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Dr. Trixy Franke examines a child as a part of her residency in the pediatrics ward of Malamulo Hospital.
Dr. Trixy Franke describes a wrist in an X-ray at Malamulo Hospital Dr. Trixy Franke, who will work at a hospital or clinic in Africa, poses for a portrait at her parents' home in Stafford County on Friday. |
By CATHY DYSON
Not only did Trixy Franke choose a career that combined medicine and faith, but she also picked a husband willing to work in the wilds of Africa with her.
"I told him I wouldn't marry him unless he was," she said.
The 28-year-old still goes by her maiden name, except she has been "Dr. Franke" since she graduated from medical school in 2006.
She and her husband, Bill Colwell, visited her parents, Antoinette and John Franke of Stafford County, during Thanksgiving break.
It was the first time Franke had been home in a year and a half, but it won't be the last time the couples will be separated.
They'll have an ocean between them for the next six years.
Franke is fulfilling a quest she has had since her teen years: to bring medical care to those who need it most.
She and Colwell will work for the Adventist Health Institute in Rwanda. He'll direct the agency's programs in the east-central African country, and she'll work in a hospital or clinic.
Franke was a homeschooler who graduated from then Mary Washington College in 2001 with the highest grade-point average in her class.
She then went to medical school at Loma Linda University in California, with the agreement that her debts would be forgiven after she spent six years abroad as a medical missionary.
Franke is a Seventh-day Adventist, and Loma Linda, along with the clinics in Rwanda, are affiliated with the church.
She and her husband will head to Africa sometime after June--when she finishes her residency in Indiana.
For the past three years, Franke has worked 80-hour weeks at St. Joseph's Regional Medical Center in South Bend. She has learned about birthing babies and treating heart attacks, along with orthopedics, pediatrics and sports medicine.
She probably paid more attention to parasites and diseases of poverty than have most medical school students.
And she's had her passport stamped plenty, as she went on six missions to Africa and Asia.
Each trip convinced Franke she's headed where she's "most needed and called."
She admits she occasionally wonders if she should stay stateside and pay back her medical debts. She guesses she could do that in about three years.
"If I haven't been overseas in a while, I think maybe I should settle down and start a practice like normal people," she said. "Then I go back overseas and I enjoy it all over again."
Being in a clinic with unsteady supplies of running water, electricity and antibiotics is a challenge to the doctor, who looks so young, people politely ask her age.
She'll probably be assigned to a hospital in Rwanda's capital city of Kigali, so she expects it to have more than one microscope, which was the case at a Tanzanian clinic.
She hopes she'll be able to do basic blood tests in the hospital and give patients intravenous medicine. She says it would be great to have ultrasound equipment.
It also would be nice to have as many helping hands as possible, she said.
Eight years ago, while at Mary Washington, Franke signed up to go to Tanzania after she heard a doctor talk about his work in a clinic. She raised her own money to go there ($1,500) and spent half a year treating patients with malaria, wounds and fractures.
In case there are others who would like to follow the same path that mixes medicine and religion, Franke wants everyone to know: "I'll be accepting volunteers in Rwanda."
Cathy Dyson: 540/374-5425
Email: cdyson@freelancestar.com
