Day One, Sunday. Our team of 33 volunteers comprising the 836 Lima/Wagen Surgery Team is teeming with excitement and anticipation for the coming week. There are many familiar faces from previous trips, and just as many new volunteers who will experience the mission of Faith in Practice for the first time. One of the common threads you hear from our team is one of gratitude…we are all immensely grateful to help so many Guatemalans in need.
Gratitude: It’s our theme this week. When we arrived in Guatemala yesterday, there was a collective feeling of gratefulness for smooth travel with few, if any, glitches. Now that we’re in-country and rested, there’s been time to contemplate the week ahead. Feelings of gratitude abound.
“I am grateful for the amount of work that the people from Faith in Practice and the staff from Hospital Hilario Galindo have done before we even got here to get all of these patients lined up and ready to go. It amazes me every year,” says Lorene Garcia, a physician in the mobility clinic and team chaplain.
Her sentiment is spot on. When we arrived at the hospital this morning, equipment and supplies were waiting, the hospital was spotless, patients were arriving, and after a brief orientation, our work began. In the OR, nurses and techs meticulously counted supplies, readying the area for the surgeries that begin tomorrow. Elsewhere, pre-op and PACU teams prepared their areas to receive patients. At the front of the hospital, surgeons and anesthesiologists met with 90 patients over the course of the day to evaluate their needs and schedule them for surgery. The goal this week is to perform approximately 80 surgeries.
In yet another part of the hospital, there is a mobility clinic that will see patients with impaired mobility. An occupational therapist, physician, physical therapists, interpreters, intake staff, and a team to assemble wheelchairs will see as many as 120 patients this week.
“I’m grateful for the opportunity to show people how much Jesus loves them,” says Brooklyn, a first-time Faith in Practice volunteer. “It’s such an honor that we get to tell them [the patients] that they’re perfect, and how valued they are.”
The feeling from the patients is mutual. Indeed, gratitude is on the faces of patients and their families wherever you go. It’s a lot to take in. Many patients are carried into the mobility clinic, and the sight of seeing them roll out in a newly-assembled wheelchair is enough to bring tears to the eyes.
The first patient to receive a wheelchair, Rosaura, left the hospital and returned to a world so much more accessible in her new chair.
“For me it’s very meaningful because a wheelchair will make my life so much better. I feel very happy and grateful because now I will be able to use the wheelchair to get to places,” she said with a new light in her eyes.
Sue, a PACU nurse, expressed what is on the hearts of so many in our group: “I’m so thankful for this opportunity; helping these people really makes you understand how lucky you are. And the looks on their faces and the welcomes they give us, gives me another reason why I’m here. God is doing His work!”
Susan Orhon
Team Blogger & Photographer
