Local registered nurse Amy Deluhery provided local anesthesia as the rest of her team performed dental extractions.
For years, Marlton resident Amy Deluhery knew she wanted to give back. Using her clinical experience at Rowan College at Burlington County, she decided a medical mission trip would be an ideal endeavor for personal and professional enrichment.
Initially unsure when that opportunity would come, the registered nurse had one laid right in her lap in the fall of 2023, when a patient pitched the idea to Deluhery to join her and 30 individuals from her church on a trip to Guatemala to provide medical assistance to the citizens of a rural village.
A few months later, in March 2024, Deluhery was off to Central America. In Taxisco, a town two hours outside Guatemala City, Deluhery faced long days and temperatures exceeding 90 degrees in brick rooms without air conditioning. With the help of water, Gatorade and determination, the team worked tirelessly for eight days.
Separate makeshift clinics were set up for each volunteer’s specialty, including nursing, pharmacy and psychology, along with Deluhery and her dental team’s clinic. Prospective patients waited patiently for their appointment under a cool, shaded tent, and the younger ones played games in the field.
When it was their turn, Deluhery – using her clinical experience – provided local anesthesia while the rest of her team performed extractions.
Back home in the U.S., Deluhery volunteers every year at Rowan’s Give Kids a Smile Day, an event that provides free dental care to underserved children; the latest one was held during the first week of February. Deluhery said she knows how important it is to help those impacted by restricted access to health care, and unfortunately, in rural Guatemala, that is often the case.
“It was a very eye-opening experience,” Deluhery recounted. “It made me realize that we have so much here in (the U.S.), which, unfortunately, not all countries have … It felt good to help them. But also, they were just such joyful people, and helping them gave me a lot of joy back.”
During the mission trip – when she sweated through her scrubs as she worked – Deluhery maintained motivation through the trip’s leader, Barry Graf, who helped her take on each day with his morning huddles and insightful reviews of the day after dinner.
Especially admirable were Graf’s management skills; the way he expertly planned, organized, and deployed a medical mission trip with 30 people in a foreign country thousands of miles away left such an influence on Deluhery that she wrote a paper about him for a class at her current college, Thomas Edison State University.
“Empowerment through motivational communication was clearly seen throughout Barry’s management and directive leadership styles,” Deluhery explained in her essay. “Both traits are essential in such a powerful event, especially when long, hot and exhausting days are involved.”
At the culmination of the trip, Deluhery felt she “learned a lot of leadership and development skills.” Back home, as she studies for a bachelor’s degree in health science and works at Marlton Dental Care, she said she will use those skills to conduct something on a more local, state level.
“And then,” she added, “I would definitely love to attend another medical mission trip in the future.”
