Mission Complete

We have just completed our last day of surgery, and we were able to help approximately 142 patients. Our team of 17 people boarded the bus this morning at 4 AM for a 5 hour bus ride back to the airport in San Pedro Sula. The staff of the Hospital Anibal Murillo Escobar were extremely welcoming and grateful for our assistance. We all enjoyed a cake on Friday that the staff purchased in our honor. The WSF brigade will return to San Pedro Sula in November for another mission trip. For more information on how you can help us, please contact us at (717)232-1404 or mail@worldsurgicalfoundation.org. You can also find us on Facebook!

Our Mission

The World Surgical Foundation provides medical care in developing countries around the world where healthcare is not available or affordable to the population. The Foundation is funded by donations from individuals, businesses, and other non-profit humanitarian organizations. The doctors, nurses, and volunteers pay their own way, and the WSF uses funding to send medical supplies to our destination countries/hospitals. For the Honduras trip, the WSF spent $10,000 in shipping to send an ocean container with one infant/child ventilator for San Pedro Sula and an electrocautery machine, one dozen crutches, two portable procedure lights, and two anesthesia machines for the Hospital in Olanchito. The refurbished ventilator that was purchased for San Pedro Sula cost $6,000. Brand new ventilators are around $50,000. We also shipped vaporizers for the anesthesia machines for $500 each. The anesthesia machines and procedure lights were donated by Pinnacle Health Systems, and the electrocautery equipment was donated by Valley Labs.

Another cost that the World Surgical Foundation funding covered was the approximately $18.50 charge to admit a patient in the Olanchito Hospital for about 80 of the patients that could not afford to pay the fees. Some people had already paid around $8 for bus fare to come from La Ceiba, a city about 3 hours from Olanchito, and didn’t expect to pay the hospital fees because they had heard that the WSF Brigade was here doing surgery for free. Unfortunately, we only got to see less than half of the people who paid to come see us. It is heartbreaking to see, but we don’t have the time or resources to help everyone.

One piece of equipment that we don’t travel without is a portable anesthesia machine that works with an oxygen tank to drive the gasses without electricity. We are currently working with two in Honduras, and it has allowed us to perform a second surgery in a room that already contains one table and anesthesia machine. These machines cost about $5,000, and we only have two currently. With donations, we would like to purchase more so that we can operate anywhere from the mountains to the jungle.

Thursday

The WSF performed 32 surgical procedures today. It was our intent to do at least 5 more, but some patients had high blood pressure, high blood sugar, and had something to eat before surgery, which creates an aspiration hazard with the anestesia equipment. In addition, we had a power outage from 6:30-8:30 PM, so some surgeries had to be postponed until tomorrow.

We had two surprises during surgery today. The first was found in Scarleth Zelaya, who had a Dermoid cyst on the back of her head. The surgical staff found that the mass, instead of water as they originally anticipated, contained hair and a milky substance. They felt that it may have been a twin that never developed in utero.

The second was found in Jorge Meza Duenas, a 19 month old boy whose parents brought him to Dr. Alvear to find out why he had trouble learning how to walk. He had swelling in his right testicle which was initially thought to be a hydrocele (fluid filled sack), but it turned out to be a tumor (teratoma) consisting of brain tissue and some tumor tissue that may have been his twin in utero. The team believes that the tumor was probably cancerous, but it was cured because Dr. Alvear removed the whole mass, including the blood vessels.

Tomorrow will be our last day of procedures before packing up and heading for the airport at 4 AM on Saturday. We hope to help at least 22 more patients before we need to pack our bags for home! Please keep us in your thoughts for a safe day of travel on Saturday!

Helpful Hands

Corina Aguilar is a representative working with us from Fundamar, Fundacion Margie. Fundamar is a non-profit humanitarian organization founded and run by Deputy (Congresswoman) from the Department Atlantidad Honduras, Margarita “Margie” Dip. She has been with us since we got to the airport, helping us to find a safe ride, organizing meals, translating, and supporting us in any way possible. She will be with us all seven days from 7 AM until we are finished with dinner (around 9 PM), and will return to her normal job on the Monday after we leave without a break. She has been an integral part of our mission and has helped us in countless ways. She represents an organization that collects donations of medicine, food, toys, sports team uniforms, walkers/crutches/wheel chairs/canes, and many more items for the underprivileged people of Honduras and the city of La Ceiba. Donations are collected from businesses, people, and other foundations with the intent of supporting the Honduran people.

