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Surgicorps Zambia 2019 Team departs on September 14^th and returns on the 21nd with 20 medical and non-medical team members. We look forward to partnering again with Beit CURE International Children’s Hospital in Lusaka. Our team members hail from Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Colorado, Arizona,  Minnesota, and Ohio.

Our returning volunteers include Heather Archambeault, Diane Bremer, Tara Burns, Christine Depenthal, Lori Ellis, Brian Gierl, Betty Hearne, Derrin Jarvis, Rama Joshi, David Kim, Darren LePere, John Merrill, and Jimmy Ricciardi.

A warm welcome to our new team members this year: Denis Childs, Julie LePere, Paul Rollins, Chris Sheerer and Melissa Shelby.

Jack Demos returns as Medical Director and DeNese Olson, Director of Operations and Outreach, is the Trip Coordinator.

Thank you Team Zambia for helping Surgicorps serve people in need in Lusaka. Stay tuned and follow us, for trip updates and pictures, on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram!

Surgicorps is preparing for our 17th trip to Guatemala from August 3th-10th with a team of 36 dedicated medical and non-medical volunteers. Our team this year includes: 10 members from Pennsylvania, 24 from other states, 1 from Canada and 1 from Costa Rica.

Surgicorps looks forward to working with hospital staff at the Obras Sociales del Santo Hermano Pedro Hospital again in Antigua.

Previous Surgicorps team members include Dylan Anthony, Pat Avis, Cliff Bierman, Mary Bierman, Cathy Boyle, Kevin Cohen, Brian Gierl, Anne Hardart, Don Hare, Amy Hatch, Meghan Lauze, Carlos Mata, Farzaneh Nabizadeh, Jonathan Pelusi, Nagamalli Ramakrishna, Drake Sadler, Robert Schemmer, Sean Whelan and Etain Williams-Asplund.

We welcome several new team members this year as well: Douglas Adams, Patricia Auger, Marc Auger, Annie Bass, Cathy Beatty, Maria Beatty, Jane Camero, Alexandra Chalifoux, Beth Van Dusen, Patricia Ferrer, Michael Gemma, Deanne Hagerty, Brenda Mathews-Vitello, Julia Meisler, and Sasha Suarez-Ferreira. David Kim returns as Medical Director and Stephanie Charron will be the Trip Coordinator. 

Surgicorps launched the Bon Voyage Crowdrise fundraiser and hope that the Guatemala team members, and others, will once again participate in raising money to support our general Guatemala fund. These donations support the purchase of medical supplies and shipping costs amongst other expenses.

Surgicorps is grateful to these generous individuals who help make our shared mission of serving individuals in need around the world possible through their commitment of time, energy and resources. Stay tuned and follow us, for trip updates and pictures, on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Zambia

What can I say? We have been working with surgicorps for many years now, I have to count my collection of Tshirts to find our how many trips you guys did to Zambia.

We fell in love with you at first sight, we loved the team, we loved the passion, the attitude towards the patients and all our staff, we loved the reliability and the great technical skills. And all patients loved you guys more than my words can say, They will sing for you at the end of the week once again at your next trip.

Thanks for all you do

Giorgio

Samoa

I suspect that you will get many quotes from many places talking about how you’ve dramatically improved the quality of life for so many people, which is most certainly true for Samoa as well. Perhaps to change it up a bit, I would share what the Samoan surgical team said about you all, and that was “Surgicorps was the only visiting medical team that actually had their lunches in the staff quarters with us. Most visiting teams go out for lunch or perhaps eat a little something privately, but Surgicorps share food with us every day and really took the time to get to know us as people.

Regards,

Benj

Vietnam

I have been blessed to be part of the Surgicorps team in organizing the medical trip for the skilled individuals willing to give of their talents, professions and compassion to my homeland where I grow up as a small girl.

I congratulate for seeing into the future to knows the needs and wanting to help others that are not able to accomplish these procedures by themselves.

