CURE Team Leaves for Port au Prince

National Palace Jan 2005

Thursday morning a CURE team from the Dominican Republic including our medical and executive directors will be flying to Port au Prince with relief medical supplies, prepared to offer emergency surgery for trauma victims. We will plan to establish a secure base to receive victims, supplies, and collaborate with volunteers. There are still many unknowns about the situation and survival even for our team may be a challenge as even the most basic necessities are not available. We will keep our readers and those who have inquired about ways to help up to date on the situation there as information becomes available.

September 2008 Haiti Trip 14

With needs more desperate than ever, the Haitian people once again inspired us to set our own corporal desires aside. We worked day night to relieve just a small portion of their pain and suffering. Making a difference one life at a time we operated on 46 patients with a variety of complex problems. In spite of a broken down infrastructure, lack of electricity, and fuel we were able work around these obstacles and treat more patients than on any previous trip. I was privileged to have along with me two of my mentors Dr. Terry Dietrich a devoted mission doctor responsible for my original introduction to the Dominican Republic and also Dr. Doug Benson from northern California.

Each and every one of these patients came with a special story. There was the man with an external fixator on his leg which had become infected after having navigated the floodwaters of Gonaive. He was accompanied only by his 7 year old son. There was the 11 year old boy who had lost most of his leg due to the brutaine traction methods used by the local doctors for a simple femur fracture. Then there was Presler (pictured) a sweet natured 16 year old boy intentionally burned 3 months ago by his father, for not listening to him. His neck shoulder and elbow had all become severely contracted leaving him with a monster like appearance. Due to providential circumstance, Dr. Duncan Miles (Loma Linda University Plastic Surgeon) was able to come to Haiti for one day to help us with this case. Tuesday night he performed a sophisticated latisimus dorsi rotational flap and z-plasty to complete the first stage of several reconstructive procedures that will be needed. In spite of a painful operation the next day Presler smiled at us from under his mosquito net and said “thank you”. After doing several more cases the following morning, Dr. Miles flew home to Los Angeles leaving us an extra $200 to buy some more diesel for the generator so we could continue operating without delay.

Jean Role director of clubfoot Haiti was also able to join us after riding 4 buses and wading through 3 rivers to get to Cap Haitien coming from the capital. Nonetheless he showed up the next morning dressed for business with his shirt ironed and pants clean. We made significant progress with the Ponseti clubfoot program casting more than 25 feet and doing percutaneous tenotomies on 9 cases. With the help of Robbie Jackson significant strides were also made on the administration and documentation necessary for the success of this program.

There will be 2 new Haitian orthopaedic residents joining the Cap Haitien residency program. We have been asked to become an integral part of their training and possibly increase the frequency of our visits. Both of them have worked with us in the past and are motivated and responsible which is very encouraging as it will allow us to enhance our training program as well as the efficiency and quality of our work for the patients.

Click photo above to see more pictures from this trip.

Small Country Church - Big Hearts

“The church is in Philadelphia, MS, my hometown. It's a small country church, with mostly country people, but they have big hearts” describes Terry Winstead a recent visitor to CURE International Dominican Republic. After visiting our hospital, Terry, an occupational therapist from Mississippi returned home inspired to make a difference. He presented the Bethsaida Baptist Church with a report of his trip and a challenge to donate for surgical care of disabled children in the Dominican Republic. In addition he promised to make a matching donation for whatever was placed in the offering plate. After doubling their Sunday morning offering the amount reached over $3500. Each and every one of those dollars will be again multiplied as the lives of the children and families that we serve are changed through medical and spiritual healing. By personal sacrifice, corporate equipment donations, and harvesting wasted excess of medical supplies in the United States we are able to provide state of the art surgical care for our patients at a fraction of the cost normally required. Not everyone is called to leave the shores of their comfort zone to serve, but these simple folk from Mississippi have stepped forward as an example of what Christ has repeatedly asked us to do. Call it an investment, moral obligation, or Biblical principle, the rewards of sacrifice are great.

