Wayne State alumni help transform lives on surgical mission trip to Africa

Team Michigan included five surgeons, four CRNAs, and nine incredible nurses and scrub techs. All donated their time, skills, and heart to serve.

Wayne State University trains health professionals to step into real-world conditions to adapt, lead and care for patients, no matter the setting. That preparation has taken faculty, staff and alumni far beyond Midtown, improving health outcomes in communities around the globe.

Wayne State doctors and nurses operate in an African operating room, where power failures are common. In these unpredictable conditions, the hands-on, high-intensity training they received at WSU proves critical when fundamentals matter most.

In October, six Wayne State alumni - representing three campus colleges and schools - traveled nearly 24 hours from Michigan to Techiman, Ghana. They joined Team Michigan through Operation International, a nonprofit surgical mission group that brings medical volunteers into underserved communities across the world. In less than five days of surgery, they helped complete 94 free operations for patients with conditions ranging from thyroid goiters to congenital abnormalities.

The volunteers included College of Nursing alumnae Megan Bird, B.S.N. '22, BS '20; Paige Nolfo, B.S.N. '20; and Lisa Naz, B.S.N. '10, as well as nurse anesthetists Amanda Dunn, B.S.N. '04, and her husband, Jim Dunn, DNAP '22, from the Eugene Applebaum College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences. The group included one School of Medicine alumnus, Dr. Michael Busuito, BS '76, MD '81, a plastic surgeon who also serves on Wayne State's Board of Governors, along with Dr. Attasit "Dr. Choke" Chokechanachaisakul, a general surgeon and clinical assistant professor in the Michael and Marian Ilitch Department of Surgery.

The teamwork became a striking example of Wayne State's reach and interdisciplinary expertise. These alumni came from different graduating classes, different programs and different paths. Yet, in some cases, they met thousands of miles away, united by the same training, the same mission and the same desire to serve.

"It makes sense now," said Naz, a veteran of 21 mission trips. "You see how people carry themselves. How they think under pressure. How they care for patients. Then you find out you all came from Wayne State. You feel proud. You feel connected."

Dr. Busuito holds the hand of a child with a congenital condition where two or more fingers are joined. In Techiman, 94 patients received care from WSU alumni that changed their lives.

Naz has worked in the operating rooms at St. John Hospital in Detroit since 2013 and has spent 15 years as a nurse. She completed her Wayne State degree as a nontraditional student who fought her way through long prerequisites, tight admissions and demanding clinicals. Bird, Nolfo and the Dunns took different routes, but they each credit Wayne State for preparing them to walk into complex, unpredictable situations like the ones they faced in Africa. In an operating environment where lights flicker, equipment is limited and pressure never lets up, the fundamentals matter. Wayne State's hands-on, high-intensity education often becomes the difference maker.

"You can tell when someone comes from a program that pushed them," Naz said. "Wayne State pushes you. That becomes part of who you are."

Team Michigan landed in Ghana on a Friday night and began the drive north to Holy Family Catholic Hospital in Techiman the next morning. They unpacked supplies that afternoon and started surgeries on Sunday. Resources were thin. Some operating rooms were bright and modern, while others had windows that didn't close. At night, mosquitoes dotted the walls. Several rooms held two surgeries at once, separated only by makeshift curtains.

"You work with what is there," Naz said. "You work harder. You rely on each other."

Before the team arrived, local surgeons screened patients and sent case notes to Dr. Choke, who reviewed everything and assigned cases to the appropriate specialists. Even with careful planning, one photo sent on Tuesday changed the week. It showed a 38-year-old man with an 85-pound mass hanging from his lower abdomen - a condition he had lived with since his teens. No local hospital had the training or equipment to attempt the surgery.

When the image reached the group, everything stopped.

"Dr. Busuito took one look at that picture and said, 'This is happening,'" Naz said. "He rearranged the schedule. He knew what it would mean for that man's life."

A few days after the Michigan nurses and doctors returned home, they received this photo of a smiling 38-year-old man who had life-changing surgery to remove an 85-pound mass from his lower abdomen. "He was grateful in a way that stays with you," Lisa Naz said. "That is why we go there."

For Dr. Busuito, the decision was simple.

"We're trained to help people, and what better way is there to use that?" he said later. "I think we get more out of it than they do. When you go to places where they don't have the expertise or technology, you know you've provided something they would never have had. You always come back feeling much better than when you went."

He has been on "a couple dozen" missions - to the Philippines, Mexico and now Africa - and says the unexpected is simply part of the work.

"Word starts to spread," Dr. Busuito said. "I've been on a couple dozen of these and they always come walking in, saying, 'Hey, we heard about this team.' This man wasn't unique in that regard."

Even the makeup of the team struck Dr. Busuito. One night over dinner, he asked where everyone went to school. "Wayne State. Wayne State. Wayne State," he said was the reply. "I said, 'You've got to be kidding me. This is a Wayne State trip!'"

The operation for the man with the 85-pound mass stretched from Wednesday afternoon into early Thursday. Nurses rotated in and out. Local surgeons filled the room to watch and learn. When the mass finally came off, the man could stand straight again and could sleep without pain. Days later, the team received a photo of him smiling. His posture, face and life had all changed.

"He was grateful in a way that stays with you," Naz said. "That is why we go there."

Not every surgery was dramatic. Some patients arrived with long-neglected hernias, cysts or deformities that had been treatable for years but ignored due to cost or access. Others needed smaller procedures that still carried big meaning. Every case reinforced what the Wayne State alumni already knew: skill matters, compassion matters and preparation matters. That preparation began in Detroit. Wayne State trains students to navigate high-volume clinical settings, solve problems under pressure, and adapt to real-world conditions.

Naz sees it every day when she trains new operating room nurses.

Wayne State College of Nursing alumnae (L-R) Megan Bird, Lisa Naz, and Paige Nolfo outside of the Holy Family Catholic Hospital in Techiman, Ghana.

"In Detroit right now, patients can start to feel like numbers," she said. "You have to remember who you're taking care of. In Africa, that never gets lost. When I come home, I bring that back. I tell the younger nurses, 'This is someone's mother or sister or friend. One day it'll be me on that table, so you better be ready.'"

The team finished surgeries on Thursday and left Techiman the next day. Many traveled on to Kenya for a short decompression trip, something Naz encourages because it gives everyone time to process what they witnessed. By the time they reached home, they had been gone for 13 days.

For Naz, the work in Ghana reminded her why she became a nurse in the first place - caring for her grandfather and discovering how meaningful it felt to make someone safe and comfortable. Mission work has only deepened that sense of purpose.

"These trips fill your soul," she said. "You give everything you have, and somehow you come home with even more."

In Techiman, the outcome was clear: 94 patients received care that changed their lives. And a team of Wayne State professionals stood at the center - steady, prepared and proud of where they came from.