We are back with a story of the second physician team to visit the Wongchhu Sherpa Memorial Hospital with the University of Nevada Reno Wilderness Medicine Fellowship program started by Dr. Tony Islas. (We wrote about the first here.)

We are super happy to have an update by Dr. Bridget Martinez. She, along with Dr. Donald Harker, visited and worked at the hospital with our superstar leader of the hospital, Dr. Gyaltsen Gurung

Here is Bridget’s tale of their journey and time at our most special place, the Wongchhu Sherpa Memorial Hospital. You’ll also hear a few thoughts from Dr. Gyaltsen Gurung, at the bottom.

Donald and Bridget with the Wongchhu Peak Promotion team of Binod Mani and Lakpa Sherpa and Arjun, the city tour guide, in Kathmandu

An Interview with Dr. Bridget Martinez

Musa: Tell us a bit about yourself.

Dr. Martinez: Devoid of any educational direction, my American Dream arose from my tenacity to pursue higher education. I started out in a community college attending full time during the day and working graveyard shifts at Kaiser Permanente’s specimen processing center to provide for myself. 

After transferring to university, I completed my first doctorate degree (PhD) in the field of Molecular and Cellular Biology and Comparative Endocrinology. As a comparative physiologist, my research focused on expanding our knowledge of the evolution of endocrine systems in prolonged fasting-adapted mammals. 

Throughout my time as a Directors’ Funded Post-Doctoral scholar at the National Lab in Los Alamos, I helped develop unique imaging modalities that could aid in the early detection of tumorigenesis, or cancer.  The practice of medicine was always a natural and complementary aspect of my scientific curiosity, therefore I also put myself through medical school. 

After starting residency as a Family Medicine Physician, I decided to complete my second PhD in Basque studies, deciphering unique hematological curiosities with impactful immunological implications. 

I also founded Mimir’s Well-ness, a research and development company that is focused on creating novel and unique lifesaving medical devices and groundbreaking medical discoveries. My first invention was created out of necessity and need to protect our most vulnerable population.

Bridget and Donald performing a patient exam with Dr. Gyaltsen Gurung in his office with the Musa paint scheme

Musa: How did you become involved with this project?

Dr. Martinez: I became involved in this program through the wilderness medicine fellowship at the University of Nevada, Reno. Dr Islas, director for the Wilderness fellowship, was also a longtime friend of the late Wongchhu Sherpa, whose dream was to provide a hospital for his home village, which his daughter ensured came true.  We were honored and privileged to be part of this mission. 

Musa: Have you worked in remote locations before?

Dr. Martinez: This was the first time that I traveled to such a remote location. I have, however, lived in Egypt, South Korea, Japan, Italy, Mexico, New Zealand for extended periods of time to carry out research on cancer, genetics, and comparative endocrinology. I have also practiced medicine in the rural USA, specifically Elko Nevada, where we also face limitations in access to healthcare, albeit to a very different extent.

Bridget with Phula Sherpa and the students of the Wongchhu Sherpa Children’s Hostel

Musa: How did you get to the hospital – a bit on the journey?

Dr. Martinez: We traveled through a planned 4-day trek that began after an 11-hour car ride from Kathmandu. This exciting trip was of course physically strenuous, and comprised of multiple musculoskeletal injuries and complete exhaustion which led us through a unique spiritual awareness. (A favorite sentence! Awesome, Bridget!)

This physically trying adventure to get to the hospital where we would serve others, left us vulnerable to the philosophy that is Buddhism, we embraced this state of flux by accepting that even as doctors we are human and susceptible to pain and disease.

Musa: First impressions?

Dr. Martinez: Wow! What a thriving and passionate community. Hard working and compassionate people working together in spite of such limitations in resources. Limitless and bountiful natural beauty all around us, coupled with tremendous hospitality in every tea house we rested in.

Musa: What were your feelings about this before you got there?

Dr. Martinez: There is certainly a level of nervousness and anxiety surrounding potential physical limitations. As two young physicians who are not active trekkers or even hikers for that matter, we worried our physical limitations would overshadow the medical work we were there to provide. In the end, the physical and strenuous experience pushed and challenged us in ways we had not seen coming and humbled our narrative and lives even more than we could have ever imagined. 

Musa: What were your objectives with this visit?

Dr. Martinez: Objectives of this visit were to serve an underserved population with limited access to healthcare and limited resources by playing to our strengths and our training through the University of Reno Nevada school of medicine to appropriately diagnose and provide access to care. He worked alongside the hospitalist to promote the wellbeing of all the patients we saw.  In addition, other objectives of this visit were to explore diseases specific to this population so that we could better understand alternative treatments and disease outcomes.

Bridget and Donald with a patient at the Wongchhu Sherpa Memorial Hospital

Musa: Tell us about a day there.

Dr. Martinez: Nourishing our bodies with delicious handmade momos that our incredible guide handmade himself, watching him roll out the dough, and bonding over amazing food and culture, discussing our lives and meaning over strong Raksi (home brew!) and sharing our common humanity. 

Musa: Give us a bit of insight into working with the staff.

Dr. Martinez: Any great healthcare facilities is driven by the people who embodied submission in its vision, Wongchhu hospital was no exception, it is made up of passionate staff who care about their contributions to this very underserved population.  It was an honor to work alongside them to provide excellent medical care in this setting. The late Wongchhu Sherpa would be very proud of such an incredible and well equipped facility serving his friends and relatives.

Musa: What sticks with you about the visit?

Dr. Martinez: Perhaps the most astonishing non-bleeding aspect of his rotation was to health disparities too difficult to overlook.  We had patients who learned about our stay at the hospital coming to visit from hours away and had reached the hospital by walking, we exhausted all resources to provide them with the best level of care that we could, given the resources of the hospital.  And we were so extremely humbled by their presence.

Musa: Tell us a bit about what you did away from the hospital.

Dr. Martinez: We became very engaged in the local culture, attempted to learn important language terms/words and  we discovered the power of Dal bhat and momos!!!

Musa: Anything we did not cover you would like to talk about?

Dr. Martinez: I am so very grateful for the opportunity to be able to help this population, and I look forward to more opportunities in the not-too-distant future. 

All my best,
Bridget Martinez, MD, PhD
CEO of Mimir’s Well-ness

Thoughts from Dr. Gyaltsen Gurung

We asked Dr. Gyaltsen Gurung for a few words on our hospital visitor. Here is what he had to say. 

Dr. Gurung: It has been almost two years now that I have been working at this wonderful hospital, built with kindness and love of many great people around the world. I am always proud to be part of this noble walk of the late Wongchhu Sherpa. 

As I am the only doctor at the hospital, if I am not there we may be failing to provide the best quality care to the patient even when we are using telemedicine. So seeing more volunteer doctors would be really helpful and grateful.

It was a very short visit of Dr. Bridget and Dr. Donald at our hospital, but it was really helpful and impactful. They are great doctors showing kindness and care to our patients. The volunteer doctors are so very helpful.