Team Heart of Texas is a dedicated group of medical professionals from the "Heart" of Central Texas. In May, we will be embarking on our second medical mission to Zambia with Operation International, a nonprofit that provides free medical care around the globe.

Our Goal is Simple: Provide free, advanced head and neck surgical care to those in need.

The team aims to expand on the success of their first trip and bring expert head and neck surgical care to the people of Zambia, build the capacity of University Teaching Hospital in Livingstone, Zambia. to improve the hospital infrastructure, educate and support the local surgeons. Our work will make a real difference given that Zambia, like many poor countries, has many patients suffering with thyroid goiters and head and neck masses. These benign tumors can compress the airway and impede swallowing. Your support will help us provide free surgical care to people and families in need.

More About Team Heart of Texas:

Team Heart of Texas was founded in 2024 by Dr. Evan Longfield (ENT, Head and Neck surgeon), Kati Davenport (ENT nurse practitioner), and Dr. Ryan Raju (ENT, Head and Neck surgeon). Together, they formed the team with a shared commitment to delivering expert surgical care to underserved communities. In 2025, Team Heart of Texas finished their first mission with Operation International with great success, performing 86 surgeries in just one week in Uganda. The team also visited the local OI school and orphanage. To learn more about the team, please read below or click here.

More About Operation International:

Operation International is a secular, non-political, humanitarian organization founded in 1996 by Medhat Allam, MD; Ravi Kothuru, MD; and Robert Mineo, CRNA under the original name of International Surgical Mission Support. The founders aspired to offer free medical care to children and adults suffering from the lack of basic health care in poor countries.

In our quest to advance human rights ideas, Operation International provides free medical care to people in need — regardless of gender, cultural, ethnic, political or religious affiliations. To ensure that our efforts impact underserved communities for years to come, we also offer education and training to local health care workers during each of our medical missions, as well as improve hospitals’ infrastructure through equipment donation.

Team NY, the first Operation International team, made its maiden mission to Haiti in 1997, where the founders of the organization witnessed firsthand the devastating effects of poverty and inadequate medical care.

Since the beginning, our teams of doctors, clinicians, nurses, and aides have expanded to include over 200 medical professionals in multiple Chapters located throughout the United States, the UK, and Hong Kong.

In our many medical missions to date, we have directly impacted the lives of thousands of people by performing life-saving and life-changing surgeries including cancer surgeries, sight restoration surgeries, burn reconstructive surgeries, corrective surgeries for congenital anomalies such as clubfoot and cleft palate, and obstetric and gynecological surgeries.

Help Team Heart of Texas Expand Medical Care in Zambia

The Operation International team will head on their second mission trip in May 2026

Team Members