On a medical-assistance trip to rural Guatemala seven years ago, Victoria anesthesiologist Dr. Brent Caton and his daughter Natasha watched a plastic surgeon operate on Mayan children who had been severely burned falling into their family cooking fires.
“The Catons were quite struck by what they saw there and the need,” said Victoria gynecologist Dr. Kellie Whitehill. “And five years in, it seems to be working quite well.” CARE team doctors helped Santizo operate on four-year-old Petrona. The little girl had fallen into a cooking pot and badly burned her chest and arms. Her arms, locked in a 90-degree angle, required complex surgery.
“I’ve wanted to do this my whole life,” said family doctor Darcy Nielsen, who will be on her third surgical mission to Guatemala in July with her husband, Gary Nielsen, also a family doctor. “We brought down two surgical assistants, two anesthesiologists, six OR nurses and three recovery-room nurses. We had just enough bodies to make it work, plus some non-medical volunteers to provide whatever additional support they could. It was a small group and it was amazing.”
Most of the patients are members of the Indigenous Mayan population, which has been subjected to centuries of systematic oppression and continues to be largely deprived of access to vital health care. People in remote rural areas walk 10 to 12 hours to reach these villages in search of medical care. The team, now numbering more than 30, arrives on a Saturday in Guatemala City and takes a cramped bus ride to Antigua.
“The spinoff is we’re often not just helping one person. We’re helping their 12 children, their husband and their community when they are able to return to farming.”When Victoria surgeon Darren Biberdorf went last year, “we worked him so freaking hard,” said Darcy.One of the first patients Darcy assessed was a 19-year-old who thought he had an abdominal, belly-button hernia. She quickly realized he had been born with a loop of his bowel sticking out.
Everyone on the team pays their own expenses, but help is needed to raise $30,000 every year for patient care and surgical supplies.“We carry down donated shampoo, toothpaste, toothbrushes, Advil and Tylenol for the post-op care,” said Darcy.