Welcome to the True North Mission Society’s 2024 Mission Blog.

By anyone’s measure, this year was successful. Certainly 52 patients were better for their reconstruction. This is tempered by the number of quite desperate patients we turned away. The need is so great!

Fortunately we have a group that believes in serving the poor and so we will continue. We arrive at 52 a bit by surprise. We had been asked to cut back a bit by the team, so when Monday night came, a pleasant surprise occurred. The team performed at a very high level, I dare say a standard we would be proud of here.

We have always wanted to leave a legacy of excellence and think we continue to do so. It does not happen without all who contribute here at home. We feel your support from Ecuador. Many of you reached out, offering more help when sterilization became iffy. There is always a solution however and we found our solution by outsourcing sterilization of our instruments two night. The processing team has earned a spot in heaven along with our always cheerful OR team, the ward, PT, the skeleton office crew, our trusty volunteers, anesthesia, the fellows and the surgeons all were on their best game. Jordan did a great job of securing and providing implants and providing technical expertise. We had tremendous support from the hospital and our Rotary friends. Recovery room was down one but did great. Manual and Caesar , two servants of God lead us spiritually and by great example.Smith and Nephew as always came through with a generous donation of implants. We arrived home tired, half the group late by an extra 12 hours.

In the week that has passed I hope they have recovered. There is always a bit of afterglow as the hospital recognizes our return. Already the team is starting to ask for dates for next year. So all is well! However that is not all. A smaller group of us both toured the orphanage affiliated with the Rotary and were able to support further screening of the babies with our high tech AI supported ultrasound. Special recognition to Pam, Ian, Jacob and Cassandra for conceiving of the project and getting us the opportunity to present to the Health Ministry.

Special thanks to Oswaldo, Fausto and Marcello. The Ministry of Health for three provinces is adopting our program and our hope is it will spread across the country. One final thank you to Tom Gredanius for inviting me to travel with him 18 years ago.

Those of you who support us financially, God bless to you all!

Warmest regards,

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