Mission of Hope, Santa Cruz, April 2011
This is my second attempt at a blog update so forgive us that it’s taken a few days for us to update everyone on our journey. We were exhausted after our abbreviated journey, and we are still nursing students for 39 more days…graduation cannot come soon enough!
On Friday, March 25th, we met at Trinity Presbyterian in Charlottesville to bid our loved ones good-bye and begin the first leg of our journey. We learned only as we were about to leave that because of the fuel fires at Miami International Airport the day before that flights canceled and we would be unable to make it to Santa Cruz that day. We sort of stood around in disbelief for a few minutes, and then collected our bags and went back home! There were ideas of chartering a bus and driving to Miami, but there was still no guarantee that we could fly out of Miami if we made it there. And so we did not get very far on Friday. Friday evening we learned that we would most likely be leaving on Monday, which indeed, we did.
So…Monday. Same time, same place. Good-byes weren’t quite so emotional, at least for me, this time…we just wanted to get there! So we departed uneventfully on a bus to Reagan National right on time, and wondered why we had allowed so much time to get to the airport. At check-in, we were informed that our many boxes and Rubbermaid containers of medical supplies were not acceptable packaging for Bolivia (apparently a new rule, as they had packaged equipment this way for years without any fuss) and the mission would have to pay $480 to buy airline duffels to repack our medical supplies in order to ensure their safe arrival. So there all of 23 or so of us stood, unpacking and repacking at the American Airlines check-in desk. I’m sure they were glad to have us on our way.
We boarded our plane, and after a bumpy ride, we made it safely to Miami International Airport, where we had an early dinner (Fuddruckers!…it would be our last burger for a while…) before boarding the plane to Santa Cruz. We traveled all through the night, and there was a stop in La Paz. I am not sure what time we got to Santa Cruz, but sometime in the morning. We filled out our customs forms, collected our bags, and boarded a bus for the last leg of our journey to Santa Cruz. We went to the Hotel Continental and checked in, cleaned up (some of us cleaned up…), and loaded back into the bus to catch our first glimpse of the clinic and the patients for whom we would be caring. Our team consisted of anesthesiologists, ENT surgeons, OR nurses, PACU nurses, autoclavers, floor nurses (that’s us!), translators (Spanish and German), and non-medical staff that did everything else for us!
After lunch, we were introduced to the rest of the team that had already made it to Santa Cruz and we got to work. Over the week, 68 surgeries were completed, ranging from tonsillectomies and adenoidectomies to stapesectomies, septoplasties, mastoidectomies, canalplasties, parotidectomies, turbinoplasties, palate repairs, removal of nasal polyps and cysts, among others. Our days were structured as follows—6:00 am: devotional; 6:30 am: breakfast; 7:00 am-8:00 pm+, clinic; 8:00pm-10:00 pm: dinner. They were very full days, but filled with rewards. Some of our special stories include Karla, a 14 year old young girl with a bilateral nasal obstruction. There were bleeding complications and she had to return to surgery to have an artery cauterized. I am happy to share that she was doing beautifully when she left the clinic two days later. Luis is a young man who did not get to have an ear reconstruction because he had a facial nerve obstructing the area they needed to cut and they couldn’t do that without causing paralysis to his face. He left very good-natured with a bandage around his head to show his “battle scars” to his friends when he returned home to Coche Bamba, which would be a 12 hour journey. He is returning next year for an outer ear reconstructive surgery, although he will never hear from the ear. Julia is a middle-aged woman who had a 5 pound parotid tumor removed from the side of her face. The before and after photos are stunning, and she is unrecognizable as the same person. She is beautiful inside and out. And the Juan twins are young boys who both had tympanoplasties and loaded Robin with kisses as they were discharged. There are many other stories of patient success stories. From our perspective, as diligently as we worked on the floor, the real heroes were the surgery team that made every miracle possible by working even longer hours and turning over two operating rooms over in record time for a dozen or more surgeries in a day.
After a long, although abbreviated, week, we had a fabulous dinner at Rodizio’s, a restaurant similar to Texas de Brasil, for anyone familiar with this Richmond delight. As for Robin, Cari, Ashley, and myself, we ended our week in our room telling stories, recapping the week, and laughing uncontrollably at things that perhaps were only funny because of our exhaustion and perspective in the moment. We will never forget our five days in Santa Cruz, and our lives are forever changed because of special little moments with each of our patients.
