30 May
BOLIVIA TRIP SUMMARY – MAY 6-13, 2023
We had an absolutely amazing trip to Bolivia. This was the trip intended to check on our supplies, negotiate terms with the hospital, see patients in clinic, and reconnect with everyone down there that make our trips possible. All goals were achieved and exceeded. The team consisted of Drs. Andy Aldridge, Phil Williams, Brian Balanoff and me. The small team made the trip much more relaxing, and we could be more flexible with our schedule. It also really helped the four of us to form meaningful and lasting relationships with those at the Susan Hou Clinic in Palacios and Dr. Douglas Villaroel (our red tape workaround master.) We also got to listen to and speak a lot of Spanish which will serve us well in November. Here are a few of the highlights: We visited and paid our respects to the Espinoza family. Unfortunately, Dr. Espinoza passed from covid while providing care to covid+ patients in July 2020. Dr. Espinoza was a pivotal member of our team in Bolivia. He was a general surgeon who worked in Santa Cruz, but often came out to Portachuelo to work with us. If any complications arose with our patients after we left the country, he would take care of them. We had a very special breakfast with his large family at their home in Santa Cruz and were able to reminisce and share stories. We all feel so fortunate to have known and worked with Dr. Oscar Espinoza. We spent time at the hospital in Portachuelo. This is where we perform our surgeries and where the patients stay before and after surgery. The big news from this trip was that our equipment was all in functioning condition. I negotiated terms with this group for November and was assured prices would remain the same as in 2019. Apparently, inflation has not hit Bolivia like it has the states. We also had the pleasure of visiting Dr. Vargas at his home in Portachuelo. Dr. Vargas is the main doctor at the clinic in Palacios. He helps us select and prepare our surgical candidates before we arrive. My favorite part of the trip was the two days and a night at the Susan Hou Clinic in Palacios. We saw upwards of 80 patients in the clinic, all hoping to have surgery with us in November. We narrowed the list down to 50ish and now we are figuring out the most dire cases and what we can actually accomplish in November. People have been waiting a long time to see us so there were many urgent needs. We had the pleasure of the company of the Bolivian clinic coordinator, Gabriela, and her husband, Marco. While at the clinic we went on a night walk, saw the stars of the Southern Hemisphere (hello Southern Cross!) and ziplined over the rushing river that patients must cross to make it to the clinic from their homes since its bridge washed out. We also visited the newly built library (book donation thanks to NAVMC) and the kids treated us to food and drink. Our last night we had a lovely dinner with Dr. Douglas Villaroel. He is the person responsible for keeping us legal in Bolivia. He takes care of our licensure, credentialing, and helps us to bring all the equipment we need into Bolivia, not an easy feat. He reiterated his continued support for our cause and has already asked for a list of equipment I want to bring in so he can start working on the red tape so common in Bolivia. Dr. Douglas also spoke with us about the washed-out bridge and how it is impacting the community and their access to the clinic. More to come on that. I think it might be a great fundraising opportunity for NAVMC. Those are the highlights of our trip. I cannot explain how wonderful it felt to be back in Bolivia and to see all our friends. It has been over 4 years! We took the perfect small group to re-form strong bonds with everyone who helps us do what we do. With a full team in November, I know we will be able to help a lot of Bolivians and make you all proud. It’s great to get NAVMC back on the ground, accomplishing so much and realizing our mission statement. Thanks for everyone’s support!Amy
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6 Aug
Hope Everywhere
The lead-up to this trip has been rough. Haiti has been experiencing escalating conflict for many months, and the decision to proceed with our trip was constantly in question. Many members of our team decided to stay home out of legitimate concerns for safety. Flights were delayed. Bull was hacking up a lung…then Crystal, then Betty. We lost a bag of supplies at the airport that held medications without which surgery is impossible (we later retrieved it). The bank account got hacked the day before we left (resolved, but time consuming). But then our team landed in Haiti and we found what we always find: an incredible group of Haitian healthcare workers at Hôpital Bernard Mevs, a group that works tirelessly and skillfully to serve the severely injured in their community. A patient population that is strong and resilient and grateful and badly in need of care. An ability to adjust, overcome and carry on in a challenging healthcare setting. A familiar cat, that stays in the volunteer quarters and can’t get enough of our soft gauze in enormous plastic bags. By the end of today, our team, with several brilliant, Haitian, surgical residents, will complete 20 surgeries. We will treat 25-year-old Joseph, who has been living with a badly infected knee for over a year. Joseph was a driven agricultural engineering student, but could not continue to study with the pain in his knee. He can’t wait to get back to classes. We operated on Jasmin’s femur, which was fractured in a car accident ten days ago. Until he heals, he’ll continue to worry about losing the masonry income he feeds his siblings with. It’s an intense time to be in Haiti. Last Sunday was the 10-year anniversary of the earthquake that killed an estimated 200-300,000 people. A few of us were lucky enough to visit the memorial of the earthquake, located at the sight of a mass grave where victims are buried. Nearly every person in this country mourns at least one loved one. An entire generation of nurses was lost when the nursing school collapsed. In less than 30 seconds, a country was transformed. Many say it will never recover. But at 4:53 PM on Sunday, our team put down their scalpels and their drills and took a moment of silence to hold the earthquake victims, their families and all Haitians in our thoughts. And then we looked up to the sky to see a rainbow stretched wide and bright across the sky. There is hope everywhere here.
