Saturday was our travel day. We have 35 members of our team primarily from the Tampa Florida area. 1/3 of our volunteers are new and the rest are veterans. This is the first time our team is back since the pandemic.
Our hospital is named Las Obras Socialis de la Santo Hermano Pedro (the social works of Saint brother Pedro) who was a Franciscan priest here in Antigua in the 1600s. He was later elevated to Sainthood. He obviously did great works during his lifetime. The hospital is actually located inside of the church. The church has a sanctuary which is on the left in the picture below. Most of the building is devoted to public works for the poor. The building includes medical clinics, social services, pharmacy, and the hospital which is more of a surgery center but with an inpatient overnight option or multiple day stays. This is all managed by the Franciscan order of the church. The church has been here for centuries. Operating rooms were built about 20 years ago.
Sunday is our preop clinic day. All the patients will be evaluated and scheduled for surgery next week if appropriate. We will run five operating rooms this week. Two for general surgery, two orthopedic surgery, and one gynecology surgery. Our volunteers will staff all the OR’s with some assistance from our local hospital staff. A Majority of patients will stay for one night and be discharged home the next day. A few will stay for multiple days. Cases will primarily be total knee replacements, knee ligament reconstruction (ACL’s), hernia repair, gallbladders, and hysterectomies. There is also a separate team, not affiliated with our group who will be doing cleft palate surgery this week. Facilities are quite modern. They were renovated about two years ago.
Our group is part of Faith In Practice, which was established 27 years ago by a group out of Houston Texas. It has grown to include about 1000 United States volunteers and 1500 local Guatemalan volunteers. Our group is a purely surgical team. There are also medical teams that go out into smaller towns in Guatemala.
We finished our preop clinic this afternoon and will begin surgery tomorrow. Our team is ready and eager to proceed.
We covet your prayers for our team members and our patients.
Blessings to all,
The Mesen Team.
To support the Mesen Team visit: https://donate.faithinpractice.org/team/455482
