Northern Arizona Orthopaedics surgeon John Durham, M.D. – affectionately known as Bull— is a long-standing, respected hand surgeon in Flagstaff. Bull recently returned home from his sixteenth medical trip to Haiti; this time, following an invitation by an international medical foundation to be an educator for other medical professionals there.
The invitation came personally from Dr. Andrew Furey, who organized the event under the sponsorship of the AO Foundation. The AO Foundation is a medically guided nonprofit organization led by an international group of ortho surgeons and hosts education courses in far reaches of the world. Bull was one of 11 invited trauma surgeons and members of the global Orthopedic Trauma Association (OTA) to teach. Instructors were from the U.S. and Canada, including Ross Leighton, M.D., current President of the OTA.
Following the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, Durham assembled one of the first medical crews to arrive in Haiti, and like many first responders he was shocked by the devastation and suffering, and by how unequipped Haiti’s few hospitals were to treat even the most basic injuries. Today, Bull is a leader in the Northern Arizona Volunteer Medical Corps (NAVMC), a medical volunteer group founded in 1991 to help those in need all over the world. Their primary focus has been on helping Haitians since that fateful event on Jan. 12, 2010.