Mission Completed…

MOA recently completed the Fall surgical mission to Amatitlan, Guatemala where we provided Orthopedic and Plastic Surgery services to the underserved citizens of Amatitlan.  While we were very productive, we were not able to complete as many surgeries as planned or hoped for.  We had 17 team members accompany us which included 6 physicians, (2 anesthesiologists, 2 orthopedists, 1 plastic surgeon and 1 radiologist), 1 anesthetist, 2 surgical technicians, 2 RN’s, 1 orthotics/prosthetics technician and 5 support team members.  5 team members were first time participants and were we were delighted to have them join us.

Team members Gerry DiFilipo and Troy Weaver made it their personal mission to identify and correct issues that were affecting the performance of the autoclaves and I’m happy to report that they are now working as they are supposed to.  I am confident that going forward, we will be able to quickly and efficiently sterilize our equipment and have it ready for much quicker turnovers.  Despite these issues, we were able to complete 13 orthopedic procedures and 21 plastic surgery procedures.  As the result of generous donations outside the mission fees, we were able to perform a total knee arthroplasty that otherwise would have never been possible.

Bruce O’Brien kept busy repairing, fitting and taking molds for replacement prostheses.

While not everyone who participated in the mission were doctors or nurses, they were essential in allowing us to carry out our surgeries.  Running to the sea container for additional or unanticipated supplies, checking on the status of  surgical packs and keeping an eye out for patients that they might see in the hallways that might need our assistance were daunting tasks.

I am very proud of our September 2019 team members and they should be very proud of themselves for jobs well done!!  While we couldn’t treat everyone who needed our service, the lives of the patients we did reach will be forever impacted.

Ed Atwell, M.D.