Tragedy opens up unexpected path

 

 

Mark Backlin pours water for women who have traveled to the Andean village of Ambuqui for medical treatment. Photo by Lisa Mull

Seeing Rotarian Mark Backlin in a rural village in Ecuador might surprise someone who knew him three years ago – including his wife, Judith Lombeida. “She’d probably think I’m crazy,” he says with a laugh. “I think she’d be surprised that I would even jump into this arena, because it’s not my element. But I believe she’d be very proud for her family and her kids.”

In 2006, Backlin, his wife, and their two teenage children were in a car accident that took the life of Lombeida, a colonel in the U.S. Air Force and chief of neurology at the Air Force Academy in Colorado. Backlin and the children were seriously injured. Through the air force, Lombeida had frequently participated in medical missions to the developing world. Her death impelled Backlin to take up her humanitarian work. He quit his job and within a year had created the Judith Lombeida Medical Foundation to organize relief trips to poor communities in his wife’s home country of Ecuador.

“This is a very personal mission to me,” says Backlin. “When [Judith] passed away, I made the decision that Ecuador was where I wanted to do this. Clearly, there’s need all over the world, but I feel that my focus should be here, because this is where she’s from, and there are plenty of individuals here who need help.”

The foundation has completed three missions, which have provided medical and surgical care to more than 5,000 Ecuadorians. Lombeida’s colleagues and friends in the U.S. and Ecuadorian air forces have been quick to offer their help, as have Backlin’s fellow Rotarians. He turned to members of his Rotary Club of Colorado Springs, Colo., for advice on how to establish the foundation, and he worked with Rotarians in Quito, Ecuador’s capital, to find local volunteers.

In August, on a trip to five remote villages outside Quito, nurses, doctors, opticians, and dentists dressed wounds, performed minor surgery, provided checkups and treatment for parasites, and dispensed medications and health information. Some people received eyeglasses for the first time; others finally obtained relief from the pain of a bad tooth. Backlin could frequently be found interacting with children, chatting with townspeople, or standing, arms crossed over his blue Lombeida Foundation T-shirt, observing the team at work.

“The missions are about my wife. They represent who she was as a person, her character and her demeanor,” he explains. He’s proud, he says, “to be able to do this to remember her. But it’s also a sad thing, because the reason I’m doing it is because she’s not here.”

Learn more about the Judith Lombeida Medical Foundation at www.jlmf.org, or e-mail Backlin at mark@jlmf.org.