Mission Completed…

We recently completed our “Spring” 2017 Guatemala Surgical Mission on March 4th and it was by all accounts, extremely successful. Our 21 member team did an incredible job performing as though they had operated together for years! We had 3 orthopedists a Gynecologist, an Anesthesiologist a Dentist and an Anesthetist as well several nurses, a physical therapist and a fantastic team of support members! Our team completed 36 surgical procedures and treated 79 dental patients. The patients often have severely neglected conditions and the patients don’t present until the symptoms become unmanageable, resulting in a procedure that is much more difficult to perform. I am being very modest when I say our team did a fantastic job!!

Our sea container (that was shipped from Atlanta in August) finally arrived at the hospital and we distributed the supplies we had shipped down. Some of the items shipped included crutches, walkers, wheelchairs, procedural kits, stretchers, sterile gloves, hospital beds, shoes, clothing and infant supplies for the Mother/Baby unit. Jan Martinson had organized a very successful “Baby Shower” last summer at the Cartersville Medical Center and collected a large number of essential supplies for new mothers and their newborns. Unfortunately, the container wasn’t delivered in time for her to participate in the distribution of the supplies during our last mission, but lots of photos were taken for her to enjoy! Our sea container will now serve as a permanent storage unit that will allow us to organize and inventory our burgeoning supply of medical supplies and instruments and will allow us to be much more efficient. Many thanks go out to the Minister of Medicine and to the Administration of the Nacional Hospital of Amatitlan for allowing MOA to work in Guatemala and for allowing us to position our sea container on campus. The hospital staff put in long hours cleaning wrapping and sterilizing equipment long after the surgical team left for the hotel. We often didn’t leave the hospital until late in the evening leaving large collections of soiled instruments that needed to be processed; it was always ready to go the next morning. THANK YOU for doing such a great job!

One of our highlights was the fitting of a prosthetic leg for one of our patients that we amputated below the knee last year. We made a mold of his residual during our Fall 2016 visit and Mr. Bruce O’Brien of O’Brien Orthopedics and Prosthetics was so very kind to manufacture a prosthetic replacement for him, which (of course) fit perfectly. It should be noted that it is very difficult to produce a well functioning prosthesis “long distance”. Thank you Bruce for a job well done!

We are also very grateful to the sterile processing team at Cartersville Medical Center who worked on their own time sterilizing supplies for our mission; many thanks to all who made this possible! These supplies came via the support of the CMC administration whom allowed us to “repurpose “ materials that might have been opened for a case but not used; we are most appreciative of their continued support of MOA!

Although it is impossible to thank everyone who made a donation to help the impoverished patients in Guatemala, special thanks go out to; Biocomposites for their donation of Stimulan bead kits that allowed us to make time released antibiotic beads for treating open fractures; Mimedx for their generous donation of Amniofix products that allowed us to treat several difficult wounds; Terumo for their kind donation of shoe covers and OR hats; Delta Airlines for allowing us to participate in their Baggage Fee Waiver program. All of these donations served to make an incredible difference in many patients’ lives. I’d also like to thank the many Georgia Bone & Joint patients that have donated crutches, walkers, braces, slings, etc. that no longer need them; it is extremely difficult to perform some of the lower extremity surgeries without the availability of crutches or walkers. To the many, many people who have supported MOA with donations of time, money or materials or who may have simply offered kind words of support, THANK YOU!

As with all of our missions, they couldn’t have taken place without the individual team members who donated their time, energy and resources to travel to Guatemala to participate. This is a huge sacrifice and I am repeatedly honored and humbled by the compassion of the many members who return time and again to continue our work. You have my greatest admiration and appreciation; THANK YOU!

Our next Surgical/Dental mission to Guatemala is scheduled for the last week in October (22nd thru 28th). Hope you can join us!

Ed Atwell,