Medical Outreach of America is extremely pleased to offer the opportunity to return to Vietnam on another medical mission.  We have teamed with the International Center in Hanoi http://www.theintlcenter.org/index.html  as our primary sponsor and will be working with the Medical University in Hue and the Hue Office of Foreign Affairs locally. 

Recently, we had the chance to visit clinic locations outside Da Nang as well as Hue and there is a very real need for services.  There is also the chance this year to spend a day teaching at the Medical University (in Hue) for those interested. 

We will be partnering with the International Center as well as the Medical and Dental Schools to provide care.  The Universities will provide medical/dental students as translators during our outreach days.

Dr. Matos and his wife Awilda launched the inaugural “Buckets of Life” program during our Spring 2018 mission. MOA is SO blessed to have such generous and caring team members such as Dr. and Mrs. Matos. The “Buckets of Life” program was conceived by them to help improve the nutrition of the people in the area.
They procured food grade 5 gallon buckets to fill with vitamins, corn meal, sugar, rice, beans, incaparina cooking oil, a Bible, a blanket and a water filter.

The poorest families were identified by the local social services entity (many of these families subsist on well LESS than a dollar/day) in the small settlement of Carmen del Monte, Villanueva and the team members who weren’t essential to complete the surgeries on Wednesday and Thursday filled the buckets for distribution on Friday. The water filters were purchased from Filters of Hope (www.filterofhope.org); each filter can treat up to 50,000 gallons of water to provide a safe, clean water source for several years. They are extremely simple to use and require minimal maintenance.

If you would like to make a donation to this very special project, any donation would be most gratefully accepted. It costs approximately $55.00 to purchase the filter, bucket and items to fill it. If you would like to make a donation to this most worthwhile project, simply ear mark your donation “Buckets of Life” when making your check to Medical Outreach of America. 100% of these funds will go towards the purchase and distribution of the buckets and foodstuffs and supplies.

If you would like more information regarding the Buckets of Hope program, please contact me at: Ed@moramerica.com or atwelle@gmail.com .

Ed Atwell, M.D.

MOA recently delivered the 4th sea container to Guatemala. The container was shipped on April 5 and finally made it thru Customs and the duty free process and was delivered to the Hospital in Amatitlan on June 7. It was filled with hospital medical supplies that included pallets and pallets containing basic items such as syringes, needles, dressings, TED hose, adult diapers, shoe covers, non-skid hospital socks, wheelchairs, walkers and crutches. There were also cases and cases of various knee, elbow, wrist and ankle splints and dressing supplies. We also shipped 3 anesthesia machines, a table top autoclave, commercial ice maker, coffee makers, potable water dispensers, various and sundry tools and supplies for the maintenance workers, two motorized adjustable exam tables and two stretchers. There were also cases and cases of water filters that will provide clean potable drinking water for hundreds of families.

It also contained a refurbished fluoroscopy unit that was donated by Mr. Arnold Bates, President of Medical Imaging Solutions. This is an essential piece of equipment that will greatly improve our efficiency in the operating room and will allow us to do procedures that will be significantly less invasive than the techniques currently employed.

The maintenance department at the hospital in Amatitlan had precious few tools and supplies to carry out their duties and Mr. Troy Weaver set about collecting all of the items on their “bucket list” which were shipped as well. These included an air compressor, saws, brooms, mops, toolbox and tool chest. Troy and Mandy Weaver (Amanda is Troy’s better half) were the driving force needed to prepare the items for shipping.

While the unpacking and storage of the supplies in Guatemala required a fair amount of work, it paled comparison to the preparation required to ready the container for shipping. EVERY item had to be counted and collated, and the expiration dates checked and recorded. We received approximately 6 pallets of supplies donated by Northwest Georgia Health Systems in Gainesville, GA; the sorting was complicated by the fact that a particular item might be distributed into 10 or more boxes on multiple pallets that needed to be sorted into manageable aliquots to minimize the paper work associated with preparing a spread sheet for importation. This process required days and days of work and were it not for the tenacity and dedication of Troy and Mandy Weaver, this task would still be unfinished. Not only were they instrumental in the sorting and documentation of the supplies, they showed up ready and willing to help load the sea container.

