Wow, it has been quite a while, I have no idea where October and November went! Never in my life have two months passed by in the blink of an eye like the way these past two months have. In the last eight weeks, I have been blessed with some of the most amazing experiences of my trip so far! I don’t even know where to begin, but to make things easier I’ll start with October. :)
In the second week of October, the Mother of Christ Clinic run by the Sisters of Bon Secours, who CMMB partners with, received a medical team with quite the mission. They came to Peru in hopes of doing as many free gynecological surgeries as they could, within 5 days! Now, where do I, public health volunteer, fit in in all of this? Two days before, my boss Nancy, told Jessica and I to get ourselves ready, because that whole next week, we would be in charge of translating for the doctors and the nurses in and out of surgery! What a shock it was. Nervous and not knowing what to expect, we started a whirlwind of a week with this incredible team.
We began the week on Sunday, with Dr. Hyde consulting with all the hopeful patients the day before the surgeries began. Within a span of 9 hours, Dr. Hyde saw about 20 patients, and left the day with no voice (poor guy) but having seen as many patients as he possibly could have. Jessica was placed as Dr. Hyde’s translator, while I was in charge of translating for the nurses on the medical team, outside with the patients! This team came with all of their supplies, all of their personnel, ready to do life-changing surgeries for women who were most vulnerable and most in-need. They came with one surgeon, Dr. Hyde, one anasthesiologist, one surgeon assistant, one materials manager, and four nurses to do the job, and they sure did.
And so began the surgeries on Monday! Dr. Hyde scheduled 15 surgeries to be done within 4 days. Jessica and I, nervous as ever, jumped into it - both feet first. I switched between translating in the operating room, to translating between the American and Peruvian nurses outside to translating between administrators trying to evade a pain-medication dilemma. This was by far one of the most adrenaline-filled, stressful, incredible experience I’ve ever had. The whole time I felt like....what am I doing here? I’m just 22, with no medical experiences, and intermediate-advanced level Spanish and in Peru and now in an operating room?! But all in the best of ways. Its always when you’re pushed into challenging situations that you realize, you do have it in you to rise and absolutely crush whatever it is you have to do.
And finally after many, many hours on our feet, we ended our week with the team not just having completed 14 surgeries, but having changed the lives of these women. Operating on them was an incredibly gifted surgeon (Dr. Hyde), who used the latest technology to do minimally invasive, laparoscopic surgery, for those who qualified, resulting in many of the women on their feet and walking out of the hospital the very next day. We heard from some women that if it was not for this team, they wouldn’t have not only been able to afford this needed surgery, but they wouldn’t have been able to take the days off work because of the recovery days needed. With the laparoscopic surgeries, many of these women returned back to work immediately, not missing a beat in supporting their families.
It was quite incredible for me getting the chance to see this mission right before my eyes for the women of the community that I have been serving for the last nine months. I couldn’t have wished for a better blessing for these women, who deserved a little moment of relief knowing their condition could be fixed, and free of cost.
What was even more incredible for me was watching an incredibly gifted and passionate team working on what they loved the most, for the greater good of others. Although there was a significant language barrier between the medical team and the local clinic staff, there was an immediate and deep connection between all of them. There was a beautiful sense of humanity and duty that connected us all in that week. Its something I can’t explain well in words, but there was a beautiful aura of love, deep caring and gratefulness from all sides: the medical team, the local staff and of course all of the women receiving the surgeries. It was hands-down the best, most challenging, stressful, and incredible week I have had in my time here. Blessed, is the best word to describe how I feel when I think of that week.
And with swollen feet, we ended the week tired and very, very content. Mission was accomplished.
(All pictures were taken with the consent of the patients.)
