Volunteer nurses -- locals making a difference

Another important contributor during this mission has been the local nursing staff. I didn’t get to meet all of them, but I think there was about 20 of them. Almost all of them were not paid for their efforts during the mission, not that they complained about it. It's their way of giving to a profession they love and connecting with their own community. I learned that it’s hard to find nursing jobs; several mentioned having taken jobs at local call centers to make ends meet.

Allen, me, and Gigi -- they look like they should be related, but they
aren't. They do make great music together in the OR, though!

Throughout the week, these young angels rose to every challenge to support the medical team – and even a few of us non-medicals became attached. Every now and again, music would come from the recovery room with a few of them singing aloud and harmonizing with each other beautifully – Allen, Gigi, and Mikko. These kids are genuinely beautiful inside and out.

Allen, in particular, was a tremendous support during the emergency situation earlier in the week. Gentle and kind, he went right into ER mode bridging communication between our medical team and that of the hospital, getting new orders from the pharmacy, and keeping things flowing as new information came in. While doing all of that, he offered supportive smiles and shoulder squeezes even as his own eyes mirrored the gravity of the situation. And in the days that followed, he was always one of the first to check in with me as I settled into my paperwork for the day.

Head nurse, Carolyn, has done medical mission for decades. While she’s worked with great teams all over the world, it was her summation that this team was a standout bunch. Anyone working with them echoed the sentiment.

On the final day of surgery before we packed up the OR, the room seemed to fill with young nurses, proud of their work with our group and eagerly offering their cameras for any passing by to snap pictures of us all together. It was all very well documented for years to come. We were there and they were our critical support team.



A crew of scrub nurses jump behind my desk for a quick photo op