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14 Jun
Day 5 in Haiti
The NAVMC team landed in Port-au-Prince 5 days ago, and it has been non-stop since. From day one, this trip has been different. In recent weeks, President Jovenal Moïse has been implicated in two government audits on the misuse of billions of dollars in Venezuelan aid meant to help the country’s poor. Thousands of Haitians have been marching in the streets, calling for his resignation. On our short drive from the airport to Hopital Bernard Mevs, streets were largely abandoned, but burned cars, still-smoking tires and the remnants of roadblocks evidenced the civil unrest Haiti is enmeshed in. Our team is moving forward as usual. We ran a clinic the day after we arrived to find patients that our orthopedic surgeons can help, and the need here is overwhelming. Hopital Bernard Mevs is staffed with dedicated, highly-skilled medical professionals, but violence is making it too dangerous for many to travel to and from the hospital. There are staff that haven’t been home in days, and our team is happy to be able to provide some respite. We are also missing the Haitian surgical residents that have been an integral part of our trips in the past, who are unable to travel safely to Bernard Mevs. We are starting our third long day of back-to back surgeries, and the conflict is posing some logistical challenges. It’s difficult to get water, for example, so we can only clean surgical tools once a day. But the amount we have been able to accomplish so far is remarkable: 13 surgeries in two days. On day two we treated a woman who had been caught in the crossfire at a protest and had a gunshot wound in her shoulder. Yesterday, Dr. Martin and his team labored through a 4-hour surgery to put rods in the shattered femur and tibia/fibula of a motor vehicle accident victim. Our team is perfectly safe in the hospital, but we spend a lot of time caring for and thinking about the people outside of the hospital walls, where the dangers posed by the political unrest are nearly impossible to avoid. Thank you for your support. Molly Brown, Executive Director
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29 Dec
December 2018 – Trip Summary
Molhenne was supposed to die. When our medical team left Haiti in December 2017, her blood count was insufficient to sustain life especially in someone who had just lost both of her legs. She has been HIV positive since birth and medications had kept the virus at bay. At 17 years old she presented to us at a hospital in Haiti with feet that had suddenly become mummified. We still do not know the reason. The day she arrived at the hospital, our entire team of 15 huddled in the operating room till late at night as two of our surgeons performed the first of what would be three surgeries on her that week. In the last, we removed both of her legs through the knee joints. We had little hope for her as we were leaving. She like many is the victim of an inadequate healthcare system where the vast majority lack access to any real medical treatment. Last week Molhenne came to visit us, a new team of 18 volunteers at Bernard Mevs Hospital in Port-au-Prince. This amazing young lady is lovely, vibrant, strong and full of life and appreciation. Everyone at the hospital remembered her and tears flowed freely. She is getting back in school and is currently being fitted with prostheses for her amputated legs; funded by a donor recruited by NAVMC. Somehow, she was not supposed to die thanks in large part to the work of our team of volunteers. On December 1st, a team of 16 medical volunteers travelled to Haiti for our 33rd trip since the earthquake struck this impoverished country almost 9 years ago. We were able to operate on 25 people most of whom waited for us for weeks to months. Our team worked with and taught Haitian physicians in training from the two state hospitals in Port-au-Prince. These facilities are filled with orthopedic patients who cannot afford any medical supplies or equipment. Last June one of them begged us not to discard the week-old bandage we removed from his open right lower leg fracture as he could not afford a new one. We were able to help him during that visit and he came back to us last week walking on a healed limb. There is a great sense of satisfaction in helping these patients but even more so when watching the local orthopedic residents in training perform the surgeries under our tutelage. Yonel is a 28-year-old male who suffered an open femur fracture in a car accident several weeks prior to our arrival. He had no money to pay for any supplies. He lay in bed in traction provided by a coke bottle filled with dirty water hanging over the end of his bed and attached by a string to his left leg. Soon after surgery performed by the by the Haitian residents, assisted and funded by our team, Yonel was able to get out of bed and return home. Rose underwent removal of a massive tumor from her right arm in July 2018. Her surgery was orchestrated, funded and performed by our team in conjunction with two surgeons from Loma Linda, California. She returned to see us last week with a functioning hand which she uses for all activities. She is hoping to return to school and hopes one day to be a nurse. Woodjina is a 7 year old girl whom we have been treating for 2 years for severe infections in the bones of both of her legs. She is doing well following 4 surgeries to rid her of some remaining