Surgeon-entrepreneur and founder of The Surgicalist Group, Dr. Mit Desai, CEO, returned to India recently on a second mission trip for the non-profit, Band-Aid Foundation, a charity serving those without access to medical care through various professional health care volunteers. A great majority of India's population lacks proper access and the means to provide for health care, and so what might be considered a routine procedure in the United States, is difficult for most to come by. Through this charitable foundation, Dr. Desai, and a team of surgeon colleagues, travel to remote regions of India to perform surgical procedures such as hernia repairs, hysterectomies, appendectomies, and breast biopsies.

During this most recent trip, Dr. Desai aided a local hospital in Borsad, a city of 63,377 has 61% unemployment, and the number of patients needing surgery far exceeded the number of available surgeons. In just a few days' time, several individuals who would have otherwise not been able to have surgery, benefitted from these charitable surgical services.

"In India, a hernia can impair a person's livelihood, and their family for whom they provide also suffers," remarked Dr. Desai. "Just one hernia repair can impact dozens of lives. Often times these patients are labour workers and due to pain cannot work to provide for their families. By repairing their hernias, they can return to work and put food on the table."

When he founded his inpatient acute surgery organization, The Surgicalist Group, in 2007, Dr. Desai wanted better care for patients requiring emergent and urgent surgery. He found patients often went days, sometimes weeks, without the proper medical attention they needed based on the general surgeon's availability. And so, from the catalyst to begin a new standard of care, emerged core values that are cornerstones of The Surgicalist Group – compassion and stewardship. These core values are also what will draw Dr. Desai to continue providing mission work in India. In a place where healthcare is not a right, surgeons truly can impact hundreds of lives in one visit.