From left to right, Medical Missions
Project Consultant Don Wagner, retired volunteer Elsie Alba and Dr.
Richard Alexander pack supplies for their Medical Missions trip to El
Salvador.
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Surgeon Richard
Alexander is on a mission - a Memorial
Hermann Medical Mission to Zacatecoluca, San Salvador. The medical
staff physician associated with Memorial Hermann Southwest Hospital departed
November 2 with 11 of his colleagues for the city in the Lempa River Valley,
which is at the foot of the San Vicente Volcano.
From natural disasters to epidemics to assisting other mission groups,
Memorial Hermann Medical Missions volunteers, like Alexander, travel to
needy communities to care for people in crisis. The missions provide medical,
dental and general health care, including some routine surgeries. Volunteers
also offer advice on health and well-being issues and meet with local
officials to discuss the needs of the people.
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At the crossroads of two transnational
highways, Zacatecoluca supports a heavy trucking industry, which accounts
for a large amount of the city's motor vehicle/ pedestrian trauma. And
according to Alexander, the local community is still reeling from a
massive earthquake that struck 22 months ago, killing thousands and
leaving the four-story, government-run hospital declared unsafe.
Hospital staff converted a nearby clinic into operating suites, and
parking lots were converted into space for patient rooms. "When
you look on the floor, you can see the painted parking space lines,"
Alexander says.
"The hospital is very poor and in great need of medical supplies,"
he adds. "Other than our trips, they don't have anyone coming in
to work with them. During our last visit, we performed hand and general
surgery and offered occupational therapy. Local physicians and residents
were keen to learn our minimally invasive laparoscopic surgery techniques.
On almost every case, we will have local staff scrubbing in with us."
On this visit, two general surgeons (Alexander and John Fisher, M.D.),
along with an anesthesiologist, operating room nurses and technicians
and intensive care nurses, will perform gall bladder, hernia and vascular
surgeries. When they arrive on Saturday, the team will up operating
room equipment and evaluate patients in the clinic on Sunday, then operate
Monday through Friday. Saturday is spent repacking and soaking up a
bit of the local culture. The team returns to Houston Nov.
10.
For more information, contact Media Relations.
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