Missions 2019 Blog (most recent first)
Days 9 through 11 – Mar 6 to 8, 2019 – Message from Dr. Powell
The final 3 days of the mission moved quickly. Pam lead CPR training for a number of athletic associations. The training was well received. The patients recovered quickly. Fortunately all our patients were mobile and discharged safely by Friday afternoon . The 2 screening programs continued. More than 800 children have been assessed at the […]
Day 8 – Mar 5, 2019 – Day 5 of Surgeries
This is the last day of surgeries. The carnival festival ends this day and the hospital will be back to full staff tomorrow. 10 surgeries were scheduled for Day 5 and the hope was that all 10 would be completed. Unfortunately, although the TNMS staff were working towards that goal, one patient did not show and […]
Day 7 – Mar 4, 2019 – Day 4 of Surgeries
Heading into the final two days of surgeries, it is still carnival holiday in Cuenca and the hospital OR’s are largely available for TNMS surgeons except in the case of local emergencies. Sadly, there was an emergency case in the OR and a young woman, unrelated to the TNMS group of patients, was admitted and died as […]
Day 6 – Mar 3, 2019 – Day 3 of Surgeries
Today’s access to the OR was good enough to allow for 9 surgeries. Local emergency cases did delay the team’s timing to get into the OR and so…it was another late night. One of the PAO’s was an 11 year old girl. Sadly, one of today’s surgery candidates had to cancel because her employer told […]
Day 5, Mar 2, 2019 – Day 2 of Surgeries
It was a great day in the OR today. Although one surgery was cancelled because the patient was too sick with an infection, 10 surgeries were still performed. The 3 OR rooms occupied by TNMS kept the mission staff very busy. It was a long day and teams worked late into the night. The great […]
Day 4 – Mar 1, 2019 – 1st Day of Surgery
TNMS chose this weekend for its 2019 mission because the annual “Carnival” festival occurs over the weekend and runs through to Tuesday. This means that the Santa Ines Operating Rooms will be most available. Today the Santa Ines was completing some surgeries ahead of the holiday weekend. As a result access to the OR […]
Day 3 – Feb 28, 2019
Day 3 – Feb 28, Clinic Day Its clinic day. The Rotary club provided their building to host the TNMS 2019 clinic. Most of the TNMS team were needed at the the clinic while the remaining went to the Santa Ines hospital to finish preparations for the surgeries starting on Friday. The clinic was a […]
Day 1 & 2 – Travelling and setup
Day 1 & 2 – Feb 26 – 27 Well the 2019 mission is upon us. The team members began to gather at the Calgary International Airport at 2:30 am on Tuesday Feb 26. The very significant amount of preparatory work during the weeks prior made the check-in with the many totes and hockey bags […]
