Dr. Joseph Agris knows what it’s like when it’s 120 degrees in the Swat Valley, the area on the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan, where he recently spent a month. But unlike the U.S. troops who are stationed in the region, he was not fighting a war against the Taliban and Al-Qaeda. He was fighting against childhood deformities and injuries that leave children isolated and ostracized in their small villages.
“We did 500 surgeries in a month,” Dr. Agris says. “Cleft lips, cleft palates, deformed ears, hands, faces. It’s a rural area, so we got a lot of farm injuries, cooking burns, and donkey bites.”
His trip included treating the children of 25 warlords. “I never asked if they were Taliban or Al-Qaeda,” he says. “All I asked of them is if I was treating their kid, that they would watch my back.”
For 35 years, Dr. Agris has been on a mission to alleviate the suffering of children all over the world. Through his foundation, The Children’s Fund, he’s served in 36 countries, including Nicaragua, Guatemala, Honduras, Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Russia, China, and Vietnam. Typically, he goes on four medical-mission trips a year, on teams of physicians and nurses numbering from 8 to 40.
Currently, he and his team are waiting for clearance from the U.S. government to travel to Haiti to treat the victims of the earthquake.
It all started at a ballgame
It was a visit to the Astrodome that prompted Dr. Agris’s first medical mission abroad. In the conference center next to the Astrodome, he saw a sign that said “Mission Trips.”
“Most of them were affiliated with churches — Lutheran, Baptist, you know. But then I saw a sign that said, ‘Physicians Needed’ and I thought, ‘Hey, I need to talk to them.’ They were looking for a group to go down to a very small town in Nicaragua, and so I told the guy, ‘Okay, let’s put a team together and go.’”
Dr. Agris ended up traveling to Nicaragua several times, and later formed The Children’s Fund with a local TV anchorman, Marvin Zindler. The Children’s Fund raises money to fund the medical-mission trips.
It turns out that his specialty — plastic surgery — is one that is particularly well suited for medical missions. “People think of plastic surgery as only cosmetic, but it’s a little bit of everything. Plastic surgery has the longest training period of any specialty. That’s because we’re expected to fix anything, anyplace, anywhere.”
Taking the long route
Dr. Agris didn’t set out to become a plastic surgeon. He first earned an undergraduate degree in engineering, and then went on to dental school at Temple University School of Dentistry.
At that time, 45 years ago, dentists couldn’t write a prescription or get operating times at hospitals. Dr. Agris wanted to do more. So he attended Albany Medical College and completed his surgical residency at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. He went on to complete a general-surgery residency at Jefferson University Medical Center in Philadelphia and a plastic-surgery residency at the University of Michigan Medical Center.
While it was a long road, Dr. Agris doesn’t regret the experience. His years in medical school and residencies, and his time in the military from 1969-71, gave him valuable hands-on experience.
After finishing his education, Dr. Agris was recruited to teach at the Baylor College of Medicine, where he still teaches. He also has his own practice, the Agris Cosmetic Center, in Houston.
At his practice, he’s had the opportunity to further hone his plastic surgery skills. About one third of his patients are local, one third are from other parts of the United States, and one third are from all over the world. “You’re a one-person team,” Dr. Agris says of owning a solo practice. That’s why he advises younger physicians who are starting a practice to make sure they have the right insurance, like long-term disability and office overhead insurance. Physicians, in treating patients, see firsthand the devastating effects an injury can have on a person’s life. But sometimes they don’t realize something unexpected can happen to them, too. “I know a [physician] who fell off a tractor and had a back injury and it was a year before he could get back to work,” Dr. Agris says. “He couldn’t keep paying his bills after about three months — there was nothing coming in. He finally had to close up shop. You don’t want that to happen.”
Not slowing down
While he enjoys treating patients at his practice in Houston, Dr. Agris tends not to stay put in one place for very long. At publication time, he was on his way to Dubai, Jordan, Israel, and France.
At some point, he and his team will go back to the Swat Valley to treat more patients and follow up on ones they’ve already treated. “When you come back on the second trip you get to see what changes have taken place — not just from the surgery, but within the family. Instead of being isolated, the kid’s in school, and he’s playful with other kids. You see the smile on the mother’s face. It’s not just about healing the patient — it’s healing the family and the community. It’s really neat.”
It’s those experiences that keep Dr. Agris going strong at age 70. And he doesn’t plan on slowing down any time soon. “God’s been good to me. I don’t have a single medical thing wrong with me. I’ll probably die in the operating room!”
If you’d like to contribute to the The Children’s Fund, donations can be made to: The Agris-Zindler Children’s Fund, 6560 Fannin Street, Suite 1730, Houston, TX, 77030. The Children’s Fund also accepts stuffed animals, small toys, and school supplies to give to the children after surgery. If you’d like to join Dr. Agris on a mission trip, contact him at 713.797.1700.