Eye Surgery Patient Meeting

We just finished up our second patient meeting for PazSalud's upcoming Eye Surgery Mission on May 14 and all our patients are ready to go!  We have a full roster of people selected from our General Medical Mission in Comasagua in February who will have either cataract or pterygium surgery so we're bringing down a full team of ophthalmologists, optometrists and support personnel to operate on roughly 65 patients in a nearby hospital in Santa Tecla.

Given the nature of this mission and seriousness of surgery in general, PazSalud holds two patient information meetings where we talk to them in depth about the surgery itself, what it entails before, during and after, and the logistics of their participation.  The meetings are a great way for them to ask questions about the process and decide whether or not they want to have surgery with us.  In addition, they allow us to gauge the patient's interest which enables us to better prepare our team with adequate supplies and proper scheduling.

Kathy Garcia (Director of PazSalud), Delmy (the local CIS coordinator), Rosy and Rosa (PazSalud volunteers and friends) and I helped organize and conduct the meeting held in the community center of Comasagua.

Kathy Garcia and Rosa registering patients for the meeting

Rosy talking to the patients about surgery

Patient Post-Op Exams

We just completed all our post-operative exams and I'm happy to report that our eye surgery patients are doing remarkably well.  Thanks to the work of PazSalud's amazing surgical team in May and Dr. Jule's (our Salvadoran in-country ophthalmologist) incredible efforts during the mission and throughout their post-op care, PazSalud not only performed surgery on a record number of patients but their outcomes have been as successful as we've ever had.  As always, we will continue to monitor their healing over the coming months and address any needs that may arise.

Thank you again to everyone who contributed to the success of this mission!

Patients in the waiting room of Dr. Jule's office

Dr. Jule examining a patient

Some happy patients:

Patient Pre-surgey Meeting

We just completed out second and final meeting on Saturday to prepare our cataract and pterygium  patients from Tamanique for the upcoming PazSalud Eye Surgery Mission on May 11.  The pre-surgery meetings are designed to go over the logistics of the event, address their concerns and provide them with an opportunity to ask us anything they want.  We're anticipating that we'll have 67 patients this year among which we'll have 48 cataract and 23 pterygium surgeries (some patients have more than one surgery).

A huge 'thank you' goes out to Maira, Rosa and Rosy for all the help they gave me in coordinating and conducting these meetings.

Rosy, Rosa and Maira fielding questions from the group

Rosa registering a patient

Maira conferring with a patient

Visit to San Rafael Hospital

It's never too early to start planning the 2015 missions so our local coordinator, Maira Romero, long-time PazSalud friend and nurse, Rosy Melara, and I went to visit San Rafael Hospital in Santa Tecla in August to talk to with them about the eye surgery mission we would like them to host in May.

We met with the new hospital director, Dr. Yeerles Luis Angel Ramírez, to introduce ourselves and PazSalud and talk about how we could work together in 2015 to provide cataract and pterygium surgeries to the patients of Tamanique (the location of our 2015 General Mission in February).

Then on Kathy Garcia’s recent trip to El Salvador took the opportunity to tour the facilities in greater detail and begin mapping out our patient flow and personnel location.  Rosy, a long-time San Rafael Hospital employee, joined us to introduce us to her former coworkers.  This will be PazSalud’s fifth time working in San Rafael Hospital so at this point it feels like a second home.

Maira, Dr. Yeerles, Rosy

Operating room in San Rafael

Rosy and Kathy touring the operating area

Post-surgery eye exams

After every eye surgery mission PazSalud works with a local ophthalmologist to provide two 'controls', or follow-up eye exams, for every patient to ensure their surgery was sound and everything is healing on schedule.  This year we were fortunate to work with Dr. Jule, an excellent physician who, along with his son, runs a private eye clinic in San Salvador where they saw our patients.

We completed both controls in June and I'm happy to report that our surgeries were exceptionally successful.  Many patients even see 20/40 in their operated eye.  Dr. Jule provided every patient with a careful exam and took the time to time to answer their myriad questions.  Some patients needed additional eye drops, some had their stitches removed and because of pre-existing medical conditions, some were slower to heal than others.  But the vast majority of our patients talked about their overwhelming joy at being able to see again for the first time in many years.

Dr. Jule's son examining a patient

Dr. Jule and a patient

Checking the healing process

Our patients in Dr. Jule's waiting room

Happy patients