Dr. Gradwell and his family are home safe from the medical/dental mission trip to Malawi, Africa. He started the portable dental clinic 4 years ago and it has grown to 3 chairs and 2 working dental units. The units run by a generator purchased by Dr. Gradwell in 2018. A far cry from the plastic patio chair and a headlamp when he first went.
Dr. Gradwell saw 283 patients in the Kalina Clinic in Zomba providence in Malawi. He has a passion for outreach and is blessed to be on this team. Villages in Partnership is the non-profit organization that sponsors the medical team. This year we saw 5,502 patients in total. God has worked through each person on the team to achieve such a wonderful goal.
One of the patients was a 97-year-old woman that they treated in the back of a land cruiser because she was too weak to enter the clinic area. She required an extraction of a severely infected tooth and given antibiotics. (Picture below)
They did village home visits where locals were given blankets and clothing. Dr. Gradwell’s son, Sean was especially moved by this as seen in one of the photos below.
Another photo below is of Dr. Gradwell cleaning one of the dental therapist’s teeth. Titus is a dental therapist who works for the Malawian government. On these mission trips, Titus, works VIP and volunteers his time to help treat the needs of the dental patients in the village.
Fortunately, right now it is winter in Africa so the temps hovered in the 70’s. It was a perfect temperature to work and helped keep us all busy during our daily clinics.
