Photo by David Beyda

A career in medicine was always in the front of David Beyda’s mind. As a child, he spent time abroad and traveled through Third World countries with his father, a U.S. diplomat.
He saw the world’s neediest people, and he held on to those thoughts from age 6 through the time he pursued a medical career.

“I always knew I wanted to take care of the sickest kids. Period. End of story,” Beyda says.

Today, he sets a grueling pace. Beyda, 56, is a full-time doctor at Phoenix Children’s Hospital near 20th Street and Thomas Road. On any given day, he could be treating 40 children inside the hospital’s $10 million intensive care unit.

Ten days before an interview with PHOENIX magazine, however, Beyda was in Ethiopia assessing the medical needs of 3,000 kids for a future medical intervention.

It was the latest in a string of assignments through Mission of Mercy, a nonprofit dedicated to helping indigent children in 22 countries. Since 2004, Beyda has directed its outreach program by researching new locations, leading medical teams there to do “advanced bush medicine” and training local parents to handle basic maladies.

The organization is funded by a Christian-based investment firm, which sends money from its professional athlete clientele to the clinics. It’s a feel-good tax deduction, and Beyda is on the front line.
His resume is more like a travel itinerary: Cambodia, the Dominican Republic, Honduras and Swaziland. Beyda has even established a four-story clinic in a village built on a trash pile in Egypt. (He designed the top floor on-site using a napkin.)

But the double life comes with a price. Juggling jobs has led Beyda into an exercise-less lifestyle and diet of coffee, potato chips, candy bars and other snack foods. Beyda admits he is 60 pounds overweight, knows some British Airways crew members by name and could spend more time with his wife, Charlcye, and son, Justin, 24.

Beyda says he travels abroad whenever he has a break of more than five days from the hospital. Such is the life of a doc abroad.

As Phoenix doctor Patrick Connell says, it’s all about using a talent to help people who need it most without the hassles of insurance.

“It is a challenge,” Connell says, “and the people are uniformly grateful for what you can do for them…. Practicing medicine is a gift, not a right. It’s a gift that’s not given to everyone, and I’m finding a way to share it.”

Photo by David Beyda

David Beyda, 56, Phoenix

Education: Loyola University, Maywood, Illinois
Specialty: Pediatrics
Abroad: Leads medical teams on missions of
“advanced bush medicine” and trains parents to treat basic maladies in various Third World locations, most recently in Ethiopia and Swaziland.
The common denominator? Bad public hygiene with no clean water or toilets available. Beyda
says he has tried lobbying foreign governments
for help, “but the majority of them are so corrupt
it doesn’t do anything.”
Cost: $3,000 per person out-of-pocket.
Medications and equipment covered by Mission
of Mercy, a Colorado-based nonprofit.
Why: “It’s always been in my heart…. I have an
affinity for Third World countries…. [I have] a
very strong faith base.”
What’s next: Swaziland in April, India in May, Ethiopia in July, Dominican Republic in September, Kenya in October.