Dr. Linville serving on various mission trips. 8 Memorial Medical Milestones • 2025 Issue 1 For Eric Linville, MD, the journey into healthcare began with an unexpected realization: His hands could be used to make a greater impact on people’s lives by offering medical care rather than fabricating metal as a welder. Driven by a desire to help people on a deeper level, he made a life-changing decision to pursue a career as a registered nurse. But this was only the beginning of Dr. Linville’s calling. As a nursing student, he joined a surgeon on a mission trip to Africa. Witnessing the lifesaving potential of surgery in places with little access to medical care sparked a passion that went beyond just nursing. He wanted to operate—to make a difference on a larger scale. He attended medical school at Louisiana State University in Shreveport and completed a residency in Houston before returning to Lake Charles—his hometown—with his wife and two children to serve the SWLA community. But he didn’t stop his mission trips. Bringing care to remote corners of Kenya On a recent mission trip to the remote islands of Kenya’s Lake Victoria, Dr. Linville and several others from his church visited an area where access to healthcare is a luxury, not a given. For many, the cost of even the most basic medical services is prohibitive. So he and his team came prepared— with medical supplies, expertise and a resolve to provide free care to the people who need it most. The services performed may seem minor to some—removing cysts, extracting foreign objects or performing soft tissue repairs—but they are transformative to the recipients. For these individuals, such treatments aren’t just about convenience or comfort; they’re a matter of life and death, of dignity and hope. Alongside these surgeries, he and his team also brought essential medications, treating conditions like high blood pressure and arthritis, and offered a lifeline to people who would otherwise have none. For those experiencing more advanced conditions, Mission-minded One surgeon’s journey to serve
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