Mission Completed…

Medical Outreach of America just completed it’s second surgical mission to Amatitlan, Guatemala which was an incredible success! We performed 57 major surgeries in three days, as well as providing non-surgical care to dozens of other patients between cases. Many of the surgeries were extremely complicated because of the advanced nature of the disease process; because of the lack of availability of healthcare, patients generally don’t present for surgical treatment until their conditions have progressed to the point that their lives are in danger or the pain or disability is so great that they simply can’t stand it any longer. We were able to perform laparoscopic procedures on many of these patients avoiding an open procedure that would have resulted in several weeks of lost work and a dramatic adverse impact on the patient and their family. In addition, our team performed the first two total knee replacements to be done at the Amatitlan Hospital.

The mission would not have been the success that it was without the support of the many people of the local community and multiple corporations, businesses and organizations and I would like to thank them. A few specific entities that I would like to thank include:

Delta Airlines for their kind donation of baggage fee waivers that allowed us to carry a much larger volume of supplies that enabled us to perform the surgical procedures that are in such desperate need.

Storz Endoscopic Division:
Storz, and particularly Suzanne Cimino are to be commended for their exceptional ongoing support of humanitarian efforts. Suzanne facilitated the acquisition of endoscopic video equipment thru their local Latin American distributor for our use that week. This was no small feat as we gave her very short notice as the addition of our general surgeon to our team occurred fairly late in our pre-mission preparations. Many thanks also goes out to the Latin America Storz distributor, Casa Medica.

Ethicon:
Ethicon is well recognized for their support of medical mission work around the world and has been extremely supportive of MOA’s efforts. Kimberly Lenahan was instrumental in obtaining the necessary endoscopic cannulas and supplies for our mission with very little advance notice. Again, a near Herculean effort was required due to the short notice provided.

Cartersville Medical Center:
Many thanks to Administration and to all the people who helped, prayed and cheered for our mission. Without the support of the extremely hard working staff of the Central Sterile Supply division, our mission simply would not have been possible. They took time from their already very busy days to assist us in processing sterile supplies to use in Guatemala. Thank you!

While I am only able to mention a few people and entities by name, there are many more that have worked behind the scenes that contributed to our success. Ultimately, it is our team members who deserve the greatest recognition for their donation of time, money and commitment that truly made the mission successful. I find these missions are always very humbling and truly demonstrates just how incredibly blessed we are. I invite you to join us on one of our missions so that you might see the positive results of our work.

Ed Atwell, M.D.
President
Medical Outreach of America

Mission Photos