The surgical team is performing the last lip and palate repairs in the operating rooms today, and is taking pride in being able to treat every child that showed up, and was healthy enough to receive a safe surgery. While this is going on, the rest of the team embarkeds upon another outreach mission today…
Read MoreNext to the regular surgery schedule a part of our team was venturing out to a little school tucked half way into the mountain range rising steeply up behind Huehuetenango. It is amazing how the landscape, infrastructure and with it, the standard of living changes within only 30 mins of a bumpy ride in a…
Read MoreThis post is to introduce a humanitarian project to you that runs under the sponsorship of our local Rotarian friend, Dr. Cesar Temaj at the Salus I clinic: The “Fundacion Salvacion” is an orphanage just outside of Huehuetenango and serves as a transient or permanent shelter for orphans or otherwise abandoned people. Usually the family…
Read MoreToday is a “full power” day. The team starts early and heads out to the hospital after a joint 6:30 breakfast & briefing. We have 7 surgical interventions under general anesthesia in our two operating rooms and 4 procedures in the dental clinic on the list. There are two little patients on the list who…
Read MoreIt is a little bit less obvious to detect than if a kid has come around to trusting you and finally gives you a smile, but those of you who traveled a bit will probably agree: There are times when “attentiveness” is only as skin deep as the surface of a fuzzy peach, because it…
Read MoreOur Sunday starts with good news: The local Rotarian team was able to move a back-up anesthesia unit into the hospital and got it up and running, also we finally found suction containers in our supplies = Both of our OR’s are open for business! The surgery schedule for today lists 7 interventions – tonsillectomy,…
Read MoreAnother beautiful day in Guatemala. Today we screened our second wave of patients and the diverse mixture of stories continued. Everybody loved that little Fernando returned with his parents. His father is a nurse and specifically sought out our mission for his son’s treatment. We have seen the family now for more than 6 years and…
Read MoreOur day one on the mission did prove to be a turbulent one: We could only operate with a core team since the rest -thanks to Delta’s surprising flight cancellation- is still en route to Huehue – and now scheduled to join us tomorrow around noontime. So well, here we are, families and kids on…
Read More10:15 local time our hospital was shaken quite vigorously by an earthquake, 6.4 Richter scale with an epicenter about 50 miles from us in Mexico. While we were all rushing to the outside, our Guatemalean friends were quite relaxed about it “Welcome to Guatemala – welcome to the ring of fire”. Things calmed down soon…
Read MoreSo far the 2019 Mission seems to be under a good star: The government shutdown is paused just in time for us all travelling and also winter storm “Jayden” seems to move through the plains plenty ahead of the time for our take-offs – I hope I dont JINXX it by writing those lines. It is…
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