HOUSTON -- From half a world away, a Houston doctor hears the call for help from those suffering in the war-ravaged country of Afghanistan.

While President Barack Obama is deciding whether to send more troops to the country, Dr. Rob Dickinson of Houston is headed to the capital city of Kabul on the dual mission of healing and teaching.

"People get sick the world over and illnesses are very similar, but the severity is very unbelievable there," said Dickinson, who specializes in internal medicine at the Kelsey-Seybold Clinic.

Dickinson said his trip to Kabul is to also help Afghanistan rebuild a medical infrastructure in tatters.

"Basically they've started over," said Dickinson. "Everything was essentially destroyed during the war and they're starting literally from scratch."

Dickinson will be working at the CURE International clinic for two weeks. The clinic was established in 2005 and has become the epicenter of the country's medical rebirth.

Training and healing happening in tandem in a country where the average life expectancy is 42 years of age and one in four infants die at birth.

"Access to basic specialties is unavailable," said Dickinson. "Cardiology and such is simply not available, heart catheterization is not available in the entire country."

This will be Dickinson's second trip to the clinic in Kabul in four months. He said what surprised him was not the lack of health care, but that he saw more critically ill patients in his first six hours than he would in six months at the Kelsey-Seybold clinic.

"Heart attacks, kidney failure, serious case of the measles," said Dickinson. "Serious problems for which there is very little care available."

The second part of Dickinson's work is teaching Afghani doctors so clinics can be opened in more parts of the country.

"I was really humbled by the opportunity to work with them and I think they taught me as much as I taught them," said Dickinson. "I hope that the country continues to make strides as they have over the last several years. It's a difficult situation but one that's very much worth fighting for."