Amel “Melly” Oseguere is another person who has been a huge help to our team while in Honduras. Melly is an 18 year old Florida native who is vacationing in Honduras to see her grandmother and other family members. She speaks both English and Spanish, which has been a huge help to our team. She told me that she speaks Spanish at home with her family, but speaks English at school. Melly graduated last June from high school, and plans to attend college in Fort Lauderdale starting in August to study to become a hemodialysis tech and ultrasound tech.

Melly was asked to help us by Dr. Valladarez, our host here in Olanchito. She also heard of our arrival from Ericka, the owner and chef of El Mezon, the restaurant that we have had dinner at every night. On a side note, the food here has been AMAZING! Ericka has been a gracious host, and is a fantastic chef.

Melly told me that she enjoys being here to obtain more experience in her field. She also enjoys learning new things, meeting new people, and helping the people of Honduras. She has been invaluable to us, as she not only helps to translate, but she helps us with side jobs such as buying souvenirs, exchanging money, and many other things!

Pictures to make your heart melt

Synergy

Work is becoming more routine at the Olanchito Hospital as the teams fall into a pattern. Teams are working more efficiently and operations have become more seamless. We are experiencing good synergy with local staff on all of our teams, especially the gynecology team, which is comprised of mostly Honduran staff working with Dr. Pepe Misas.

Dr. Misas explained to me today that local OBGYN doctors are not receptive to our presence and have not been willing to collaborate with us in any way. Our only interaction with an OBGYN physician from Honduras was with a Cuban physician who is here for two years. We are also working very closely with the Chief of Surgery, Guillermo Valladarez, who is our host this week.

A reason for the feeling of dissent may be due to the fact that they delay the surgeries the type of surgeries that we are performing so that the patients are forced to pay for them in the private sector, although all of the patients that we cared for are living in destitude and cannot afford to pay for the surgery.

26 procedures were completed today, including hysterectomies, cleft lip repairs, burn scar revisions, facial deformity correction, cholecystectomies, hernia repairs, and hypospadius repairs. Dr. Wolf was eager to help one 13 year old boy fix his nasal deformity, which was attempted once before by a Honduran doctor with the incorrect procedure. His classmates bully him and call him a chimpanzee due to his flat nose. Dr. Wolf was able to repair his nose so that he will only have a small scar on the tip of his nose.

Day 2 - Tuesday

We had an interesting start this morning due to four emergency surgeries from the Olanchito Hospital’s OBGYN staff. Three were emergency cesarean sections and one septic abortion. The septic abortion happens often in Honduras because abortion is illegal, and women who want one obtain them from people who do not perform the procedure as it would be performed in a hospital. This woman had received an abortion that left some of the lining/fetus inside of her uterus, which became infected. The doctors were able to clear what remained, but the woman is still in extreme danger of dying or requiring a hysterectomy. (Below, Dr. Misas comforts a patient before she is given anesthesia before her surgery to remove a fibroid tumor.) After lunch, Dr. Misas was finally able to begin working on his six scheduled procedures for the day, mostly consisting of hysterectomies. The other procedures performed today included cleft lips, burn/scar tissue removal, a thyroidectomy, gallbladder removal, hernia repair, an emergency appendectomy, a circumcision, and many more.

The conditions here are less than desirable. There are two operating rooms with two surgeons in each. With the nurses, anesthesiologists, and other staff to assist, it is certainly tight quarters. In addition, there is only one recovery room with four beds that were shared by up to three children at once. The doctors consult with patients in the hallway between the hospital and the operating room wing because there is no private room to do so. Regardless, spirits are high and the WSF brigade continues on in pursuit of helping the people of Honduras.