Room 1000
April 1, 2017
7:00 – 9:30 pm
2017 Recipients:
Galilee Medical Center
Nahariya, Israel
In its essence, the word hospital represents a primal hope as it means healing!
One Israeli hospital, pridefully fulfills that mission. The Galilee Medical Center, whose vision is "People to People Medicine," is a national center of excellence and represents the highest ethical principles and humane values, reaching beyond the sectarian religious and ethnic hatreds that bloody most of the Middle East. Syria, so tragically racked by its own destructive and gory civil war, still continues to maintain its decades old hateful war with its southern neighbor, Israel, while actively supporting continuing terror against the Jewish state.
The Galilee Medical Center, a very special institution guided by its commitment to heal, has freely accepted the heavy idealistic mission of responding to the urgent medical needs of those who are sworn to its destruction and the destruction of Israel and its inhabitants. Located on the Israeli-Lebanese border, the GMC built Israel's first underground hospital in 2004, enabling provision of continuous and safe care of patients in time of war.
This vital medical practice of the Galilee Medical Center is a very special mission that; confronts and responds with idealistic care to both hatred and war wounds. This Israeli hospital and its multi-religious and ethnic staff are a few kilometers from the norther border with Syria who freely accepts the war wounded and civilian personnel who are secretly spirited across the border from the devastating conflict in Syria seeking and receiving care, hope and life.
Dr. Arie Eisenman, head of internal medicine within the Emergency Department at the Galilee Medical Center, is representing the Medical Center today and will accept their award.
The Global Medical Missions Hall of Fame is honored to recognize the Galilee Medical Center in the Class of 2017.
Donald C. Mullen, MD, M.DIV, FACS
Newnan, Georgia
Dr. Donald Mullen has devoted the last thirty years of his life to working in developing
countries around the world.
He was born in Charlotte, NC, graduated from The Citadel in 1957 and received his medical degree and completed his residency at Duke University in 1969. After 20 years as a successful cardiovascular surgeon in Charlotte and Milwaukee, who has done over 3,000 open-heart procedures and many thousands of thoracic and vascular surgeries, he obtained his Master of Divinity at Princeton Theological Seminary and was ordained in the Presbyterian Church (USA) in 1991.
In 1980, he received a call from the World Medical Mission to go to Tenwek Hospital in Kenya for a month and his life has not been the same since. He made a radical change of direction in his life, working throughout the world as a dedicated medical missionary. He has worked for the Presbyterian Church (USA), Samaritans Purse International Relief, the Christian Medical and Dental Association and as chairman of the board of the Philadelphia International Foundation. He has worked in three war zones; twice in Iraq and in Sudan and Rwanda, and in Africa, the Far East and the Middle East.
Dr. Mullen concluded his career as a Parish Associate in Highland, North Carolina, where he as also elected Mayor. He has recently published a memoir of his life, "A Radical Change of Direction; Memoir of the Spiritual Journey of a Surgeon," which is about his life before and after his defining moment of change.
The Global Medical Missions Hall of Fame is honored to recognize Dr. Donald Mullen in the Class of 2017.
Vadrevu (V.K.) Raju, MD, FRCS, FACS
Morgantown, West Virginia
For the past four decades, Dr. Raju has been on a crusade to eliminate avoidable blindness
in parts of the world plagued by poverty and poor access to medical care. Born in
India, he earned his medical degree from Andrah University and completed an ophthalmology
residency and fellowship at the Royal Eye Group of Hospitals in London, England.
He is board certified in ophthalmology and is a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons
and the American College of Surgeons. He is currently a clinical professor at West
Virginia University, the Section Chief of the Ophthalmology Department at Monongalia
General Hospital and runs a private practice.
Dr. Raju is the founder and medical director of the Eye Foundation of America (EFA). World-class state-of-the art services are rendered through traveling eye camps and permanent brick-and-motor hospitals built by the EFA including the Goutami Eye Institute that Dr. Raju helped found in 2006. Since the inception of the EFA, these camps and institutes have facilitated over 600 physician exchanges, trained more than 200 ophthalmologists, served 2 million patients and performed 300,000 vision-saving surgeries in 21 countries operating on three guiding principles: service, teaching and research.
In children, the man focus of efforts by the EFA, the gift of sight results in 75 years of a full and productive life. No child will be denied treatment and children from around the world can come to receive world-class services. Dr. Raju has said "If blindness is preventable, then let us do it big."
The Global Medical Missions Hall of Fame is honored to recognize Dr. V.K. Raju in the Class of 2017.
Lawrence V. Conway Distinguished Service Award
Anne Ruch, MD & Randall Ruch, PhD, MPH
Toledo, Ohio
Since 1998, the Ruch’s have lead short-term mission trips to Guatemala after witnessing
the deplorable conditions of the people living in a garbage dump and promising them
that they would make a meaningful difference in their community. Nine years later,
SewHope, their non-profit organization was formed which signifies the hope of Shannon
E. Wilson, a young physician who had an abounding compassion for the people of Guatemala,
who died in 2006 before her dreams could be fulfilled. SewHope now provides health
care, nutrition, education, spiritual growth and opportunity to marginalized people
in one of the most neglected parts of the world.
SewHope volunteers have helped provide clean water, safe and efficient wood stoves, community gardens and a program that provides vitamins on a daily basis to every child in seven local villages. They have also has partnered with Kids Against Hunger to distribute over one-million meals to school children, poor families and others in need including victims of floods and hurricanes in Guatemala.
The Ruch’s altruistic mission also lead them to form a local non-profit organization, Compassion Health Toledo, so they could address the healthcare shortage in a medically under-served area of Toledo. This faith-based Community Care Center accepts new patients regardless of the ability to pay, provides Spanish-speaking healthcare providers and improves access to care for patients with complex health problems who are at risk for poor health outcomes. There are plans to add dental and behavioral health services in the near future as they continue to work on the clinic located in one of the poorest areas of the city.
Their commitment to the underserved locally and abroad provides inspiration to all who care for those in need.
University of Toledo College of Medicine & Life Sciences Alumni Community Award Recipient
David Grossman, MD
Toledo, Ohio
This award, which is presented annually, is given to a UT College of Medicine & Life Sciences graduate who has provided outstanding voluntary service to their community beyond normal business or professional obligations.
Dr. David Grossman graduated in 1974 from The University of Toledo College of Medicine & Life Sciences (formerly known as the Medical College of Ohio) and completed an internship, residency and fellowship there in 1978. He began his medical career as a member of the medical staff at Toledo and St. Vincent’s Hospitals and in an internal medicine group practice.
In 1989, he began his public career working for the City of Toledo’s Board of Health, was Toledo’s Health Commissioner and then Medical Director. He was instrumental in the merger of the County and City Health Departments and in 2000, he became the Health Commissioner of the combined Toledo-Lucas County Health Department, a position that he held for sixteen years. Dr. Grossman was successful in the passage of the statewide smoking ban and in 2007, and he was awarded the Public Health Guardian Award by the Association of Ohio Health Commissioners which gives recognition to outstanding and significant activities resulting in a positive impact on public health for his work on the smoking ban hearings.
Dr. Grossman has participated in numerous boards and commissions including the Medical Advisory Board for Toledo Public Schools, Red Cross Medical Advisory Committee, Mental Health Board and the Senior Services Board. He is currently the Director of the Child & Fatality Review Team which is part of a statewide program geared at tracking and reducing child fatalities, and maintains his group practice which he started in 1978.