Dr. Cathy Bishop: an extraordinary medical philanthropist

Dr. Cathy Bishop vividly recalls the incredibly hot and humid day in the jungle of Peru and the beautiful and loving eyes of the 10-year-old girl she treated near there, not far from the Andes Mountains. The girl's grandmother had brought the youngster to a medical clinic near the Aguaytia River where Dr. Bishop and others were providing medical care.

But the physician from Chillicothe was hardly prepared for what she eventually discovered. While examining the girl, Bishop found the child was missing several toes and fingers, and suffering from a severe leg deformity, which the grandmother explained were the result of the girl's mother trying to abort the child years before.

Despite the cruelties, Dr. Bishop said, "you saw the want and desire in her eyes to be more than a crippled child." It is experiences like this that have prompted Bishop to participate in medical missions to some of the most remote parts of the world.

Recently, Bishop, a medical staff member at Adena Health System who practices at Adena Senior Health, was honored as the 2009 Philanthropist of the Year by the American Academy of Family Physicians. The event was held at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in Boston. A few months earlier, she was honored as the Ohio Academy of Family Physicians (OAFP) Philanthropist of the Year.

"She's a shining example to others," said Julie Mask of the OAFP. There's no doubt, she said, that Bishop's medical philanthropy set her apart from others ­ in Ohio and across the U.S.  Not only does she provide free medical care on her mission trips, she pays her own way to the missions in which she works.

"She is a perfect example that in giving you receive," said Dr. Sarah Sams, OAFP president-elect. "Bishop has the 'heart of a family physician' and her compassionate nature is a reminder of what we should all strive for as the best in our profession."

Not surprisingly, Bishop was on a medical mission when she learned about winning the national award. After traveling for several hours in a taxi, without air conditioning, to Pucalpa Airport in Peru, and her flight home, she managed to check her e-mail only to learn of the award. "The news was one of my first e-mails," she said.

Mask said it was only fitting that Bishop was away on a mission when she learned about her special honor. However, Bishop downplays the recognition, insisting that more people should look to ways of helping others.

Nine years ago, she became part of GO InterNational, which she calls "my passion." GO InterNational is a non-denominational Christian-based group that provides short-term missions across the United States, as well as to about 10 countries across the world.

"I've been involved with them since 2001 and have gone on seven mission trips with them to India, Honduras, Nicaragua and Peru," Bishop said. A former partner in her Chillicothe medical practice, Dr. Larry Frick, who inspired Bishop to join the organization, is the medical mission's director of GO InterNational.

One of the group's purposes is to help expand churches in the areas it serves, she said, and one of the ways that is being done is with the help of doctors and dentists.

"If you build a church, nobody will come. But if you have a doctor and a dentist sitting there, everybody comes. As people reach out for medical and dental help, church leaders are on hand to provide spiritual help," she said.

In the past two years, Bishop has visited Peru four times. But this year's most recent visit, she said, was "one of the most eye-opening experiences for me in the last 10 years."

She was attending to the sick and injured in a jungle area near the Aguaytia River, a tributary of the Amazon River.  It took her and a group of American and Peruvian doctors, dentists and nurses three hours, riding in taxis, to reach the mission in Aguaytia.

The road is partially paved, but mostly rock and dirt, and the temperature was about 110 degrees. Fortunately, they were able to use a school with running water and electricity to see patients. "It was heaven sent," Bishop said.

The second area she visited is Chincha, a city of about 250,000 people 70 percent of whom lost their homes in the earthquakes of 2007.  Since the devastation, the government of Peru, with help from GO InterNational, has worked together to rebuild homes, schools and churches in the area. As part of the effort, "feeding stations" have been erected ­ areas where children, in particular, can get a hot meal once a week.

But families travel from many miles away for medical and dental help. "The longest distance traveled that I know of was a small family of four who came eight hours down the Aguaytia River by small boat to our clinic," Bishop recalled.

The medical missionaries spent four days in the area and cared for 750 patients, of all ages, she said. It was in this area that Bishop treated Sophia, the 10-year-old girl.

 "As you start to look at her, you notice that she doesn't have full fingers or full toes, and she has webbed hands." Bishop was so moved, she and others were trying to get help for the young girl, "if we even find her again." If they can't help her, the physician dreads what will happen to her.

"She has little-to-no hope of living a normal life. She could not walk without assistance and could not perform many of the activities that you and I take for granted ­ dressing, toileting, grooming and bathing. She will probably never marry, have children, go to school or hold down a job. And her parents have no role in her life."

The girl and her grandmother live in the Andes Mountains, a remote part of the world not unlike so many other areas that are being helped by missionaries.

"We don't call it a Third World country, we call it a Two-Thirds World country because two-thirds of the world is this kind of population," Bishop explained.

"These folks don't have running water and they don't have indoor plumbing. They don't have electricity and they don't have just the basic needs."

Bishop said her experience with the people of Peru and the other countries she has visited has caused her to treat her patients in Chillicothe much differently.

"I look at people as a whole and I try to treat them as a whole ­ physically, spiritually and emotionally. By doing these mission trips, I can come back and share with my patients not only the crisis I have seen in the rest of the world, but also how good we really have it."

"Everybody has circumstances that influence how we feel. The stress that people in this country have right now with this economy is not that much different from the stress that a young mother in Peru has when she's trying to find food for her baby," she said.

"The gift Dr. Bishop has in caring for others is exactly the type of patient-centered philosophy we expect from our physicians at Adena," stated John Fortney, MD, Chief Medical Officer.  "On behalf of the Adena  edical

Group, we are certainly proud of Dr. Bishop's accomplishments not only with her patients here locally, but also for her efforts all around the world in caring for those who aren't as fortunate.  We extend to her many congratulations with this most accomplished and deserving honor."

Dr. Bishop, who has been with Adena Health System since 1997, received her medical degree from the West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine.  She completed her internship at Ohio Valley Medical Center in Wheeling, W. Va., and residency in Family Medicine at Geisinger Medical Center.  In addition, she also has a Master's in Education from the West Virginia University.

Dr. Bishop is a Fellow of the American Academy of Physicians and is Past President of the Ohio Academy of Family Physicians.  In addition, she is Medical Director at long-term care facilities Traditions and Heartland in Chillicothe, is on the Board of Directors of GO International, and in January 2010 will be the Board Chair of the Core Content of Family Medicine.

"What an honor for Dr. Bishop to receive this national recognition," stated Mark Shuter, President and Chief Executive Officer of Adena Health System.

"We are quite proud to have someone of Dr. Bishop's caliber as a part of our organization to represent the kind of values that we strive to deliver each and every day.  She is a shining example of our guiding principle from the book of Matthew, "Do Unto Others as You Would Have Them Do Unto You."