Missions – Page 3 – Hernia Help

Mao, Dominican Republic, November 2015

November 14, 2015/in Dominican Republic, Missions /by herniahelpadmin

2015 HRFU Dominican Republic Mao Trip Summary

The trip was held in Mao at the Luis L. Bogaert Hospital for a second straight year. This repeat site for HRFU in the Dominican Republic trip once again was truly a tremendous success. During 5 consecutive days in November we performed approximately 72 hernia operations on 66 individual patients of which 25 were pediatric hernias.

Aside from the operations that were performed numerous other patients were examined and benefited by being referred for additional medical, cardiac and even oncologic workups as a result of items identified preoperatively and intraoperatively while we were at the site.

As always our team members were grateful for the experience. We had team members representing Jersey Shore University Hospital (Neptune, NJ) , Lankenau Medical Center ( Wynnewood, PA) , Centrastate ( Freehold, NJ) , Swedish (Seattle), CHOP (Philadelphia) Hospitals as well as an Italian team from Milan Istituto Clinico Sant’Ambrogio Milan & Multimedica Hospital, University of InsubriaVarese.

Drs. Jarrod Kaufman, Giampiero Campanelli and Marta Cavalli were the adult surgeons and Dr. Robert L. Weinsheimer was our pediatric surgeon. Dr. Kaufman acted as team leader for the second year and brought many new first time physicians. Dr. Kari Palmer an Internal Medicine physician facilitated the preop and post op evaluations. Dr. Michelle Barnes joined to help provide high level anesthesia for the pediatric patients.

The anesthesia team consisted of Drs. Michelle Barnes (peds) and Dr. Anthony Fugaro.

The entire team of nurses, scrub technicians, sterile processing and translators performed well under more predictable, but less than perfect conditions. As this was our second time returning to the site we tried to help correct some of the needs and as a result we donated 2 new electrosurgical units and had 2 new sterilizers also donated which greatly facilitated the operative flow and instrument sterilization.

There is continued enthusiasm on the part of the team members and local hospital staff members to continue our work at this Mao based hospital. The Timmy Foundation, Banelino and the HRFU Local staff truly helped round out the team for our second successful mission at this location.

There were many good moments and below are but a few.

Below two of our pre-operative patients are waiting for their procedures.

Surgeon Training: Two fully trained local surgeons were trained by Drs. Campanelli on the Lichtenstein repair. Both surgeons did very well and were awarded 10 pieces of donated mesh for future Lichtenstein repairs on poor patients. This was done after watching the trainer operating on one patient and then after completion of 5 other groin hernia operations performed by the doctors with Dr. Campanelli first assisting each of them for the remaining cases. After each of the 5 operations a written rating form was used to assess surgical performance and has been standardized by HRFU.

Training has become an important part of the HRFU mission. Many additional successful hernia repairs will need to be performed by these surgeon we have trained. We believe that this training will eventually lead to the training of these surgeons to become trainers for hernia repair in their local area.

Dominican Republic, November 2015

November 7, 2015/in Dominican Republic, Missions /by herniahelpadmin

HRFU ILAC 2015 Mission trip

The team functioned well in the outstanding ILAC facility. New surgeons included Dr. Brian Jacobs, a Pediatric surgeon, Dr. John Murphy, Dr. Alex Schroeder from Hamburg Germany and Dr. Kal Nandipati. Many team members returned and we performed 88 hernia operations. One patient with a very large hydrocele was challenging but had no complications after the hydrocelectomy.

The entire 2015 team

Jim and Pat on the left in front of the Manion room

At the Wednesday night fiesta

Ouanaminthe, Haiti, November 2015

November 4, 2015/in Haiti, Missions /by herniahelpadmin

2015 HRFU Haiti Ouanaminthe Trip Summary

Hernia Help’s trip to Haiti last November was full of the usual adventures and misadventures customarily encountered on such missions to desperately poor countries. Two of them are worth the retelling as they bracketed both the beginning and the end of our journey.

Can you imagine our surgical team checking 30 supply bags at Newark New Jersey airport to find that only 29 of them had arrived in Santiago in the Dominican Republic on our way to Haiti. Of course it would be the very one containing all of our suture material and mesh. Fortunately a prescient member of our team (Dr Kern) had packed a “little extra” in his personal luggage and all was well. I wish I could remember the name of the delightful United Airlines agent who managed to find our bag in New Jersey and have it delivered to us within 36 hours. Without the two of them we would have had a very unproductive week indeed.

The real highlight of the week however occurred on Friday afternoon as we were packing to leave and head home. Barging in the door at exactly 1 o’clock came 2 man carrying a 20-year-old pregnant woman unconscious having an eclamptic seizure. Had they arrived one hour later both mother and unborn child would have died. However I’m delighted to tell you that by 1:50 PM both mom and little baby girl “Jersey”, delivered by emergency cesarean section, were coming along nicely in our recovery room. The professionalism and teamwork of our volunteers and the Haitian staff was awesome during that vital three quarters of an hour.

