Medical mission from Fresno offering life saving care in Armenia

Your Central Valley, CA
Sept 28 2021



by: Stefani Booroojian

Posted: Sep 28, 2021 / 07:35 PM PDT / Updated: Sep 28, 2021 / 07:45 PM PDT

FRESNO, Calif. (KSEE) – The sixth medical mission from Fresno to the country of Armenia is underway. A team of forty doctors and medical experts will spend two weeks providing free care to people who need it. Berj Apkarian, the Honorary Consul for the Republic of Armenia in Fresno, is the mission leader. “Our agenda is full. our efforts is fruitful,” Apkarian says.

A first stop for the doctors: a history lesson at the Armenian Genocide Monument in Yerevan dedicated to the one and a half million Armenians who lost their lives in the 1915 genocide. Apkarian says it’s important that the mission begins with that visit. “Make them aware that crime against humanity is unacceptable. Not only against Armenians, against any nation,” he says.

An important focus of this mission trip is treating soldiers wounded in last year’s war with neighboring Azerbaijan. Physical therapists are on the team this year, as well as surgeons. Ear, nose and throat specialist Dr. Brien Tonkinson of Fresno saw 54 patients on his first day. According to Apkarian, “He was so tired at the end of the day yet people kept coming from the different villages and Brien was with this big heart and compassion– he did not want to turn any patients down.”

While covid is a concern, Apkarian says the team is taking all the necessary precautions. He says the doctors are determined to do what they came to do. “They just want to see patients. They want to deliver the care. They want to meet their own expectation and be gratified with that,” he says.

The team is already planning for next year’s medical mission– year seven. They hope to be joined by doctors from other countries, making it a truly international effort.

Emil Lazarian

“I should like to see any power of the world destroy this race, this small tribe of unimportant people, whose wars have all been fought and lost, whose structures have crumbled, literature is unread, music is unheard, and prayers are no more answered. Go ahead, destroy Armenia . See if you can do it. Send them into the desert without bread or water. Burn their homes and churches. Then see if they will not laugh, sing and pray again. For when two of them meet anywhere in the world, see if they will not create a New Armenia.” - WS