Thank you from the bottom of my heart to all the team members of Surgicorps past, present and future.

With respect always and Love you all.

Thanh

Thank you so much for email me. Please send my congratulations to the Surgicorp and the short message I would like to send you is:

“The staff of the 1A Hospital” in Hochiminh city would like to send their sincerest gratitude to Surgicorp which is celebrating its 25^th year. Over the past two years, Surgicorp with their outstanding plastic surgeons and amazing volunteers have improved the lives of countless patients with cleft lip and palates repairs, burn scar revisions, and stabilization of congenital limb deformities. We are so happy that Surgicorp will continue to work with us in the future and we look forward to your return.

Many hugs,

Yours

Dr Duong Phan

Bhutan

Congratulations on the Silver Jubilee Celebrations of Surgicorps!! 

You must be busy with all the preparation for the big party. Please convey my best wishes to Dr. Jack and to all at Surgicorps. I am currently on leave and spending some time in Korea with my husband. I will be back in Bhutan on the 22nd of July. 

I wanted to acknowledge receipt of your mail and of course I will be happy to sent in a message. You must have heard that Her Majesty The Queen Mother’s father passed away in May at the age of 95. The Royal Family has been rather tied up with all the prayer services, and receiving guests and citizens alike who come to pay their respects. Under the circumstances I hesitate to request Her Majesty for a message, but I will mention that you are celebrating Surgicorps 25th year of service to humanity and we will take it from there.

With lots of love and fond remembrances, 

Chime

Dear Dr.Jack and Linda,

We are extremely sorry for the delay in sending the message across on time. The ADC has been able to get Her Majesty sign on it only yesterday, Her Majesty is still at Punakha and there were prayer sessions for HMQM’s late father due to which the letter as not put up. 

Kindly find attached the scanned copy of the letter and we would like to send the original copy by ems, please send us an address. 

Sending our best wishes on the Silver Jubilee of the Surgicorp International and thank you again on behalf of all the lives your team has transformed in Bhutan and around the globe. May the team always be blessed with good health and wellbeing to continue the noble task.

With all our 💛

Tarayana  family

Yours faithfully

Sonam Pem

Tarayana Foundation

Guatemala

In honor of Surgicorps International’s 25th anniversary celebration, volunteers have shared some memorable moments and thoughts here:

“This donation in honor of my daughter has it’s roots in Surgicorps that planted the fertile seed waiting to grow in my daughter, Charlotte’s, heart. As a mother I was able to see the seed germinate on her Surgicorps trip as we traveled together to Guatemala. My husband and I watered that seed with support in many tangible and intangible ways. Today she is an ophthalmology resident pursuing dreams of preserving vision. Thank you Surgicorps and esp Jack Demos, MD.” ~ Surgicorps Volunteer

Here are some photos of other volunteers on trips!

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The 13^th surgical mission to Bhutan resulted in 118 patients being screened and 60 people receiving surgery.  In addition, 168 people received knee injections to ease hard-working, arthritic joints.  Bhutan is truly a magical, mythical place and the Bhutanese are quiet, humble and lovely people.  To be involved in this work is moving, gratifying and eye-opening for the volunteers who make the journey. In the face of discomfort and long waiting times the patients and their family members are deeply appreciative for the important, life-changing surgery provided by Surgicorps International.  Here are some of their stories:

Dawa Tshering is a 60 year old farmer who lives south of Paro in a town called Shaba.  He lives with his wife at a higher elevation than his relatives.  One early evening about 6 months ago he was making his way down the hill to see his relatives, walking on a path with tall bushes and beside a drain trough.  He saw a black animal that he thought was a wild boar, so he shouted at it.   It wasn’t a boar after all; it was a Himalayan black bear and very dangerous!!

