About HHMM
- About HHMM
- Advisory Board
Since 1996, HHMM has served more than 117,000 poor patients and hosted 75 medical missions in Mexico, El Salvador, Venezuela, Brazil, Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Philippines, and Ghana. Each mission is one week long and 10 missions are scheduled annually. Each mission group is comprised of approximately 25-45 participants, who volunteer their time, service, and medical supplies. Included in this group is the mission chaplain (priest) who accompanies the team for spiritual support. The mission site varies depending on the needs of certain communities and requests for help by local authorities and local clergy. To sustain ongoing care all sites are visited annually.
HELPING HANDS medical missionaries are Catholic doctors, nurses, and volunteers who come from all areas of the United States and Canada to join the host team of doctors. Participants pay their own round-trip airfare, mission fee (food, housing, ground transportation, etc.) and bring supplies and medicines. Missionaries work in small clinics, hospitals, schools and churches located in rural towns where they provide free medical care for thousands of patients in need of medical attention. Services include surgeries, eye care, consultations, and distributions of medications, follow-up of surgical patients house calls and Natural Family Planning instruction. The participants also take part in the mission’s spiritual program. Aspects of the mission includes daily prayer, Mass, meditation, and sharing the faith with the people of the town through home visits.
Equipment, supplies and medications are collected year-round from various companies, hospitals and individuals in the United States. HHMM is a non-profit 501(c)3 organization. All donations are tax deductible as permitted by law. Your participations could be time spent on a mission, spreading the word among your medical community, or a monetary donation.
If you would like to participate in HELPING HANDS Medical Missions, we are always in need of physicians, nurses and volunteers for this work that Christ has called us to do.
John A. Petros, MD is a board certified urologic surgeon and tenured full time member of the Emory University School of Medicine faculty. Dr. Petros also holds an appointment at the Atlanta VA Medical Center where he provides surgical care to US veterans. He is active in teaching, patient care and cancer research. He holds research grants from both the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Veterans 
Administration (MERIT award) and is recognized for his expertise in cancer genetics, especially mitochondrial genetics in prostate cancer.
Dr. Petros is married to Teresa M. Petros, MD his wife of 27 years. They reside in Cumming, GA with their 5 daughters, ages 7 to 18. They are active members of Mary Our Queen Catholic Church in Norcross, GA and members of the lay apostolic movement Regnum Christi associated with the order of Catholic Priests the Legionaries of Christ.
Dr. Petros attended Loyola University Stritch School of Medicine in Suburban Chicago from 1982-1986 and this is where his medical volunteer activity began. He spent a month on the island of St. Lucia seeing patients in the clinics, hospital and emergency room.
The motivation for Dr. Petros’ volunteer activity is rooted in his Catholic Christian faith wherein providing free medical care and missionary work is an effective mechanism to demonstrate Gods love for all people regardless of age, race, country or economic ability. He believes that all his abilities are an unmerited gift from God and that sharing these with those least able to access health care is an honor in service to God and fellow man.
More recently Dr. Petros has been on medical missions to El Salvador (2004), Chunhuhub Mexico (2006) and Bibiani, Ghana Africa (2008) where he was medical director of the mission. In these missions Dr. Petros performed surgery, provided non-surgical medical care and made house calls. In 2009 his volunteerism led him again to Mexico where he and 65 other volunteers from Atlanta made house calls, Catholic missionary work and renovations and landscaping for a local Catholic Chapel in Malinalco, south of Mexico City.