THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, December 3, 1995 TAG: 9512020147
SECTION: PORTSMOUTH CURRENTS PAGE: 23 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ALICIA MAXEY, CORRESPONDENT
LENGTH: Medium: 87 lines
Not many people would sell their home, most of their belongings and travel a world away to help others.
But that's exactly what Doris McGirt is doing.
McGirt is a member of Physicians for Peace, a Norfolk-based organization that promotes international friendships through medicine.
Formerly a cardiovascular clinical nurse specialist for Sentara Norfolk General Hospital, McGirt now works for Pacesetter Inc., an international company that makes permanent heart pacemakers.
For 2 1/2 years, she has volunteered to travel to distant lands, such as Egypt, Yemen, Jordan, Jerusalem and Bosnia to help heal the indigent and casualties of wars.
She has distributed more than $800,000 worth of pacemakers and related equipment from Pacesetter to patients during these missions.
On Nov. 28, she closed on her 2 1/2-story home on Webster Avenue. She will spend the next five months at her family's homestead in North Carolina. She plans to save every penny she makes from Pacesetter to spend abroad.
By May, she will know where she'll be headed. It could be Tuzla. It could be Bosnia to assist doctors there in starting an open-heart surgery program or the Middle East to work with physicians in Cairo.
McGirt said she is both sad and happy to be leaving Portsmouth, a city she's called home for almost seven years.
She first moved to the area in 1986 to work at Norfolk General Hospital.
Three years later, she accepted a position with the California-based Pacesetter and she is now responsible for the northeastern region of the United States.
Her sadness comes with leaving her 85-year-old Park View house that she's devoted much of her free time to renovating for the past seven years.
She is also parting company with two of her five cats and many close friends.
``It's going to be difficult leaving Portsmouth,'' McGirt said recently as she sat at a table in her dining room surrounded by moving boxes. ``It's been wonderful. I tear up just thinking about it.
``It's been a great seven years,'' she said. ``Actually, it's been the best seven years of my life.''
But at 40, the prospect of fulfilling a lifelong dream to be a medical missionary makes her green eyes sparkle with delight.
As a youngster, McGirt was an avid reader, who often read books about medical missionaries.
``I was always fascinated by what they did,'' McGirt said.
Raised on a farm in Rowland, N.C., where tobacco, soybeans, cotton, corn and oats were cultivated. She was surrounded by animals, including cows, hogs, dogs and cats. She was raised by her mother, along with an older brother and sister. Her father died just weeks before her second birthday.
``I enjoyed caring for the animals and somehow that developed into wanting to be a nurse. I couldn't wait to grow up and be a nurse. I was so impatient,'' McGirt said .
But after 20 years of nursing, McGirt is ready for the rest of her dream. In addition to becoming a full-time medical missionary, she also will continue to work for Pacesetter, and for other international medical equipment companies, as an overseas consultant.
``She'll do fine. And the patients and the doctors will be the winners,'' said Louisa Nye, a freelance writer and former nurse at Sentara Norfolk General Hospital who helps organize the Physicians for Peace missions.
McGirt has traveled on peace missions with Nye and her husband, Glenn, a cardiologist, more than once. Together, they have been to Yemen, twice; Egypt, a bunch of times; and twice to Jordan and Palestine, Louisa Nye said.
``It takes a tremendous amount of courage, number one, to change your life like that,'' Nye said. ``For Doris, it's the next step in her life. She's not giving up anything, she's moving forward.''
Gail T. Kelley, the program's director, agreed.
``She represents the best ideals of medicine and humanitarianism,'' Kelley said. ``Not only is she following her heart, she's doing this from her heart.
``There's no doubt that she will jump into any project 100 percent,'' Kelley said. ``She'll bring meaning to anybody or any program in any country that offers her opportunities in health care.''
``I've just decided to leave it all and go and do what I want to do - to work and not make money,'' McGirt said with a smile. ``All I can think about is: I'm lucky, so I can help.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photo by GAIL T. KELLEY
Doris McGirt, right, stands ready to assist nurse Zdenka Slukova,
center, with a cardiac patient in Yemen.
by CNB