To assist in the unpacking and to insure that some the items that were earmarked for a specific department was distributed as intended, Don and Stacey Smith accompanied me to Amatitlan for what was pretty much a whirlwind trip. We arrived late Tuesday evening, supervised and assisted in the unpacking of the trucks on Thursday and left Amatitlan Friday morning to head back to the States.

We recently (mid-April 2017) took a small team to Guatemala to organize our sea container filled with equipment and supplies that arrived this winter. We distributed most of the supplies and equipment during our February/March 2017 mission, but had much organizing to do. Previously, we were tasked with sorting and organizing our instruments and supplies (that had been stored off site) each mission, severely compromising our efficiency.

We were able to re-organize multiple instrument trays that will allow us to proceed from case to case without having to wait in the queue for a sterilization cycle. We also catalogued and inventoried our supplies so that we know where our needs and strengths are and steri-packed several tubs of instruments that will eliminate the need to open an entire instrument set to access only one instrument. We installed many feet of shelving to allow us to store instrument sets and supplies in a logical, clearly labeled fashion that will decrease search times finding the desired item. Additionally, we were able to divide our cache of instruments such that we now have multiple instrument sets that will allow us to perform several similar procedures without having to sterilize instrument trays between surgeries.

Many, many thanks to the following MOA team members who donated their time and talents and resources to make the mission effort more efficient and productive:

Dr. John Brunette
Laura Brunette
Sandy Atwell
Stacey Smith
Melissa Smith

I am also very grateful for the assistance that Ms. Artemis Escobar continues to provide to MOA. She took time from work to lend a hand in organizing the supplies, toting plywood, providing interpreting services and driving us to and from the hardware store (actually, several times) to purchase the needed brackets, fasteners, etc. Artemis has and continues to go above and beyond to assist MOA and her fellow countrymen.

I would also like to thank Jonathan_________ and Erwin ______________ for their assistance in the construction of shelving, organization of equipment and interpreting. We meet these gentlemen as patients during our last mission; it is so rewarding to see these young men “paying it forward”!

Many thanks go out to Mr. Bruce O’Brien owner of O’Brien Prostheses and Orthotics for producing and donating a below the knee and an above the knee prosthesis for two of our patients in Guatemala. There are many patients with infected non-unions or amputations in Guatemala that simply have to live with their impairment, as they have no access to quality prosthetics. These are very difficult problems to treat, even here in the United States requiring wide excision of the infected bone, specialized fixators that accommodate bone transport techniques, months of treatment and bone grafting, all of which are very expensive. Often, an amputation and the fitting of a good prosthesis is the best treatment for a non-functional limb.

We performed the BKA ( below the knee amputation) on our patient for an infected non-union during our Spring 2016 mission and made a mold of his residual during the Fall 2016 mission and presented it to Mr. O’Brien who completed a prosthesis that fit beautifully and allowed the patient to become ambulatory almost immediately (See the video of the patient 48 hours after receiving his prosthesis in the Completed Missions section of the web site). As the result of the gracious generosity and talents of Mr. O’Brien, our patient will be able to return to work and take care of his family.

Mr. O’Brien also completed a prosthesis for one of our patients who had undergone an above the knee amputation (AKA) several years prior. We had completed a mold of her residual during our Fall 2016 mission, but when we evaluated her to fit her prosthesis, she had lost an extreme amount of weight as the result of a recurrence of her colon cancer and the prosthetic socket is now too large, but fortunately, can be resized.

Bruce, many thanks for your kind generosity, your superb talents and for your continued support of MOA! Many lives have been greatly enriched as the result of your selfless contributions!

Ed Atwell, M.D.