She is an Associate Dean of Academic Programs, Affiliations, and Undergraduate Medical Education and Surgery at the Morehouse University School of Medicine. She also serves as the President and Founder of Surgery on Sunday Louisville. I hope and believe she'll be talking about that because that's really impressive. It's a nonprofit that provides free surgery for people who are uninsured or underinsured. With more than 500 volunteers, Surgery on Sunday has provided surgical care for more than 800 people in Kentucky, Indiana, Massachusetts, and Georgia. She has a medical degree from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Welcome, Dr. Sutton. So I was in clinic between patients when my phone rang. It was Whitney Jones, an energetic colleague who always has something exciting on his mind and an impassioned pitch on his lips. Lexington has this program, Surgery on Sunday. They're doing free colonoscopies for people who don't have insurance and we need it in Louisville. We need a medical director. Would you be willing to do this? I promise. He said it just like that. Of course, Whitney, whatever you need. I learned that if you say that to him, you will be both wildly challenged and wildly inspired for years. We pitched the idea to the Greater Louisville Medical Society, boldly saying that we are moving forward because it is the right thing to do. They have been on our board and side ever since. Three months later, we were in the endoscopy suite of then Jewish Hospital, providing free care to 10 patients in our community. I was struck by a few things. In addition to being patients, the people to whom we were providing care were family members related to my colleagues with whom I worked and who volunteered for this day's event. One patient had previously been paralyzed to inaction from fear because they had lost an older sibling to colon cancer and served as the caregiver to a second sibling with stage three colon cancer. We were uncovering not only individuals, but families who needed access to care. Russ Williams and Whitney Jones carried that day and together they removed nearly 30 polyps and completely cured one cancer. The day ended at noon, but I knew we would never stop doing this. 15 months later, we were offering our first no-cost surgical procedures. That event was only our third ever. That event was to be our biggest. We were performing 14 colonoscopies and three surgical procedures. We had volunteers of every kind needed to run one operating room and three endosuites. I knew my role as surgeon very well, but as the head of a nonprofit, I was less scripted. I was learning by doing. Sometimes I knew precisely the way forward. Sometimes I was taking direction as I was pointing out the way. For each and every event, I felt an enormous responsibility for the safety of each patient, the quality of the care delivered and the satisfaction of every volunteer. On this day, I had to give my full attention to pulling off a successful day of volunteerism and had no attention left for self-doubt. By noon, volunteers from the hospital and I were cleaning the endoscopy suite and several board members were managing anesthesia records and specimens. As the patients and volunteers left the facility one by one, unharmed and pleased, we received as many thank yous as we had given. Patients and families expressed gratitude for our service. They hugged us, they prayed for us, they encouraged us. When the day ended, we felt enormously valued. This month marks our 10-year anniversary. The nonprofit has grown. We now function in three cities, Louisville, Kentucky, Atlanta, Georgia, and Columbus, Georgia. We've received local and national awards. We've sponsored a national conference on health equity and literacy in colon cancer. The organization has functioned on a range of $300 per year to $100,000 per year. But what defines every year of those 10 is the passion of the people who do the work and who make the work possible. Every year is marked by committed people committing again and choosing to make a way rather than lamenting the absence of a path. 300 patients have undergone 267 procedures. We have welcomed over 500 volunteers and six hospital systems as partners. We have a clinic that operates at least monthly directed by medical student trainees. We've shared our model with five states who are developing similar programs. Still, I feel most accomplished when I get a call or a text message from a physician in the community about a patient who needs our help. I realize in those moments that others see us as we have sought to be seen, as advocates and champions for accessible surgical care. To begin, you need only one friend to call another friend with an energetic mind and passion in their hearts and on their lips for change. Thank you.

Dr. Sutton

Associate Dean

Morehouse University School of Medicine

Surgery on Sunday Louisville

nonprofit organization