Keepers of a Paraguayan legacy

When Dr. Franklin Fowler and his wife Dorcas were first charged with starting a hospital in Paraguay, they could have never imagined the impact it would have or the seeds it would plant.

A son of missionaries, Franklin grew up in Argentina. He decided to pursue his college education at Carson-Newman, earning his degree in 1938, and then enrolling at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. After serving in World War II, he returned home and married Dorcas in 1946. A registered nurse, Dorcas shared Franklin’s heart of helping others in the name of Christ.

The following year, the couple was appointed as Southern Baptist missionaries and charged with traveling to Asunción, Paraguay, to build a hospital. The work of the Fowlers took hold. Baptist Hospital served as a balm for those needing medical attention in the years to come. It even saw expansion in 1995 to include a heart institute. The addition even served as the location of Paraguay’s first successful heart transplant. But that was not all. The historical, life-changing event then led to the patient coming to know Christ as their savior. Today, now operating under the name “Baptist Medical Center,” it is one of the Paraguay’s leading hospitals, now seeing over 100,000 patients annually.

Though the Fowlers both passed away in 2017, their fingerprints are still evidenced in the work at the hospital today. Another team of two, also Carson-Newman alumni, have devoted their own efforts to supporting the medical work started so many decades ago. Dr. John Chapman, Class of 1975, and David Hale, Class of 1971, have traveled annually to the country to serve others in need at the hospital.

“It is a program that has flourished,” said Chapman, describing the tremendous growth of the hospital since its humble beginnings. He cites the hospital’s many capabilities, including ophthalmology, his area of expertise. “The group there does multiple charitable cataract surgeries and retinal surgeries.”

But the growth continues to expand according to Chapman. “The hospital has a university now with over 1,300 students.” The Fowlers’ visionary spark is igniting the torches of a new generation of caregivers.

“The hospital has cutting edge technology,” noted Chapman, pointing also to its excellence in cardiac bypass surgery. “It’s been successful because the hospital has built good working relationships with the Paraguayan government and national university that is there. It is an unapparelled success story.”

For Chapman and Hale, they have written their own parts to the story. Since the early 2000s, Chapman, who was then joined by Hale, help give the gift of sight to those at the hospita

“We usually take a 1,000 or more pairs of donated glasses,” explained Chapman, who sees each patient and refracts them quickly, while Hale, who has a music background, serves as an optician, fitting them with frames. Any glasses remaining are left and dispensed by the hospital. It is a tag team effort that has proven successful for numerous return visits over the years. Chapman says he’s been blessed and has been put into a position where he can help – and that he has.

Now in his 70s, he laments that this year marks the first time in some 20 years he will not be traveling to Paraguay, pointing to the challenges of traveling, the strenuous nature of the trips, but also to multiple medical projects he’s involved with in Tennessee. But the work in Paraguay is never far from his heart.

“I have met some absolutely wonderful people on these mission trips,” he reflected. “Fellow volunteers, and many of the native people in the country. That’s going to tug at me a little bit this year when they leave to go down there.”

Though he’s not traveling southward this year, the work in Paraguay continues. Medical needs are being met. People are hearing the name of Christ. A legacy is thriving – one that breathes life into Carson-Newman’s mission statement.

Though it sits some 4,500 miles from the banks of Mossy Creek, Paraguay’s Baptist Medical Center, stands as a testament to faith, love, potential, and the impact of educated citizens and worldwide servant-leaders.