Day 1:
Sunday morning started early. The team ate breakfast together, excited to get to know one another, followed by a devotional and a prayer for our day in the clinic. After a beautiful walk to the hospital down the antique and picturesque streets of Antigua, the team split into around 10 different rooms to start seeing patients.
Many of the patients who were waiting to be seen had traveled long distances to be here, some over 6 hours, all hoping that they would fit into the schedule for this week. The day was spent listening to patient stories and determining who needed surgery and what needed to be done to best help them. Many of the patients had been in motorcycle accidents, leading to broken femurs, old hardware that needed to be removed, infection, or bones that healed the wrong way. Oftentimes they dealt with the pain of such accidents for years before they were able to come to us: broken bones, burns, hip dysplasia, and infections.
Dana Carnahan, one of our physical therapists, explained that he loves clinic day for the ability to hear the stories of the patients and meet their families, then to watch as they have surgery later in the week and fulfil his role by helping them get back on their feet and ensuring that the surgery worked.
The immense gratitude of the patients was incredibly moving. Several of our team members were privy to an touching experience with a man who needed a hip replacement. Because his condition wasn’t as acute as some others, we had to turn him away initially, to which he responded with kindness and offered to help us translate, since he spoke English. When another surgery was not cleared, however, a spot for our friend opened up and he was called to be informed that he could have his hip replaced this week. He returned with a wide smile and tears of joy streaming down his face and said that he knew his prayers would be answered.
The doctors, nurses, translators, and others worked seamlessly as a beautiful team in communicating needs. Rachel Adams, one of our PAC-U nurses noted, “Being somebody new, it was really cool to see how the hospital and volunteers worked together. It seemed pretty seamless that all the patients were so prepared and made our job easy to come in and be able to fit into our goals.” We were able to schedule about 60 people for surgery, people whose lives will be changed as their pain is alleviated and they regain mobility.
