10/09/2026
Answering the Call: A CRNA’s Journey to Zambia by Fred Fesel
“When the end comes for you, let it find you climbing new mountains, not sliding down old ones,” said Les Brown, a motivational speaker. Surgicorps International allowed me to climb my new mountain—Zambia.
"Getting there wasn’t easy. There were two long flights and a layover that stretched into the night by the time I reached Lusaka, Zambia’s capital city. By then, I’d lost track of how many time zones and how many hours of sleep I’d left behind. And I knew the trip home would be just as grueling. But somewhere between the exhausted travel the first morning at Beit CURE Hospital, all faded into the background. I realized this was exactly where I was supposed to be.
I volunteer with Surgicorps International, an organization that’s sent surgical teams into underserved communities around the world for decades, and, honestly, the more trips I take with them, the more impressed I am with their operation. Surgicorps doesn’t just show up and leave—they build relationships with local hospitals like Beit CURE, they bring the right people and the right equipment, and they run these missions with a level of care and organization that makes it possible for volunteers like me to actually focus on patients instead of logistics. As a CRNA, that matters. I need to trust the team around me, and Surgicorps has never given me a reason not to.
What keeps me going through those long hours is the team. There’s a camaraderie on these trips that’s hard to find anywhere else. Surgeons, nurses, techs, and anesthetists from all over, thrown together on the hospital campus, all leaning on each other to get through each day....
Read the full story on our website: https://surgicorps.org/2026/10/09/answering-the-call-a-crnas-journey-to-zambia-by-fred-fesel/
