Dr. Lance Bergstrom

Nancy Edmonds Hanson

Countless people can see their world today because, nearly 50 years ago, a 13-year-old Fargo boy witnessed his grandfather losing of his vision.
“I saw how frustrated Grandpa was,” Lance Bergstrom remembers. “There was no treatment at that time. I found out about ophthalmology from our next-door neighbor, Dr. Cal Fercho. I always kind of liked science as a kid, and I liked asking questions, o I decided to go to medical school at a very young age.”
Today that curious south Fargo kid is not only maintaining and restoring eyesight in his practice based in what was once a Country Kitchen on South University Drive, a block or so from the house where he grew up. He has been treating patients with all kinds of vision-threatening conditions since 1992, from cataracts and glaucoma to his grandfather’s age-related macular degeneration, the leading cause of vision loss in older adults. He performs oculoplastic surgeries, too, focused on the eyelids, tear ducts, and the structures around the eye.
Bergstrom has been involved in ground-breaking eye research ever since his days at the University of Minnesota School of Medicine. There, he participated in the first trials of Botox, which
was originally developed to correct strabismus (crossed eyes); later, he became the first to employ it in North Dakota. His was also the firstclinic in the United States to do gene therapy for retinitis pigmentosa. Today his Bergstrom Eye Research employs three full-time professionals to conduct Phase 2 and Phase 3 trials of ophthalmic drugs and procedures, including implants for cataracts and to lower the intraocular pressure in glaucoma.
He has performed more than 20,000 eye surgeries, most of them in the Northern Plains Surgery Center. He established the busy operation 25 years ago along with fellow eye surgeons Steve Bagan, MD, who continues as his partner, and Calvin Fercho. The center, with a staff of 20, currently hosts more than 2,000 surgeries per year in its paid of operating rooms.
But many of his most life-changing operations have been performed in a MASH-style tent in the tropics 2,400 miles from his home base in Fargo. He has devoted a substantial fraction of his time to patients in far less favored corners of the world, from Kenya and Indonesia to – since 2013 — Haiti, one of the poorest and most troubled nations on Earth.
Bergstrom describes the situation in Haiti as “so much worse there than anything you could imagine.” There, a combination of genetic factors, strong sunlight and poor nutrition causes eye problems far, far beyond what Americans experience. Glaucoma affects nearly one out of four Haitians. Cataracts are much larger and denser than what doctors typically see in the United States. “Traditional cataract surgery techniques will not work there,” he adds, “so our doctors are trained in the MSICS (manual small incision cataract surgery) procedure to restore sight to the blind.”
For the past decade, he had led groups of as many as 24 volunteers to Pignon, three hours north of Port au Prince, until violence caused the U.S. State Department to issue a do-not-travel advisory. “The gangs took over,” Bergstrom reports. “The State Department issued a ‘do not travel’ advisory. Gangs had invaded hospitals and destroyed equipment.
“Instead, we were invited to go to Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic on the east side of the island,” he says. “We continued to treat Haitians – some of the 2 million who have fled across the border.”
The mission’s five ophthalmic surgeons performed 330 cataract surgeries over one week on their most recent visit. Optometrists gave thorough eye exams to 1,400. The team distributed glaucoma drugs and other medications donated by American pharmaceutical firms; the drugs are unaffordable and unavailable in the island nation.
The Haiti Eye Mission plans to continue to treat refugee Haitians in Santo Domingo this year during the mission in the second half of March.
Each mission is self-funded. Kristin Follman, who manages them along with Bergstrom Eye Research, estimates that half of the two dozen volunteers have medical credentials, from surgeons to nurses and technicians. The rest are what Bergstrom calls “the fix-it guys,” who set up and maintain the electronic equipment the team stores on the island between visits, along with pitching and maintaining their rudimentary tent quarters. They head for the Caribbean first. When the surgeons arrive with the rest of the crew three days later, they’re generally performing the first operations within a couple hours.
