The opportunity to participate in these medical mission trips is open to everyone, not just people with a clinical background. It takes a healthy mix of clinical and non-clinical volunteers to have a successful week. A person without clinical experience can volunteer at the surgery center turning rooms over, washing instruments, taking out trash, helping with breakfast and lunch, etc. If they do not want to help at the surgery center, there are other things they can do to experience the ranch. Some of our volunteers helped care for the children, made meals for the children or made meals for our team. The staff onsite put up a volunteer list every evening so that people could pick what they wanted to help with the next day.
This trip was much more than I expected. I have spoken with other physicians who go on medical mission trips in other countries, and they talk about their experience of performing surgery in a tent or in a facility without air-conditioning. They also talk about several surgeries going on in the same room at the same time. This was not my experience at all. One World Surgery’s mission is to ignite the spirit of service and transform lives by providing access to high-quality surgical care globally. Every case performed follows the same processes as we do in the US. The patients are treated the same as we would treat our patients, and they receive the same surgical care we provide in the US.
For one patient who came to us with severe anemia, we needed to obtain blood—something that ASCs in Honduras are allowed to provide. One World made accommodations for this patient for an overnight stay before surgery. Then, they type- and cross-matched him for blood and traveled into town that evening and the next day to get the supply they needed. This patient’s surgery was the last case we performed on Friday, and One World made accommodations to keep him overnight or as long as needed until he was stable and could return home. This gentleman had been in the public hospital for two weeks with no hope, and his condition was deteriorating. One World Surgery gave him hope and gave him his life back.