A heart for healing

Some high school graduates hit the beach after graduation, but not Mountain Brook High School’s Laney Smith.

She’s headed to the heart of the Dominican Republic, where she will be embedded among the people of Sabana Grande de Boyá. It’s part of a mission trip with Medical Ministry International where she will help deliver both life-saving and routine medical care.

Medical Ministry International helps deliver medical aid to more than half a million people each year through the organization’s health centers, project teams and residency training programs, according to its website.

For two weeks, Smith will do her part to help deliver that aid, taking vitals from villagers, assisting in basic medical care and creating relationships. 

Smith’s grandfather, Dr. James “Jimbo” Smith, a retired surgeon, also will be part of the trip, helping deliver surgical aid in and around Sabana Grande. Dr. Smith travels to the Dominican Republic four times a year, according to Smith’s mother, Ashley. 

This will be Smith’s second trip to the Dominican Republic, where she said she hopes to only expand on her previous experience. Her first trip was with a mission trip the summer before her senior year. Smith said she first learned about the opportunity to participate in the mission trip after her older brother, George, went on the trip years ago. Because of her interest in both the medical field and in learning Spanish, Smith said the opportunity was too good to pass up. 

“It was definitely incredible,” Smith said of her first experience. “It was like nothing I had ever experienced before.”

She only knew her grandfather during that first trip, but Smith said the people she met influenced the rest of her life. 

“The people I met made the experience so great,” she said. “It was inspiring to see them caring so much about what they were doing. They were out there every single day helping people in ways no one else can. It was truly eye-opening.”

Along with her grandfather, the team Smith traveled with included doctors, dentists, nurses, medical students and other volunteers.  

Each day, Smith would accompany the team to a different village in the Sabana Grande de Boyá area where they would create a makeshift clinic in a school or church building. The team would treat patients for diabetes, the mosquito-borne Chikungunya viral disease and other ailments. A traveling pharmacy was crucial to the work performed, Smith said.

“In some of the areas we visited, it’s not as easy as going to the CVS … to get the headache or long-term medicine they need,” she said. “The pharmacy was able to deliver medicine the people needed but had no access to.”

The dentists on the team performed a large number of tooth extractions, Smith said. They also gave demonstrations and lectures on proper oral hygiene. 

Smith said she helped with duties such as taking vitals, giving talks on topics such as how to brush your teeth and how to remove parasites from water, along with other vital, daily tasks that would help ensure better overall health. Smith also worked to play with the patients’ children while parents received medical care, or so they could pay attention to health lessons. 

While Smith traveled with the team of doctors and dentists, Dr. Smith stayed behind at the local hospital, where he would perform surgeries including hernia, keloid scar, benign tumor and gallbladder removals. An OB-GYN on staff also performed a hysterectomy, Smith said. Dr. Smith and the other surgeons operated on patients who had been either referred to the clinic by the team or had heard about MMI’s work in the area and made their way there on their own. 

“They did some pretty incredible things,” Smith said. 

When she travels back this summer, Smith said she’d like to spend more time working in the hospital. Though she loved working in the villages where she got to see all types of patients, Smith said she’d like to learn from her grandfather as he works in the field she hopes to soon pursue. 

“I’m definitely very interested in becoming a surgeon,” she said. 

Smith, who has always been more of a numbers-and-science person in school, said the experience cemented her resolve to study medicine and become a surgeon so she can continue to deliver the type of medical aid she’s witnessed her grandfather and the team of doctors and dentists deliver. 

Along with returning to the Dominican Republic, Smith said she’d like to also travel to countries in South America where she can capitalize on her other passion: Spanish.

Learning Spanish has always been an interest, but Smith said her determination to master the language strengthened over her past summer abroad, where she used it every day to communicate.

“I love Spanish, [I] have a passion for it. But it was this past summer when I really began to realize how crucial knowing Spanish can be in the medical field,” Smith said. “When I went to the Dominican Republic, I was able to see the point of learning it. It’s incredible to learn a different language and be able to communicate with people about something as important as their health.”

If all goes to plan, Smith, who took AP Spanish in her last year at MBHS, will be fluent in the next few years. 

“I’d like to study abroad in South America when I’m in college,” she said. “I’m interested in going to Argentina, going to explore and to help assist.”

Eventually, Smith said she’d like to become involved with Doctors Without Borders.

“Instead of being a bystander, I could use skills I learned in medical school to help people,” she said.

Her journey to medical school will begin in August, when she will travel to Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Virginia. There, she hopes to double major in Spanish and neuroscience. Smith said she will also be part of the women’s soccer team — a sport she has been playing for as long as she can remember. On National Signing Day, Feb. 3, Smith signed her college commitment letter to play for Washington and Lee. 

“We’re really proud of her development,” said Birmingham United Soccer Association coach Andrew Brower. “I couldn’t be happier for her for just doing a great job and continuing to get better.”

MMI was founded in 1968 and works in more than 23 countries. In 2014, the organization provided health care services worth more than $170 million to 668,475 people throughout the world who typically would have had limited or no access to medical services, the organization’s website said.

For more information, visit medicalministrytrips.org.