Minimally Invasive Surgeons of Texas Welcomes a Physician Home From Deployment

HOUSTON, TX--(Marketwired - September 21, 2016) - The Minimally Invasive Surgeons of Texas team is made up of physicians with a diverse set of skills and responsibilities beyond those witnessed by their patients every day. Houston's Dr. Kulvinder Singh Bajwa, for one, is also a U.S. Army Reserve colonel, who was deployed to Soto Cano Air Base in Honduras from March to June, treating residents of La Paz, Tegucigalpa, San Pedro Sula, and San Marcos. Dr. Bajwa personally operated on more than 100 patients during his deployment, and he now returns to his teaching and patient care duties at the University of Texas Bariatric and Metabolic Surgery Center.

Among his many duties performed while deployed, Dr. Bajwa -- a command surgeon with the Joint Task Force-Bravo Medical Element -- tapped into his education and experience to train residents at a public university's teaching facility, Hospital Escuela Universitario, on May 13. There, he focused on laparoscopic surgery, explaining and demonstrating the minimally invasive techniques that drive UT MIST's patient care model. Specifically, he aided a patient suffering from obstructing rectal cancer by performing a sigmoid colostomy.

Honduras marks Dr. Bajwa's fifth deployment, having previously been mobilized to South Korea, Afghanistan, and Iraq. While home -- and when not working with patients directly at the center -- he works as an assistant professor in the University of Texas Health Science Center's Department of Surgery. He has also previously served as chief of staff at Memorial Hermann Sugar Land Hospital.

Dr. Bajwa first joined the military in 1987, serving as a hospital corpsman in the U.S. Navy Reserve until 1992, when he began his career work with the Army.

He worked in the Texas Army National Guard's Medical Service Corps until 1995, the same year he received his doctorate in medicine from the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio.

Dr. Bajwa changed locations and duties twice more prior to two deployments as a trauma surgeon in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom, in 2004 and 2007.

The board-certified surgeon started working at UT Medical School in 2008. Then, after almost a decade of simultaneously serving as a general surgeon at Houston's U.S. Army Hospital, he deployed again as a trauma surgeon, this time for Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan in 2011.

He's held the rank of lieutenant colonel since 2009, when he became the U.S. Army Reserve's Medical Corps Division Surgeon for the 75^th Battle Command Training Division in Houston.

To learn more about Dr. Kulvinder Singh Bajwa, Minimally Invasive Surgeons of Texas, and the team's modern techniques for handling breast cancer, hernia, GERD, and weight loss surgery in Houston, call (713) 892-5500 or visit utmist.com.