David C. Thompson M.D.

David Thompson was born in the US but grew up in Cambodia, where his parents worked for 16 years. When he was 14, he and his father tried unsuccessfully to save a Cambodian man seriously injured in a car accident. God used the incident to plant in David's young heart a desire to become a doctor and help people who had limited access to healthcare.

David graduated from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine in 1973 with an MD, and eventually completed five years of residency in general surgery. In 1977, David and his wife, Rebecca, moved to Gabon, Africa, and for the next 34 years built a 150-bed full-service hospital to provide medical services to Gabon’s least-served provinces.

In 1996, Dr. Thompson helped establish the Pan-African Academy of Christian Surgeons (PAACS), an organization that trains African surgeons at Christian hospitals throughout the continent. Since 2014, Dr. Thompson has been working as a volunteer to train Egyptian surgeons at Harpur Memorial Hospital.