Wash U Med School administrator leads all-volunteer surgical missions to Central America
ST. LOUIS (KMOX) — You never know when an experience or a conversation will change your life and the lives of others.
Peggy Frisella co-founded Surgical Outreach for the Americas (SOfA) in 2008 with Dr. Brent Matthews. She had lived in Guatemala as a young nurse and brought her daughters there for their junior service project. He had done some medical mission work in Haiti and was eager to help more people in underserved countries.
Since 2008, the volunteer medical teams of SOfA have performed more than 1,300 surgeries in the Dominican Republic, El Salvador and Honduras. They’re branching out to Belize with a trip this December.
No one affiliated gets paid. It’s an all-volunteer organization. She says when they can, SOfA will pay plane fare and lodging for volunteers. They get by on donations, grants and the generosity of some medical supply companies. They hold one trivia night a year (which always sells out).
In her day job, Peggy Frisella is the manager of research operations for Washington University School of Medicine's Institute for Minimally Invasive Surgery.
Peggy Frisella: an Ordinary Person Doing Extraordinary Things!
