Partner for Surgery

Coming this July, I’ll be leaving Peace Corps and beginning a new job with Partner for Surgery. This is something I’ve been thinking over for a long time and I recently made up my mind and signed a one year contract. I never imagined that I would leave Chirrepec early, but the job is really exciting and I couldn’t live with myself passing it up and not having a plan come November (my original date to finish). Anyways, I thought I’d explain what I’ll be doing for the coming year.

Partner for Surgery was founded 6 years ago by a former Peace Corps volunteer and his father, Frank Peterson. Concerned with the utter lack of surgical care for rural Guatemalans, they began looking for ways to bridge this gap. The short version is that Partner for Surgery looks to connect Guatemala’s neediest surgical patients with visiting surgical teams from abroad. This began with a strong partnership with a major Franciscan charity hospital in Antigua. Over the years, the organization has formed around the ability to send patients to this clinic.

However, the big picture for Partner for Surgery is their connection with the rural areas and their patients. Whereas many surgical teams to Guatemala will operate on whatever patients show up to the area, Partner for Surgery looks to find the patients who have no other chance to receive an operation. This type of person is likely to not even have the means to seek out a free surgery. Predominantly, this will be someone who is from a very rural area that is Mayan and does not speak Spanish.

To make this happen, Partner for Surgery has a rural network of 15 local area managers who live in patient areas. These are Guatemalans who are well-known and respected in their communities. They are responsible for helping to set up triage missions, promote the organization and see to all the patients needs when coming in for a surgery. As it works now, a patient is identified by a visiting doctor in their communities and then booked for a surgery. As the date approaches, the local area managers then go talk to the patients to get them ready for the trip to Antigua. For many people, this might be their first trip out of their area. It is definitely not an easy job for the managers as the patients could be hours away in the mountains. Furthermore, some people are reluctant to leave since they have absolutely no money and a lot of fear built up towards the outside world. That said, the conditions people have push them beyond their reservations and most end up making the trip.

Most surgeries are taken care of in Antigua where visiting surgical teams are booked almost every week in the hospital. The majority of surgeries are things like hernias, cleft lips and palates, prolapsed uteruses, burns, tumors and cysts. Depending on the intensity of surgery, the patients then stay in a recovery dorm until they’re ready to travel. During all of this, the manager is with them to translate and take care of them. The hope is that they’ll go back to their communities and be able to get back into a normal life. Also, we hope they testify to the benefits of surgery so more people are willing to come forth.

So, where do I fit into all of this? Essentially, I’ll be in charge of everything going on outside of the hospital. Mainly, organizing missions to identify patients in rural areas as well as making sure they show up to their dates. The last thing we want is to be given spaces and then not be able to fill them. About 7 times a year, a team of doctors will come down for a week to identify patients. My responsibility is to make sure the managers do a good job promoting the mission as well as to select the areas and get the doctors out there (I’ll have a van). Each one of these will take at least a couple weeks to set up.

Besides the missions, I’ll be working with some side projects and looking to set up additional clinics for our patients. For example, the Rotary Club recently approved a project for 5 motorcycles so that our managers can get out to the rural communities and reconfirm patients. It’ll be my job to set the rules for the motorcycles as well as to train them on safety, maintenance etc. Funny thing is I haven’t even learned to ride yet. However, I’m not really planning to. Basically, I just need to scare everyone enough so they don’t joy-ride the bike off a cliff.

At the moment, Partner for Surgery is looking to have more patients than the Antigua hospital can handle. As such, they’re looking to help set up a small surgical clinic that can focus on PfS patients. There are plenty of surgical teams who have seen PfS patients before and would like to work with them. However, the lack of clinics is the current dilemma, so hopefully over the next year we’ll be able to equip one and start getting more people in.

So, that’s how the coming year is shaping up. However, I’ve got plenty on my plate before then. Trying to finish up my Peace Corps projects while getting ready for the new job has me busy as ever. My brother Andy as well as two friends Nick and Courtney will be down in two weeks, so I’m really pumped for that. The past month has been non-stop, I’ll enjoy the break.