I will be traveling with the pediatric surgical team from Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) to Antigua, Guatemala. Here we will provide general surgery to pediatric patients from one year of age up to 18 years old.
The children of Guatemala requiring general surgery will benefit from this project. CHOP has been providing these services to Guatemala for almost 15 years.
Last year we provided 83 surgeries in 4 1/2 days to the children of Guatemala. These surgeries included hernia repairs, circumcision, lipoma removal, etc. Providing anesthesia to children in an underserved population can be very challenging. This will be my third time attending this trip and every year my skill set in knowledge of Anesthesia is challenged. We do not have our usual modern resources and equipment and have to be resourceful. It’s an invaluable experience.
Recently, I had the opportunity to provide anesthesia to pediatric patients in Antigua, Guatemala. The majority of the team members were practitioners from various pediatric surgical departments at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. We coordinated our efforts with a local charity, Partner for Surgery, who triaged, transported and prepped the patients. In total, we triaged 80 patients. Our surgeries included circumcisions, orchiopexies, hernia repairs to name a few. We are the only general surgery group to provide services to this area. Our team consisted of 3 surgeons, 2 anesthesiologists, 4 CRNAs and several OR nurses, scrub techs and advanced practice nurse practitioners. Overall we accomplished 66 surgeries in 4.5 days. The days were early, often providing post op follow up at 6:30 am and we performed 6-8 surgeries a day in each room. The amount of joy and appreciation our patients had was invigorating. This is my third mission with this group and every year is so fulfilling. I want to thank Doximity for contributing to this experience, your grant was much appreciated and so helpful; we carry the entire cost of this trip. I can’t wait for the next mission!