In the meantime 50 procedures were done for hernias and hydroceles with which many of our patients had suffered a lifetime of misery, discomfort and indeed embarrassment. They were readied preoperatively, put to sleep, operated upon, woken up safely and efficiently dispatched home. This was a remarkable achievement considering the conditions my team worked under, and it left everybody including our patients deeply satisfied.

Great care is taken by Hernia Repair for the Underserved in its selection of volunteers and each of them are top class in their chosen fields. Karen Batchelder and Kara Crawford, respectively circulating nurse and scrub tech, worked so well together with Dr. Bob Fitzgibbons, a world renowned surgeon and editor of the journal Hernia, that it was hard to think of them separately.

Edith Marquez and Amy Campeau, both scrub techs, were wonderful. I hope the surgeons they work with Stateside realize that they are sharing the operating room with real gems. Scott Muttel was the life and soul of the team. Only I realize how this trip was in large part due to his efforts in the enormous preparation required beforehand to make it a success. This man can fix anything with duct tape.

Rachel Dowd, pre and post-operative nurse while teaching, arranging discharge and follow-up was ever vigilant constantly on team recordkeeping, necessary administrative work to preserve the Preferential Option for the Poor; that is to maintain high quality of care. . Neena Philip, our preoperative nurse, worked with Rachel Dowd deep in the recesses of the hospital, without air-conditioning. Laboring always with a good-humored laugh, joy and a twinkle in her eye.

Dette Kutch, postoperative nurse, jumped right on board only days before the trip after an unexpected family emergency with one of our volunteers. John Dowd, whose quite gentle help and willingness to do anything made working with him a delight. Austin Philip, was our youngest member at 17. His enthusiasm, good humor and attention to detail bode very well for this young man’s future. He was also our official photographer and I can guarantee you he has the largest collection of hernia photographs of any teenager in the United States!

Drs Guy Salomon and Vadim Galkin, anesthesiologists, both first-timers to Haiti, neither seemed to break a sweat under daunting conditions that could be described at best as spartan. Dr Steven Kern’s, a snowman of a gent from Minnesota, winning wit and wisdom entertained us all mightily, all this along with his remarkable surgical skills. Dr Dwijen Misra, without missing a beat joined us mid-week to provide support when Dr. Fitzgibbons left for a teaching appointment in Argentinian. Dr. Misra’s infectious gregariousness impressed us all.

Such kindness, care, compassion and competence has left both myself and our 60 patients all the better for having known these outstanding professionals.

Kevin Buckley

Pediatric patients ready for surgery

Staff members at the CODEVI dining area

The Post Op Area

Surgery in Room 1

A salutation from the Pediatric patients

Bergan Mercy Surgery on Sunday: Omaha, NE, 2015

October 10, 2015/in Missions, USA /by herniahelpadmin

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Ft. Liberte, Haiti, 2015

October 6, 2015/in Haiti, Missions /by herniahelpadmin

Guatemala, September 2015

September 22, 2015/in Guatemala, Missions /by herniahelpadmin

2015 HRFU Guatemala Trip Summary

This was HRFU’s first mission in Guatemala. We were fortunate enough to work in collaboration with the Hospital Niño Jesús, Fundación Pediátrica. This facility is a five story, narrow, high-rise in downtown Guatemala. Our local host was Ariel Marroquín, Director of Operations of Partners for Surgery and Asociación Compañero Para Cirugía. Ariel is a young man, fluent in English who attended the University of Alabama. He functioned as our guide and safeguarded all of our transportation in Guatemala. Liset Olivet, Executive Director of Partners for Surgery and Asociación Compañero Para Cirugía, was a gracious host and on our last day she gave us all Guatemala purses, even the men.

Our first day at the hospital was Sunday, where the anesthesiologists pre-oped all the patients for surgery that week. Meanwhile, the rest of the team set up two surgery rooms. This facility is completely modernized as we were met by a biomed engineer, Joe. He made sure all the equipment and electronics were functioning for our surgeries. This hospital also had nurses, Irma and Maria Elena, who sterilized all of our instruments.

Our team was very small, consisting of members from Colorado, New York City and Omaha:

Dr. Mark Reiner – Adult Surgeon

Dr. David Partrick – Pediatric Surgeon

Dr. Daniel Rowen – Adult Anesthesiologist

Dr. Cynthia Ferris – Pediatric Anesthesiologist

Barb Haines, RN – Post Op

Sonya Cap, RN – Adult Circulator

Sarah Targoff, RN – Pediatric Circulator

Jamie Genre, CST – Pediatric Scrub

Amy Vinton, CST – Adult Scrub

Barb Elliott, RN – Coordinator

Mike Elliott – Admissions & Discharge Coordinator

I think what impressed us most about the trip was that Partners for Surgery took complete care of all patients. They have a beautiful facility that provided room and board for all patients through the week. They transported the patients to and from the facility for surgery. An ambulance was on standby outside of the hospital – available for emergencies. They had a fully staffed post-operative floor where patients stayed the night. There were many full-time physicians and nurses to care for these patients post-operatively and overnight.

