By Uche Amunike
A massive medical mission to Belize, Central America, carried out by a team of 75 American healthcare professionals from different disciplines, has just successfully come to an end, leaving hundreds of patients healthier and happier after due consultations and treatments.
Speaking, through a statement signed and released by the President, Association of Nigerian Physicians in the Americas (ANPA), Dr Cliff Eke, he explained that the medical mission was headed by Dr Charles Hsu, who is the Chair of the North American Taiwanese Medical Association (NATMA).
Dr Eke, who also doubles as Founder/CEO of Chima Medical Missions attended the mission alongside Interventional Cardiologist, Dr. Osita Onyekwere, who was a part of the team led by Dr. Tony Lee.Part of the teams were the Eye team, the Acupuncture team and the Dental team which was headed by Dr. Esther Young.
With the help of leaders from the Belize Ministry of Health, each hospital provided their administrators, medical directors and volunteers who helped in making the mission a success.
Dr Eke’s surgical team were split into three groups: Northern Regional Hospital (NRH) – Drs. Henry Wu, Lilian Estrada and Steve Yu; Western Regional Hospital (WRH) – Drs. Dahlia Tawfik, Ken Chang and Ann Lin; Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital (KHMH) – Drs Nina Bowman, Erin Lin, Cliff Eke, PA Tawana Bryant and Nurse Rosemary Rosyeden.
They performed 57 operations which included cholecystectomies (laparoscopic and open), hernia repairs with mesh, mastectomies with sentinel lymph nodes biopsies (new technique which they taught the locals), breast lumpectomies, thyroidectomies, exploratory laparotomies with ileostomy closures, gynecological procedures, anorectal surgeries, and “lumps and bumps.”
They were also able to perform surgeries with local surgeons and medical officers as a way of facilitating bidirectional knowledge and skills transfer for capacity building, so that they can successfully carry out such procedures, even in their absence.
The team also taught the locals how the need to use less invasive technique of sentinel lymph node biopsy by using Lymphazurin blue dye for treating cancer patients, saying that it decreases the risks of lymphedema. They also left samples of the blue dye for their use.
On his part, Colorectal Surgeon, Dr Wu, shared his knowledge of how to handle complex ‘horse shoe’ anorectal abscess with the local surgeons and taught them how to manage patients with rectal cancer with clinical complete response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy, while the local surgeons showed the team their style of opening cholecystectomy through a small incision in 30 minutes.
There were some special cases carried out by the team. They include Ileostomy closure which they carried out in a young man who had gunshot wounds eight months before the medical mission. Two days after his procedure, he went home happy as he now had normal bowel movements.
Another man with a chronic large left inguinoscrotal hernia that extended to his mid thigh, with multiple small bowel loops, sigmoid colon and omentum, adherent to the left testicle also had it repaired with mesh after over 21 hours of dissection and adhesiolysis.
The toughest and longest case handled by the team was that of a lady diagnosed with Papillary Thyroid Cancer of the right lobe, adherent to the trachea, esophagus, internal jugular vein and extending to the mandible. It was completely removed by Dr. Eke and a local surgeon, Dr. Munguia. It was a particularly tough and long case because they had to dissect all the cancer out with clear margins, perform lymph nodes, dissection and preserve all the aforementioned vital structures, as well as the current laryngal nerves and parathyroid glands.
Their surgeries left their patients satisfied and grateful, even as they appreciated the team members in all the different hospitals and primary care clinics.
In summary, the 4-day massive medical mission to Belize handled different cases from 1,372 patients. The surgical team from the three regions handled 57 operations and that’s a three consultations. The ophthalmology team handled 12th operations on the 28th consultations, while the Dental team handled it total of 221 kisses kisses. Altogether, 1733 patients went home with clean bills of health.
At the end of the mission, the team donated the remaining dental appointments, medications, surgical supplies, and consumables to the Ministry of Health and hospitals.
