Surgical
Humanitarian Trip to Peru: 2004
I was honored to be selected as the Surgical
Director for this trip. Children’s Surgery
International typically gives other nurses and
doctors the opportunity to participate on these
trips. However, they like to have at least half
of the members return that have been to that location
the year prior to preserve some of the collective
memory, which makes the trip go much smoother.
As Director, I traveled to Peru with a small advance
team to select patients for the surgical mission.
This involved spending one day in Juliaca, which
is an area of extreme poverty. Patients come
from Juliaca and Puno to be screened. Puno is on
the edge of Lake Titticcaca. This is the highest
navigable lake in the world. An interesting feature
of this lake is that people live on floating islands,
which are weaved from reeds that they harvest along
the shore of the lake. These mats are over 9 feet
thick, and the same reeds are used to make the
thatched houses for their dwelling. They make their
living by fishing, as well as raising llama that
live on the shore. By living on these mats, the
people are able to avoid paying property taxes,
as they live on essentially a floating island.
While in Juliaca, I gave a lecture to the local
doctors on facial reconstruction. I also spent
two days screening at the local hospital where
we routinely work. This was another very successful
mission. We were able to help over 100 patients
with congenital facial anomalies. Patients arrive
not only from the two above cities, but also
from other parts of the southern region of Peru.
They heard about our presence on TV, radio, and
newspaper, and continued walking into the clinic
all five days while we were there. Some of these
patients were added on to the surgery schedule
the day they arrived for their screening.
There are limited resources for government-funded
surgery, so not all children that have cleft lips
and palates are able to have surgery. In addition,
the patients that are in the remote areas of the
country are not able to afford to come to the larger
cities even to be evaluated for surgery. We make
it possible for this to happen by arranging for
transportation from these outlying areas, as well
as arranging for them to stay at host families
while their children are in the hospital. We also
help arrange for them to return home to their towns
or villages.
We were not able to operate on all of the children
that were in need, so we started the process to
plan for a return trip the next year.
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Dr. Danahey
