Bridget Harrison, M.D., was a bold traveler, often choosing destinations where she could use her Spanish, share the gift of medicine, immerse herself in a community and do it, as was her nature, frugally, not “Europe on $5 a Day” but close — no fancy hotels.

Starting in high school and on through college, medical school, residency, hand surgery fellowship and into practice, Bridget ventured to Spain, Argentina, Paraguay, Italy, Ireland, Germany and Tanzania, among other locales. She once took a long overnight train in Russia, badgered a thief into dropping the wallet picked from her father’s pocket and, earning high praise, had a Spaniard say, “I thought you lived here.”

Travel is just one legacy of the Wichita native and KU School of Medicine-Wichita graduate, a hand surgeon who died in 2018 at age 32 after years of anorexia, depression and chronic pain. In Bridget’s memory, her parents, Carolyn, a nurse, and Paul Harrison, M.D., a now-retired trauma surgeon, established the Bridget Harrison, M.D., International Education Support Fund to help KU School of Medicine-Wichita medical students have the life-enriching adventures their youngest daughter did.

“We want to encourage students to be more like Bridget … to look for the opportunities to expand their life,” Paul says.

 “I hope she’s traveling with them,” Carolyn says.

A big impact from modest amounts

The endowed fund began with memorials made in Bridget’s honor and has been bolstered by the Harrisons and proceeds from ever-thrifty Bridget’s estate. Where originally it could financially support bits of trips for a couple students a year, it now can fully fund a trip for one student or substantial parts of two or three. This year it helped send Logan Rance and Emily Bette – soon to start emergency medicine and family medicine residencies in St. Louis and Kansas City, respectively — to the Himalayas and Thailand.

The fund provided its first awards in 2020, exclusively serving medical students from the Wichita campus and is overseen by KU Endowment. It’s administered by the Office of International Programs in Kansas City, which handles financial aid assessments and can offer travel-supporting funds from other sources. Final recipients are selected by the Office of Academic & Student Affairs at KU School of Medicine-Wichita.

Deciding to go on the trip when classmate and close friend Andrew Smith asked was the easy part for Rance. Making it feasible was another matter, what with student loans, a busy year with residency match and graduation and, for Rance, getting married as he is doing at the end of May. And there also was a bum knee — injured rock climbing — and the timing and cost of knee surgery, which he eventually had in early March after returning from the Himalayas. So, there was much for he and his fiancée to weigh. And then he received a Harrison award, and the weight lifted.

“You don’t need Bill Gates money for this kind of trip,” Rance says. “Two thousand dollars is the difference between being able to do trips like this and not. I would not have been able to do the trip without the fund.”

Cold camping, many patients, truly ‘phenomenal’

Certified as an EMT during college, Rance went to medical school planning on pursuing emergency medicine, with the possibility of specializing in disaster medicine or global health. The idea of venturing to India’s Himachal Pradesh province on the Tibetan border was intriguing, would allow him to hone skills and would earn elective credit as well.

Rance is no stranger to the outdoors but had to equip himself with camping and cold-weather gear for February in the Dhauladhar range, where peaks soar to 18,000 feet. There, on one of four expeditions a year run by Atlanta-based Himalayan Health Exchange, they’d set up clinics and treat patients in remote villages, monasteries, schools, a nunnery and Tibetan settlements. 

He and Smith, the instigator, were part of a team of 14 that included fellow 2025 graduates Carine Tabak and Katie Martin, other medical students, three Indian medical residents, two retired physicians and a dentist. In locations where hospitals are distant and patients go years without visiting a doctor, the volunteers treated at least 100 patients daily, with a high of 360 in one day.

They saw a wide range of illnesses, including lung cancer and a man who’d fallen into a campfire. Common ailments were highly contagious “close quarters” diseases like scabies skin infections and intestinal H. pylori infections occurring in monasteries, nunneries and schools, where “if one person gets it, then everybody gets it,” Rance says. “It was definitely good training. You see stuff that you really don’t see too much in the States.”

Communication could be challenging. The many dialects tested even the Indian doctors doing their best to translate. “There was a lot of charades going on trying to figure out exactly what people’s complaints were, but it truly felt like we were making a difference,” Rance says.

In the cold, “basically living outside for a month, it was an absolutely phenomenal experience,” he says.

Getting the word out: There are funds for adventure

Rance has shared his adventures with fellow students but wishes more of them knew money exists to make the trips possible or, since the fund exclusively targets Wichita students, believe they could be selected. When Rance recounts his fund-supported Himalayan expedition, he says schoolmates commonly respond: “Wow, this could actually happen for me.”

The Harrisons have enjoyed meeting fund recipients over the years, either in person or via video calls, and hearing about their experiences. They, like Rance, would like to raise awareness about the fund. Their daughter — “she had a lot of spunk,” Carolyn says — is remembered well for her skill and dedication. An award bearing her name at the University of Texas Southwestern plastic surgery residency in Dallas honors her service to others while supporting travel and humanitarian work.

So, what would Bridget tell KU School of Medicine-Wichita students thinking of traveling and serving?

“Do it!” her mother says instantly, followed soon by her father: “She would say, ‘This is an opportunity to grow and learn about people outside of your neighborhood that are important to the world.’”

International Travel Fund

If you’re interested in supporting the Bridget Harrison, M.D., International Education Support Fund or starting a similar effort to support students and the mission of KU School of Medicine-Wichita, contact Brad Rukes, KU Endowment senior development director-Wichita, at 316-293-2641 or BRukes@KUEndowment.org.

If you or someone you know is interested in international educational experiences and funding options, please contact the Office of International Programs at internationalelectives@kumc.edu.