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Tooele doctor treating orphans in Ukraine welcomed home by entire family at SLC airport

“I couldn’t just do nothing anymore,” Dr. Gordon Duval said.

(FOX 13) Dr. Gordon Duval is welcomed home by his family after traveling to Ukraine to provide medical aid to orphans.

Leona Duval waited at the Salt Lake City International Airport terminal with her children Saturday afternoon for her husband to return from an important mission.

“Daddy was going to go out there and help them for a week,” Duval told her kids. “We knew that he was going to be okay, and he’d come home.”

The family was looking forward to some spring break travel, but just two weeks ago, Dr. Gordon Duval made a change of plans.

“I’m just in my home that’s all nice and warm with a pantry and a fridge full of food,” he said. “And [Ukrainians] have not much at all, so I felt like I couldn’t just do nothing anymore. I had to do something.”

With huge help from the community, the family raised almost $19,000 in just one week, plus they gathered another $60,000 in medical supplies, so Dr. Duval could treat orphans in Ukraine with the August Mission. The pediatrician returned home virtually empty-handed, but that’s not how he left.

To read more about Dr. Gordon Duval, visit FOX 13.

This article is published through the Utah News Collaborative, a partnership of news organizations in Utah that aim to inform readers across the state.