Photo By Staff Sgt. Madeline Herzog | Dr. Glenn Gloria, Medische Zending Primary Health Care Center (MZ PHC) physician,...... read more read more
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BROWNSWEG, Suriname – In the rainforest town of Brownsweg, where roads fade into jungle and hospitals are hours away, the weight of entire communities’ health care rests on one doctor.
Dr. Glenn Gloria is the sole physician for the Medische Zending Primary Health Care Center. He sees patients day in and day out, manages administrative duties and responds to emergencies as they arise, without pause.
“I am always on call, so there is never truly a break,” he said. “If there are no patients, I guess that's my break.”
As part of the Lesser Antilles Medical Assistance Team (LAMAT) 2026 mission, U.S. Air Force Reserve medical teams traveled to multiple locations in Suriname in an effort to bring medical care closer to communities while strengthening ties between local and international teams.
Soft spoken and kind, Gloria grew up in the Philippines, earned his medical degree and quickly decided that traveling the world to help others was part of his path.
“I've always been the odd man out,” said Gloria. “I tend to choose the path where few people go. Probably because of my sense of adventure. I've worked in Egypt before, in Malaysia… I've been exposed to dealing with a lot of different cultures and kinds of people.”
Working in a small town on the edge of the Amazon Rainforest is not an easy task, and with the nearest hospital at least a few hours away, Gloria is forced to make difficult choices every day.
“For most part, it's challenging,” he said. “I’m the only doctor on site and there are months that I am alone. There are times where teams come over and those moments are of great help for me.”
During one of those periods, Gloria was joined by U.S. Air Force medical personnel as part of LAMAT 2026, integrating directly into the clinic to expand care and share the workload.
“He’s an impressive doctor,” said Dr. Kirk Garcia-Rios, 434th Aerospace Medicine Squadron primary care physician. “He obviously is someone that makes a lot of extreme sacrifices.”
On the first day of seeing patients, Garcia-Rios witnessed the reality of those sacrifices firsthand.
“He had an emergency the first day and had to take a child two hours away,” said Garcia-Rios. “Dr. Gloria had to decide if this emergency was really serious and if this kid was going to die if he didn’t get him to a hospital.”
Gloria made the decision to transport the patient, leaving the clinic in the hands of his staff and the visiting Air Force medical team.
“He didn’t have the tools that I would have to make that decision,” Garcia-Rios said. “I basically took over the clinic when he left and saw the patients. I felt that he had faith and trust in me. He wasn’t constantly checking on me and he felt comfortable with it.”
For Gloria, having additional providers on site, even temporarily, allows him to divide the workload in ways that are rarely possible.
“When there are other doctors here, the work is divided,” said Gloria. “I trust that Dr. Garcia knows how to care for the patients. I can focus on other things, like administrative work, while they see patients.”
Operating in a resource-limited environment means Gloria must rely on clinical judgment without the tools many physicians depend on elsewhere.
“We provide basic healthcare, maternal care, vaccinations, prenatal checkups,” said Gloria. “But for serious cases, we have to send them to the city.”
While Brownsweg may feel remote to outsiders, Gloria sees it differently.
“This is not really a rural area,” he said. “It’s a small town, but there’s still a lot of activity, further south is where it becomes truly remote.”
For visiting providers like Garcia-Rios, the experience highlights both the resilience required to work in such an environment and the importance of continued support.
“You’ve got the security blanket in the U.S. that you don’t really have here,” he said. “You have to make do with what you’ve got.”
As the LAMAT 2026 mission concludes, its impact is clear: patients received care, workloads were shared, and providers like Gloria gained critical support. The demand for care in remote communities like Brownsweg, however, remains.
“As long as there are patients,” said Gloria, “I will continue doing my work.”
| Date Taken: | 04.24.2026 |
| Date Posted: | 04.26.2026 11:18 |
| Story ID: | 563608 |
| Location: | US |
| Web Views: | 47 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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