Day 2

This will post once we get back to the hotel, but.... It is 2030. We're still operating and have at least an hour left in the OR and another half hour in recovery. Dinner has not been eaten, our feet and legs ache, we're tired... But we're still excited to be in San Pedro Sula, helping kids and changing lives. We've all decided that the  mission miracle for this trip was when the head of the World Surgical Foundation, Dr. Alvear performed emergency bowel surgery on a newborn baby who was born with its bowel outside of the abdomen. Had the mission not been in the right place at the right time, that child would have been lost. Today I watched one of our talented surgeons perform a bone graft of a rib, fashion an ear out of it and implant it on a child who had no ear. I also assisted with a skin graft and ear revision. Crazy, amazing surgical procedures going on here in Honduras!

 

 

San Pedro Sulas, Honduras - Screening Day/Unpacking Day

Such a happy child! (picture taken by Shane Burgess)

 

Pre-surgical screening waiting room.

 

 

 

A wheelchair utilized by patients in the hospital.

This is the only wheelchair I have seen thus far.

 

 

 

This is our storage room which has to remain locked so items don't disappear in our absence, even while we're just down the hall in surgery.

 

Today was a great first day! I became more acquainted with the team from the World Surgical Foundation, toured the enormous(compared to what we've worked in during our trips to the Philippines) hospital in which we are working, and got a taste of the culture and their delicious cuisine. Grupo Ayuda is a local organization that is caring for us much like the Rotarians have in the past. We are bused to/from the hospital as a group and provided with delicious meriendas (snacks). They have also been keeping track of us to make sure no one gets left behind in this area of heightened danger. I am so thankful to be a part of this mission!