The bear swiped its powerful and sharp claws at him and took off his right ear.  He was knocked down a small bank into a rice paddy.  That may have been good fortune because the bear shuffled away instead of continuing the attack.  He was in shock and did not realize the extent of his injuries.  He returned home but then saw how much he was bleeding.  He called his niece, Gyem, and told her he had been “eaten” by a bear.  She thought the attack was ongoing and in panic, sent out a group of men on foot to rescue Dawa.  Realizing he was home and now safe, his relatives cleaned the wound and took him to the hospital.  The surgeons asked for the ear and the family located it and brought it back to Thimphu in a jar.  It had been outside on the ground overnight and it was too late to reattach it. The family provided a proper spiritual ending to the severed body part by setting it afloat in the Thimphu River.  The initial repair treatment closed the ear canal leaving him quite deaf.  Dawa was fairly anxious about a surgery but was hoping it would result in improved hearing.  The Surgicorps’ surgeon reconstructed his ear canal to enlarge it. The following morning when doctors were making rounds, he was smiling broadly and telling us that he could hear again! 

Kul Bahadur Tamang is 47, from Samdrup Jongkhar, in the southeast, two days driving distance from Paro.  He is a switchboard operator at a Bhutan Power Corporation.  When he was 5 or 6 years old, he was out with a group of other children to attend to the cattle grazing, without adult supervision.  The kids started a fire and he must have been too close.  His t-shirt caught on fire.  The kids were able to put the fire out, remove his shirt and take him home.  Thankfully, he does not remember the pain of the extensive burn under his right arm.  Burn scars contract over the years and this man had not been able to lift his arm up over his head for some time.  The skin in his armpit had been stretched to the point that it appeared webbed between his upper arm and his torso.  Doctors were able to release the contracture and he is currently in the process of healing.  He and his wife Sukreni are very glad that this surgery will help him have greater mobility.

Update on Sonam Rigsel Dorji:  Those who follow the Bhutan blog will remember the little boy who had severe burns and extensive scaring on his legs.  He was first treated by Surgicorps doctors in 2016 and his mother, Tshering, made the 2-day journey to Paro with Sonam and his little sister for continued treatment in 2017 and in 2018.  It required a series of surgeries to release the burn scar, remove scar tissue and graft new skin to the sites. Sonam appeared at the hospital for a review by the doctors again this year.  He was walking easily, running, jumping, bending over and kicking a soccer ball around.  He reported that there was nothing bothering him, and Dr. Demos declared his treatment a success.  His mother cried grateful tears and expressed her heartfelt appreciation for the medical repair work that has resulted in full mobility for her young son.

I am so grateful that I was able to be a part of the second Samoan mission. As a first time member of a Surgicorps team, I didn’t know what it would be like. While on the final leg of my journey there, the plane full of Samoan travelers had a relaxed, chatty vibe that was an introduction to the personality of the residents.

The patients we saw also were relaxed, brave, grateful and just generally enjoyable. The personnel from Tupua Tamasese Meaole Hospital were pleasant and helpful, highly professional and welcoming.

My job as an operating room nurse was to either circulate or scrub on cases that would be routine in the U.S., but were a big deal for the Samoans who had tolerated their lesion, or their problem for years, needing surgery.

One teen who had surgical repair of his burn contractures of his hand was so grateful and hopeful that he would soon be able to play his piano and guitar.  He was fitted for post-op splints by our occupational therapist. An absolutely vital step for successful treatment for him.

Another child of about 9 years walked in the O.R. with his father, both smiling widely, and so pleased to be having a big surgery. He has a very large black facial birthmark over more than a third of his face and eye. The first stage was to remove the cheek portion and reconstruct with a skin graft.

Other patients had masses removed with beautiful plastic closures, repair of birth defects such as cleft lip and palate, or dermoid cysts, lipomas, and other lesions.

I was honored to be a part of these life-altering services. Working with the dedicated team from Surgicorps was inspiring. Their skills in patient care, combined with gentleness and compassion were quick and efficient.  The portion of the team screening and readying patients for surgery was skilled and efficient as well.  The work flowed smoothly due to good planning, love, and care.

I feel blessed and honored to have been a part of this group, and thankful to have been invited to join them.