Dr. Duane Stillions is a veteran anesthesiologist with over a decade of experience as a specialist in pediatric anesthesiology with subspecialty training in cardiac anesthesia. Dua...view moreDr. Duane Stillions is a veteran anesthesiologist with over a decade of experience as a specialist in pediatric anesthesiology with subspecialty training in cardiac anesthesia. Duane Stillions has performed thousands of anesthesia procedures on patients, with a substantive percentage of those cases involving pediatric patients including children undergoing cardiac surgical procedures. Based on his experience, Dr. Duane Stillions was approached in 2007 by colleagues at the prestigious Children's National Medical Center in Washington, D.C. to join a team of physicians and other professionals who were traveling to Uganda to help local medical professionals form a pediatric heart institute at the Mulago Hospital in the city of Kampala. Duane Stillions accepted the invitation and accompanied this team which was sponsored by Samaritan's Purse and the Larry King Cardiac Foundation.
Dr. Duane Stillions served as the anesthesiologist of a much larger team of volunteer physicians, medical fellowship trainees, intensive care unit (ICU) nurses, and an entire operating room team. Much of the equipment and supplies were donated while Samaritan's Purse and the Larry King Cardiac Foundation covered remaining necessities, including the traveling expenses. While in Uganda, Dr. Duane Stillions and his fellow volunteers operated in an environment where even basic necessities were simply not available, and they saved the lives of many children during their stay.
Dr. Duane Stillions returned to Uganda repeatedly with his fellow volunteers, working under relatively poor conditions to help the young, often frightened patients while training their Ugandan colleagues in current cardiac surgical procedures and best practices. The hard work of Duane Stillions and his fellow volunteers paid off by 2009 when the open heart surgery performed on the last child under their care was done entirely by the Ugandan medical team trained by Dr. Stillions and his colleagues.
Dr. Duane Stillions has since enrolled in the Master's degree program in Health Policy and Management at the prestigious The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.view less