More Than a Checkup: How Dr. Mortel Redefined What It Means to Care

When Dr. Kevin Murphy, a dentist from the Baltimore area, first traveled to Haiti through the Archdiocese of Baltimore’s parish sponsorship program, he was doing what many medical volunteers do– treating acute infections, pulling teeth, and putting out fires. It was meaningful work. But something was missing.

Then he met Dr. Rod Mortel. And everything changed.

A Different Kind of Medicine

Kevin’s path to Haiti began through a colleague, Jim Taneyhill. The first time Kevin met Dr. Mortel, he was already on the ground in Haiti and the encounter was immediate and transformative.

“We just became very attached to the whole mission,” Kevin recalls, “because it was looking at the life of the Haitian from childhood on up. It was really addressing the growth and support of the Haitian population. In addition to providing health care, it was helping them grow. And that was distinctly different.”

That distinction — between treating and growing — is at the heart of everything Dr. Mortel built. 

While so many aid efforts focus on crisis response, Dr. Mortel’s vision was longitudinal. He wasn’t just meeting the needs of today; he was building the foundation for a lifetime. The dental clinic at the Good Samaritan School wasn’t charity. It was an infrastructure.

The Children Who Stay With You

Ask Kevin Murphy about his fondest memory from Haiti, and his answer comes without hesitation.

“It’s the kids. They’re just so precious and so appreciative. They’re just infectious — in the sense of just how close you feel to them.”

For a dentist accustomed to a suburban practice, the children of the Good Samaritan School were unlike any patient population he had ever encountered. Many of them had never seen a dentist before. And yet there was virtually no fear, no resistance, only gratitude.

What Kevin witnessed wasn’t just good behavior. It was the profound trust and gratitude of children who understood they were being seen, cared for, and valued — perhaps for the first time in a formal healthcare setting. That gratitude was not lost on him. Trip after trip, Kevin came back. He watched the same children return for follow-up care. He saw, firsthand, the fruits of that labor: “stuff was getting better orally for them and it was being maintained, which doesn’t always happen.”

A Legacy That Holds

In recent years, we have been unable to  travel to Haiti. And yet Kevin Murphy now sponsors three children through Mortel High Hopes for Haiti, joined the organization’s board, and continues to show up.

Why? “The memory,” he says simply, “and knowing that our help is needed more now than ever before.”

That is the definition of a legacy. A dentist-turned-advocate who, years later, still feels the pull of a vision he encountered once on the ground in Haiti — a vision that told him treating a child was not enough. Educating a child, investing in a child’s whole life — that was the mission.

Dr. Mortel built something rare: an organization whose impact was so personal, so deeply felt, that the people it touched cannot walk away. After 25 years, Mortel High Hopes for Haiti is still standing — not just because of the work, but because of the people like Kevin who carry its spirit forward.