Give and it will be given to you... Luke 6:38

Roynelis, a 4 year old girl born with a nonfunctional thumb on the left hand underwent reconstructive surgery to create a thumb by transplantation of her index finger. In addition to a wrist repositioning surgery a similar operation will be performed on the right side where she was born missing a thumb and one of her forearm bones. Thanks to support from people like the members of the Bethsaida Baptist Church CURE surgeons and staff are able to transform the lives of children around the world. Click here to see pictures of similar operations performed at CURE Dominican Republic.

Biomet Donation Saves a Leg in the Dominican Republic

Multiple surgeons in Santo Domingo had recommended amputation, but when 43 year old Marineris came to CURE International’s hospital she was given a new hope. She had been diagnosed with an advanced giant cell tumor which had completely destroyed the bone just above her knee. In spite of working in an environment of limited resources I very seldom compromise my surgical indications. But in this case I knew it would be difficult to provide state of the art limb salvage reconstruction surgery for this patient whose resources were already exhausted with a few simple preoperative imaging studies.

The first step was to confirm the ambiguous pathology report with Dr. Craig Zuppan at Loma Linda University a ‘virtual missionary’ who gives his time and expertise for people he never meets. Thanks to FedEx and email, one day later, Dr. Zuppan had received the specimen in southern California and confirmed the diagnosis. Lung metastasis were ruled out and with a marginal resection her prognosis would be good. I presented the situation to some of my contacts at Biomet who had helped one of our patients a couple of years ago. Not much hope was initially given due to new government restrictions on any donations that could be construed as physician enticement. After a month long approval process government monitors determined that my practice does not represent any lucrative incentives for corporate donations and Biomet approved the donation. When I announced the news to Marinerys and her husband, tears came to their eyes and hope of living a relatively normal life was restored.

Multiple emails were exchanged with Mark Bollinger and Troy Hershberger of Biomet, Warsaw, IN. Final preoperative planning was wrapped up with a meeting at Starbucks Santa Monica, CA between myself and Tyler Jolley the Los Angeles Biomet limb salvage specialist. I returned from my trip to California loaded with instruments and implants.

After maximal preparation and a prayer… the operation was initiated. The absence of a vascular surgeon, vessel clips and a Biomet rep added to the difficulty of the case. But after 3 hours of surgery the tumor was resected and the prosthetic reconstruction begun. The innovative Biomet Compress prosthesis addresses the problem of loosening at the implant bone interface by loading the bone with up to 800 lbs of continuous spring loaded force to invoke an incredibly strong biologic bond between the metal and bone. We released the spring loaded force and placed the $20,000 implant without difficulty. Her recuperation phase was begun.

It does not matter that Marineris knows nothing about Warsaw, Biomet, Loma Linda, Lemoyne, bone ingrowth, or all the work and resources that multiple people around the world have invested to make this operation a success. She appreciates her leg and her life. Worth more than a insurance reimbursement are the two mangos and a hug that I pass on to all who have given unselfishly to make this possible.

Purpose

Keeping in mind Christ's words in Matthew 6:1-4

"Be careful not to do your acts of righteousness before men, to be seen by them...when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret.

it was with careful deliberation and intentions to avoid self-glorification that I decided to create this blogspot for the following purposes:

• To express gratitude to the donors who so generously have supported CURE and our work in the Dominican Republic and Haiti
  
• To repay the encouragement and support given to us by our CURE home office family who deserve to see the images and read the stories of the lives being changed by their efforts in a nondescript Pennsylvania warehouse
• To inspire others to understand the benefits of sacrifice and engage themselves in caring for those less fortunate
• To give information for visitors planning long or short term work with CURE International in the Dominican Republic and Haiti
• To provide contact information for patients and organizations seeking high quality orthopaedic treatment in the Dominican Republic and Haiti
  

As the Medical Director of CURE International Dominican Republic and Haiti this site is authored by myself and other authorized persons but is not an official publication of CURE International and although it is written with discretion it does not strictly adhere to HIPAA regulations.