Mission Statement
To bring expertise to those in need.

Who We Are

Medical Ambassadors of America (MAA) was founded and incorporated in 2021 to officially realize the long standing work of Nidhu Das who has been co-ordinated medical expert trips to his native Bangladesh home for years. Nidhu started by bringing equipment and supplies to mission projects and worked with various outreach programs until he seridipitously met his first surgeon recruit, Bob Hooker, in an airport. He stumbled over Nidhu who was awaiting a different flight and when they recognized each other from their workplace hospital in Grand Rapids, Michigan, Nidhu convinced Bob to volunteer his time as a cardiovascular surgeon in Bangladesh. Nidhu's dream of medical missions was born.

Since 2012 Nidhu Das and a growing cohort of medical experts have been traveling every year they could to the Khwhja Yunus Ali Medical College run by Mohammad Yusuf to bring expertise in surgery to that campus. The school is a private medical school on a self-contained 105 acre campus on the banks of the Ganges river. The hospital there is but one of the schools which also include a nursing school and business school with housing not only for all students, faculty and hospital staff but also support staff and visiting medical experts.

A fully staffed hospital with Emergency Department, Outpatient Clinics in all specialties, Inpatient care, Birth unit and full Surgical facilities, specialties from ENT, Urology, Orthopedics, and Gynecology all have full time faculty on campus. Students , Residents and Fellows have full training programs established through the college and it is an envied destination for medical trainees. Visiting faculty are encouraged to observe cases, advise where able and demonstrate techniques that they are able to bring and share in fully equipped operating rooms with anesthesiologists and full surgical teams ready to support.

Bob Hooker has annually brought an entire cardiovascular support team with him and was able to help start a full cardiac surgery program at the hospital, working with pediatric specialists in the repair of otherwise fatal congenital cardiac problems as well as bringing expertise in bypass allowing performance and teaching of complex cardiac procedures which are now routinely performed by the Hospitals own faculty.

Orthopedic visiting faculty have been able to optimize OR utilization and improve timing of trauma surgery helping to improve morbidity associated with these situations. Advanced laparoscopic surgical techniques using equipment already at the hospital promises to decrease morbidity, length of stay and improve recovery which is critical to healthy outcomes in Bangladesh.

Visiting Nurse educators have helped standardize training techniques and improve and professionalize training curricula and improve professionalism with graduates of the nursing school.

Our Board

Michael Opoku-Agyeman

Board Director

Kurtis De Pree

Treasurer

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John LaGrand, M.D.

Chairman

Robert Hooker, M.D.

Board Director

MAA's goal is to help bring medical training expertise where it is needed by facilitating and coordinating donations of time, equipment and financial resources to where they needed and are best used. MAA was created to provide logistical support for travelling medical professionals to fully accredited medical facilities where they can not only teach but help care for patients who benefit from their specific skills and in turn can learn from the resident medical professionals what it is to provide care in that environment.