Heaven on the Pacific

As I have already had cause to mention, every week on this mission reveals to me a new dimension that brings into sharp focus the enormity and the impact of this mission on the people we are serving. We sailed for 3 days from Indonesia to Philippines, two days after I got back from my MEDCAP in Indonesia. We have been in Philippines for about ten days now. I spent the first week in Philippines working as an Inpatient Pharmacy Technician on the ship’s Pharmacy. My duty as an Inpatient Technician was help fill prescriptions for pre and post-surgical patients. I also prepared and delivered IVs to the various wards that housed these patients. I got a better idea of the valiant work that these selfless surgeons on the ship are doing while delivering medications to these wards. The number of patients we are serving aboard the ship and the complexity of the cases have blown me away! I have seen children with cleft pallets operated on and transformed. I have seen cataract patients successfully operated on among others. I have witnessed the immense gratitude of these patients and the palpable joy on their faces.

                                                               Making an IV

Perhaps my most humbling experience on this mission is the opportunity to observe a couple of surgeries at the operation room on Saturday the 23^rd of June 2012. Dr. Robert Baxt and Dr. Sharon Weintraub, both fellow Project Hope volunteers conducted both surgeries. The first surgery was a routine procedure to repair a right inguinal hernia on a 2-year old boy. The operation was hugely successful and after forty minutes under the surgeons’ scalpel, the little angel’s life was eternally transformed. He was in fact discharged from the hospital later that evening after a life-changing procedure that most probably averted a lifetime of pain and misery for the little boy. This assertion was given a further credence by the second surgery I witnessed that day. This was also a left inguinal hernia surgery on a 43-year old man. This procedure was anything but routine; it was a procedure to repair an 8-pound hernia the size of a large cantaloupe. According to the surgeons, it was pretty much the biggest one they have seen in their long time in practice. The patient has been carrying this hernia ever since childbirth and had not had the means to get it operated on till now. I fail to see how this patient could possibly have engaged in any physical activity prior to this surgery. Dr. Baxt pointed it out to me that this was the fate the little boy who was operated on earlier was looking at had he not been operated on. The surgical operation on this older patient took a little more than two hours to complete. It was the sort of procedure that will ordinarily make me queasy and uneasy. However my sense of curiosity and my eagerness to be a witness to this transformative procedure got the better of me and gave me the guts to stay through the whole of this rather graphic procedure. Observing these accomplished surgeons make an incision on the lower abdomen of the patient, pull all the parts of the patient’s gastrointestinal tract that had descended into the scrotal sac through the inguinal canal, causing this rather massive hernia, putting these parts of the tract back where they belong in the stomach, closing up the canal and stitching up the incision was surreal and humbling to say the least. The look of gratitude on the face of the patient as he woke up from his anesthesia, just before he was carted from the operating room to the recovery ward was priceless and will forever be ingrained in my mind. Life as known by this patient will never be the same again. He will be able to engage in activities that he had hitherto not been to partake in. His self-confidence and outlook in life will be hugely boosted all because a group of selfless and philanthropic individuals on a big hospital ship happen to stop by. I had wanted to visit this patient at the recovery ward to see how he was doing but was told by Dr. Baxt at dinner the next day that he had already been discharged earlier that day. I am really happy for this patient for his speedy recovery and the new lease of life he’s been given by this operation.

                                                                   At the OR

I also had the privilege to be on a Surgical Civic Action Program (SURGCAP) team on Sunday 24^th June 2012. This is a team that goes Inland to screen patients eligible for surgery on the ship’s operation rooms. On this day we travelled to Calbayog City in Philippines to conduct this screening exercise at the city’s sports complex. I was part of a team responsible for taking and recording the vital statistics of the patients to be screened. We were met by a large crowd at the gate of the complex waiting for the chance of a life-changing operation. We screened in excess of 450 patients on this day and booked 140 appointments for various surgical operations to be conducted at the ship’s operation rooms for the last week of our mission in Philippines. Even though we’re doing tremendous good on this mission, I still couldn’t help but feel bad for the numerous people we had to turn away because we didn’t have the capacity to take on more. I truly wish we had the capacity to help everybody who needed help but I also know that is unrealistic. What broke my heart perhaps was the story of this elderly lady who broke down in tears when she was given the bad news that we were unable to take on any more patients. She had ovarian cysts and recounted through an interpreter how she had travelled a long distance to be there in the hope of getting relief from her condition. According to her she has no means of obtaining care for her ailment and we were her last hope of ever getting her condition operated on. This rather sad story really did put a damp on my day but the realization that we have been able to offer relief for hundreds and will be able to do that for a few hundred more patients with similar stories did help me put it all in a better perspective.

                                                        Taking down vital stats

Alexis and I also had the opportunity to do a presentation on viral gastroenteritis for all the personnel at the Pharmacy department and other invited guests on Monday the 25^th of June 2012. We thought it was a relevant topic to present on because of the outbreak of gastroenteritis on the ship two weeks ago. In the presentation we educated our audience on the causes, epidemiology, pathophysiology, prevention and treatment of the disease.

This wonderful adventure is sadly on its last leg but its life-changing experiences will fuel me forever. Stay tuned as I wrap up on this awesome adventure.