A group of medical professionals from Los Angeles will travel in August with the nonprofit Operation International tl provide free, life-changing women's health care to patients in need.
Our team is led by Kenyan native and nurse Ian Otinga. The team will head on to Ian’s hometown of Kakamega, Kenya. We will bring surgical interventions including myomectomies and hysterectomies to women who need access to life-altering procedures for common obstetric and gynecologic conditions such as abnormal uterine bleeding, fibroids, and endometriosis.
On their first mission in 2025, Team LA performed 136 surgeries in just one week. This year's team is made up of OB/GYN surgeons, CRNAs, nurses, scrub technicians, and other non-medical volunteers.
We arrived in Vihiga county, Kenya not knowing what to expect. All we knew was that this county of 800,000 people had access to only two gynecologic surgeons. Fewer than 10 gynecologic surgeries happened every month.
We arrived to a very warm welcome, and women who came from this county and 3 nearby counties who heard about opportunity for fibroid surgery. We saw 225 patients in clinic, and operated on 49 in the span of 4 days. We worked with local physicians—the gynecologists and family doctors—on tough cases and on their new laparoscopy towers. I hope we made an impact. Certainly the experience has made an impact on me.
