I will be traveling to Guatemala with the organization Faith in Practice in January 2025 for a week long surgical mission trip. As a chief surgery resident in the Saint Joseph Hospital Program in Denver, I will be directly contributing to the operative interventions the organization provides there. The mission occurs annually and serves a large number of patients in need with a wide variety of surgical conditions.
Faith in Practice is an incredible organization bringing life changing medical care to low access areas across the globe. They particularly focus on numerous communities within the country of Guatemala for multiple reasons. The healthcare system in Guatemala is broken and the vast majority of the population unfortunately has limited to access treatments they need. Eighty five percent of the population lives below the poverty line and is at risk. The nation has the fourth highest rate of chronic malnutrition in the world. The mission trip I will be joining is traveling specifically to Retalhuleu, Guatemala where the community benefits greatly from access to surgical services annually.
The organization I will be traveling aims to continue long term mission trips and assist with training local healthcare providers to ultimately increase long term access of the Guatemalan communities to the surgical services they need. The learning I will carry forward from this mission trip will be life long. It will provide me wonderful perspective, broaden my cultural understanding, and sharpen my surgical skills as I will have the opportunity to participate in complex operations for conditions that often have become extreme in the setting of poor access to care with late presentation.
Throughout the week we were able to provide care to over 200 patients in Reu, Guatemala. Our patients had traveled from far and wide seeking care that otherwise they did not have access too. Some patients had traveled for over 12 hours to be evaluated. Chronic conditions were common, including large life limiting inguinal hernias present in some cases for over 15 years. Other patients were struggling with severe abdominal pain related to biliary colic or chronic cholecystitis. During 4 operative days, the team completed 80 surgical interventions and an additional 80 procedures with excellent outcomes for our patients. The team also ran a mobility clinic composed of physical therapists where over 120 patients were provided custom wheel chairs and training for use.