infection. She was dying when we first met her in December 2016. At the end of the trip the Haitian residents came to us excited and appreciative for the opportunity to perform surgeries on their patients, those they had been following for weeks unable to treat lack of resources. Many other patients left behind will continue waiting for another team and most will never have their broken limbs repaired. Our electrical team was at Renmen Orphanage in Port-au-Prince at the same time. Home to 50 children, we have provided for their education for the last 6 years. The team continued one of our ongoing projects, rewiring the entire orphanage. Prior to this visit, kids would get shocked just touching the walls of their dorm and others were probing with sticks exposed wires in open outlet boxes. The electrical team was able to finish the rewiring of the remaining dorms and also were able to help set up a new water pump to provide water for the kids. The needs here are many. The highlight of this visit to the orphanage however is spending time with the kids. The small children thirst for any attention and the older ones are anxious to share what they are doing in school and what they want to do as a profession. Through our efforts, five girls have graduated from college in Haiti including three from nursing school one from laboratory technology and one from a hotel and restaurant program. By May of 2019, two more will have graduated from Northern Arizona University with degrees in Hotel Restaurant Management and Social Work. We are currently sending eleven kids to post-secondary education: one to medical school, two to nursing school, one to law school, and 7 others are in university pursuing other degrees. When I first came to Renmen eight years ago these kids had little hope of an education beyond elementary school. None could tell you what they would do as adults. Now they all know. Our trip ended with a visit from Santa Claus. Each child received a personalized backpack filled with gifts, their name embroidered on the front. Thanks to you, we can continue this work in Haiti, Bolivia and here at home. Happy Holidays Bull Durham
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25 Dec
Happy Holidays from Haiti
NAVMC has just returned from its 3rd trip to Haiti this year. Attached is a trip summary. We wanted to share with you our successes from Haiti understanding that this is only one part of the work that we are doing locally and globally. If you have already given to help support this work, we thank you. If you have not yet given and would like to or if you would like to send a years end gift, you can do so via Paypal by clicking the link below or by going to our website: www.navmc.org. Yesterday Ertha graduated from Mission Bon Samaritan, a college in Port-au-Prince with a degree in Laboratory Sciences. Her school has been supported by NAVMC and now she will likely easily find work in one of the hospitals in Haiti. An opportunity few have in this impoverished country. Ertha is one of 6 girls from Renmen orphanage in Haiti that have graduated from University through funding provided by NAVMC and your kind donations. We currently are sending 60 kids from Renmen to school in Haiti including 10 in University. Molhenne at 17 has a new life following emergency surgeries performed by our team in December 2017 in which she lost both of her legs. She is being fitted for prosthetic legs and quite likely will be walking when we see her at our next visit. We are currently securing funds from a donor to pay for these devices which she otherwise could not afford. These projects as well as so many others would not be possible without your help. Thank you so much for your support. Because of you, hundreds of Haitian people have been given the opportunity to survive and thrive against all odds. Happy Holidays to you and yours. John “Bull” Durham President: Northern Arizona Volunteer Medical Corp
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27 Nov
2018 Bolivia trip
NAVMC took 18 medical professionals to Bolivia the first week of November. The team saw almost 50 people in clinic and booked 36 patients. We performed 40 procedures including many gallbladder removals, hysterectomies, uterine and bladder prolapse repairs, lipoma removals, and hernia repairs. Dr. Andy Aldridge and Dr. Carolina Martinez repaired an inguinal hernia on our youngest patient to date. He is just seven and can go back to playing soccer and running on the playground with his friends, pain free. This was Flagstaff local, Dr. Phil Williams, first year with the campaign and dare I say he is hooked. The women of Bolivia (and the entire team) appreciated his calm demeanor and exceptional surgical skills. This year we also had the honor of Dr. Michael Collier. Michael spent time at the clinic in Palacios and most of the surgical week with us in Portachuelo to document through photographs the work we do. We even got to visit Samaipata, hang out with Dr. Douglas and Bolivian journalists, and celebrated the week’s culmination at Dr. Espinoza’s house. A big shoutout to Ethicon for their continued support with supply donations and Exparel, who helps our patients with pain control in a country with very little to offer in that regard. Thank you to everyone who contributes to this worthy cause with their time, money, and support. It was an incredible trip! Gracias! Amy
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