David H. Beyda, M.D.

David H. Beyda, M.D. began his interest in third world medicine when he was 15 years old. His father was a Foreign Service career diplomat with the US State Department. Dr. Beyda lived overseas from the time he was seven years old until he attended college. He grew up in East Africa, moved to North Africa, attended boarding school in Rome Italy, and spent over 15 years in Southeast Asia, specifically Laos and Cambodia. At the age of 15 he was working with Operation Brotherhood a Filipino surgical unit in northern Laos, assisting with surgery. At the age of 17 he was working closely with the Tom Dooley medical group in the northern part of Laos on the Burma boarder.

He worked as a “rice kicker” (kicking out supplies of an airplane at low altitude) with Air America, now known as a CIA run operation delivering medicine, food, and personnel to remote villages in the northern part of Laos and Cambodia. It was during that time that he developed an interest in becoming a pilot and was fortunate enough to have Air America pilots train him. He received his pilot's license in 1972, and is currently a member of the Flying Samaritans of Arizona and flies his plane to a medical clinic in Mexico with them. He also flies with Mission Aviation Fellowship in Cambodia transporting part of the Medical Mercy medical team to different areas of Cambodia.

He attended Loyola Stritch School of Medicine and did a pediatric residency at the University of Louisville Kosair Children’s Hospital. As a resident in pediatrics, he was asked by the International Rescue Committee associated with the United Nations High Commission for Refugees to head the pediatric section of a refugee camp in Cambodia in 1978. He was selected because of his past experience with third world medicine in Southeast Asia.

Upon finishing his fellowship in pediatric critical care at Johns Hopkins University, he moved to Phoenix, Arizona and served as the Division Chief and Medical Director of the pediatric intensive the care unit at Phoenix Children's Hospital for 24 years. In January of 2005, he resigned that position in order to dedicate as much time as possible to Medical Mercy delivering medical care to Forgotten Children. He currently is a full-time pediatric intensivist at Phoenix Children's Hospital and when he is not on service he travels as Medical Director of Medical Mercy on behalf of Mission of Mercy. He makes as many as 11 trips a year, six or seven of which are leading medical teams to different countries and the others are scouting and assessment trips of new countries for future medical team involvement.

“Medical Mercy” (MM) was established by Dr. David H. Beyda after Don Christensen, a board member of Mission of Mercy (MOM) approached him to evaluate the medical needs of MOM children in Cambodia. Kelly Ramsland, RN had been working with Don Christensen to find a physician to help direct medical care for MoM children, and has been Dr. Beyda’s partner in sending MM around the world. MM is an arm of MOM and serves the “Forgotten Children” who are sponsored by MOM. After 2 assessment trips there, he took the very first MM medical team to Cambodia and saw over 2000 patients 5 days. It became clear that the medical needs reached beyond those of the MOM children, and extended to their families and the villages in which they lived. He subsequently took back 8 more teams in one year and saw over 11,000 patients in Cambodia. Medical Mercy was born.

Dr. Beyda also developed a one week, comprehensive course, to train lay people such as teachers and missionaries, to become “Healthcare workers”. The course he developed, takes a lay person from knowing little about medicine, to becoming proficient in physical examination, illness recognition, CPR certification, first aid certification, and proficiency in starting medications for common and potentially life threatening illnesses. They are instrumental in following up patient care in villages where patients can’t come to the city or medical clinics. He has trained Healthcare workers in Cambodia and Swaziland.

Since 2004, MM has been traveling to many countries, and in just 3 years, Dr. Beyda has built medical clinics in Cambodia, Egypt and Swaziland. He has taken MM teams to over 6 countries, held over 22 medical clinics, and has visited and put in place medical care in over 11 countries, with MM teams scheduled to travel to each of them.

Medical Mercy is dedicating to caring for the Forgotten Children, through our efforts in delivering medical care, and insuring that they live to their potential. We are blessed to be able to serve.

Please visit Dr. Beyda’s blog site and go through the archives to see what Medical Mercy does: www.medicalmercy.blogspot.com

To contact Dr. Beyda, email dbeyda@mindspring.com.