Dr. Mynor Alvarez, a local family practitioner, examined the patients and took care of all the patients from post-op to admission to the floor. He took care of any medical problems that arose and would administer pain medications as needed. We repaired 24 pediatric hernias and 39 adult hernias, with one very complicated scrotal hernia. There were no complications during or after surgery.

We were provided lunch every day by Partners for Surgery. There were many volunteers from Partners for Surgery who helped transport patients up steep ramps and assisted with the discharge of patients.

Our team stayed at a beautiful historical hotel called the Posada Belin, only five blocks from the hospital. As we were there during the rainy season, it poured daily, about 2-4 inches per day. There are many historical sites in Zone 1, where we were located. However, due to the rain we were unable to see much.

We want to thank everyone from Partners for Surgery, especially Ariel and Liset, for a wonderful safe mission.

Paraguay, September 2015

September 12, 2015/in Missions, Paraguay /by herniahelpadmin

Brazil, 2015

August 30, 2015/in Brazil, Missions /by herniahelpadmin

Salcedo, Dominican Republic, May 2015

May 24, 2015/in Dominican Republic, Missions /by herniahelpadmin

2015 HRFU Dominican Republic Salcedo Trip Summary

The week of May 24^th, 2015 was the first HRFU trip to Salcedo, DR. A team of 16 volunteers from the USA, 3 volunteers from the Peace Corps, and Dr. Lesly Manigat our on-site coordinator, descended upon Hospital Regional Dr. Pascasio Toribio Piantini. This trip would not have been possible without the interpreter and logistic support provided by the regional branch of the Lions Club, and by generous supply donations from Direct Relief and Fundacion Solidaria. With this help, the team was able to operate on 42 patients despite disruptions related to an unexpected regional physicians strike – a tremendous success. Surgery was provided completely free of charge to all patients, with small and large hernias of the abdomen and groin repaired. All operations were successful, and there were no complications.

The team was incredibly well received by the community and the hospital and its staff. Many fond memories and new friendships created, with the community and the team looking forward to an even more successful mission next year.

The team. From L to R: Mike Elliot, Barb Elliot, Nathanial Misra, Katie Clampitt, Krista Hinman, Dwijen Misra, Chris Hanson, Jessica Porritt, Rebecca Paskiet, Lesly Manigat, Tommy Lee, Amy Vinton, Julia Field, Victoria Conforte, Lisa Lugo, Dawn Porritt, Anna Disque, Fritz Disque, Jeanie Fry, Ron Oconer

This trip would not have been possible without supplies from our generous donors.

Many new friends were made. Here, Victoria Conforte, Barb Elliot, and Dr. Lesly Manigat pose with some the local nurses and technicians.

Patients in the pre-op area.

Jeanie Fry and Katie Clampitt working the recovery room. There were no complications.

Drs. Misra, Dr. Manigat with Dr. Pedro Hildalgo hospital chief of surgery

Surgery on Sunday: Omaha, NE, February 2015

February 26, 2015/in Missions, USA /by herniahelpadmin

University of Nebraska HRFU Hernia Mission 2015

Through the auspices of the University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC) and with the help of Dr. Filipi 3 surgeons, Dr. Sammy Cemaj the team leader, Dr. Keely Buesing and Dr. Vishal Kothari and Dr. Allyson Hascal chief of Anesthesia performed free hernia surgery on 13 in need patients. The patients had no Medicare, Medicaide, private insurance and all lived at or below 200% of the poverty level. Dr. Hans Dethlefs, a family practice physician at the One World clinic, coordinated recruitment of patients from area free clinics and performed all pre-operative history and physicals. Mrs. Penny Johnson RN, coordinated patient care at the medical center and communication between patients and physician offices. Multiple administrative meetings were conducted which included Mr. William Dinsmore the CEO of the UNMC system. The surgeons saw the patients pre-operatively in their clinic, confirmed the diagnosis and obtained informed consent.

On February 27 at the Bellevue Medical Center all patients with family members arrived early for admission and then throughout the day surgery was performed in three operating rooms. Third year medical students participated and first assisting in the ORs. All surgery was completed by 2:30 PM and no intra-operative or early post-operative complications occurred.

Patients will be followed in the surgeons offices, in 7 -10 days and at one year. Below are pictures of the students and surgeons.

UNMC medical students that participated

Dr. Sammy Cemaj the team leader

Dr. Keely Buesing on the left

Dr. Vishal Kothari on the far left

The initiative went smoothly and the patients and families were well pleased. A number of team said when are we going to do this again.