Devin A. Harrison, MD

Devin A. Harrison, MD, was nominated to receive this year’s Outstanding Humanitarian Service Award by the Washington Academy of Eye Physicians and Surgeons.

Dr. Harrison was born in Washington state, though much of his childhood was spent in Brazil with his missionary parents. Following his residency and cornea fellowship at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., he spent three years at King Khalid Hospital in Saudi Arabia, teaching residents and community ophthalmologists the latest techniques. He then joined the University of Washington faculty, becoming the residency program director on his way to a traditional academic career, but he was drawn to a different path. His calling was to Nigeria, where he cared for some of the world’s neediest patients under difficult conditions and at considerable risk to his life and his family’s.

Dr. Harrison worked in Nigeria for more than two years, performing surgery and training local doctors. He spent his first year working in Kano at the ECWA Eye Hospital, an established mission eye hospital that was part of a training program for African ophthalmologists. He helped train African doctors from several countries in West Africa, including Nigeria, Guinea Bissau, Guinea, Cameroon and Ghana. Dr. Harrison performed daily rounds with the residents and spent days in either the operating room or clinic, where most of the teaching was done.

For the second year, Dr. Harrison and his family moved to Jos to start a new eye clinic with Dr. Lass, one of the Nigerian resident physicians he had trained. Together, Drs. Harrison and Lass established a clinic and surgery center and trained staff and nurses. Initially the surgical volume was small but as word spread, they quickly became busier, doing 20 to 30+ cases per week. The eye clinic performed mostly cataract surgeries, as well as trabeculectomies, lid procedures, eviscerations and traumatic ruptured globe repairs.

One of Dr. Harrison’s most memorable outreach trips from Jos was to the small village of Dakka where he met Rikki, a Danish nurse who had spent her whole career working in Nigeria where she had started a small clinic. Rikki asked Dr. Harrison to treat some of her patients who had cataracts but were unable to travel the long distance to Jos. Dr. Harrison, along with a nurse, traveled to Dakka where they performed a number of cataract surgeries. It was a challenge to work in this remote village with no electricity and only a small portable generator to run the operating microscope and cautery. Despite the less-than-ideal conditions, there were no post-operative complications or infections.

Working in Nigeria didn’t come without risks to the safety of Dr. Harrison and his family. He was the victim of an armed robbery and later had to be evacuated from Kano when religious riots ensued. In Jos, there was an armed robbery on the hospital compound where he and his family lived. Their other greatest daily concern was for their health, avoiding diseases such as malaria. Despite the risks in Nigeria, Dr. Harrison found the work both rewarding and challenging. He hopes to make regular trips back to Nigeria to visit the hospitals he worked at as well as to bring them donated equipment and supplies.

One of Dr. Harrison’s colleagues calls him an inspiration "who exemplifies our idea of humanitarian and physician. He is a very skilled and gentle surgeon and his patients love him for his sincerity and humbleness." For his dedication and lifelong commitment to humanitarian efforts, the Academy is privileged to honor Dr. Harrison with this year’s Outstanding Humanitarian Service Award.