Most volunteers are from the region – nurses and staff from the Surgery Center and Bergstrom’s satellite clinics in Ada, Mahnomen, Fosston and Detroit Lakes, as well as a contingent from his and Kristin’s home church, Horace Lutheran. The five physicians have come father afield – nit only North Dakota and Minnesota, but Kentucky, Texas, Connecticut and Washington state.
Volunteers pay their own way, Bergstrom notes – about $1,800 per person, including their share of the flights provided by Mission Flights International: “Our budget is about $60,000. We keep costs down in every way we can. Some pharmaceutical and medical companies contribute medications and supplies, and individuals help us, too.” ____ donors supported Haiti Eye Mission in February’s Giving Hearts Day. Lions Clubs and churches have also provided significant support over the years.
Bergstrom and his team have returned the gift of sight to Haitian patients of every age. The youngest? Just 18 months old. “The mom had heard about an American doctor coming, and got on a taxi with her last three dollars. He could see the next day.” He pauses. “It really puts things in perspective.” Then he adds with a wink, “The best thing? I don’t have to do any paperwork.”
Aside from his mission work in Haiti – and possibly El Salvador in the year ahead – Bergstrom is a lifelong Fargoan. He graduated from Oak Grove Lutheran High School, then earned a bachelor’s degree at Luther College in Iowa before enrolling in the University of Minnesota School of Medicine. He completed two residencies, one at Hennepin County Medical Center, the other at the University of Missouri in Columbia.
The physician returned to Fargo in 1992. After a year at Dakota Clinic, he opened Bergstrom Eye Clinic, sharing a small office in the Gateway Mall with Dr. Steve Bagan. It was an exciting time, he says, for his profession: “Ophthalmology at that point was changing dramatically, with refractive surgery, LASIK, that kind of stuff.” He set up his own clinic in 1997, moving to to its present location on South University Drive in 2008.
The eye specialist met his wife, Ruth, on a blind date while he was in medical school. They have five children. “Our oldest, Ron, is from Haiti,” he says. “A mission group flew him up here for strabismus surgery when he was 13. Such a great kid!” Now a cardiovascular technician, the 30-year-old works in the cardiac catheterization lab at Baylor University.
The Bergstroms hosted weddings for both of their daughters and their son Luke in a single year. The first wedding bells were for elder daughter, Reyna, who married Collin Aasheim.
Her experience as Miss North Dakota in 2022 led to the second. At the Miss America Pageant, Reyna became friends with her Oregon counterpart, Abigail Hoppe. The Bergstroms and son Luke watched the proceedings with Abigail’s aunt cheering for the Oregon girl as she finished in 10th place. Afterwards, “Luke started talking to Abigail on Instagram,” his father reports, “and the rest is history.” Luke and Abigail were married the same year.
Finally, Lance and Ruth’s younger daughter, Rikka, wed Evan Frisch by year’s end. “We must have set some kind of world record,” their father suggests. Both Collin and Luke are studying ophthalmology. Reyna has worked with former state First Lady Kathryn Burgum on her recovery initiative, while Rikka, who has a master’s in construction management, is employed by McGough Construction. The Bergstroms’ youngest son, Leif, attends M State.
Bergstrom reflects on the reasons his decision to build his career at home in Fargo, while so many of his medical school classmates have chosen to practice far from where they started. “It’s weird, I guess,” he muses. “A lot of my friends moved to bigger cities all over the country – all over the world – and here I am.”
His volunteer missions have given him the opportunity to make thousands of patients’ lives immeasurably better in locales he never dreamed of as a boy. But caring for the eyes of patients in his own home town, he emphasizes, offers special challenges … and special rewards.
“There’s a lot more pressure when you’re operating on your third grade teacher. That’s really rewarding.”He smiles, and adds, “When you’re working on your own family and your friends, you have to do well, or you wouldn’t be in practice very long.”