DEPARTMENT OF PLASTIC SURGRY
International Outreach
Mission Trip to Los Cabos San Lucas, Mexico
January and April 2002
The team:
Anureet Bajaj, plastic surgery resident; Lolita Hesquibal, scrub tech; Rohini Bajaj dental student, translator; Demeree Andreason, mission trip coordinator; Troy Andreason, plastic surgery attending; Norbort Collins, plastic surgery attending
Los Cabos is located on the Baja Peninsula of Mexico. Los Cabos refers to Cabo San Lucas and its sister city, San Jose del Cabo. Both cities are well-known tourist destinations because of the beaches, fishing, hiking, and golf. What most American tourists don?t see is the large population living in poverty on the outskirts of the city. Over the past two years, a group of Loma Linda physicians and nurses has made several trips to Cabo to provide reconstructive surgery to the people of Cabo. Our efforts have been coordinated through the help of a local group, Amigos de los Ninos.
Cabo
Amigos de Los Ninos is our host organization in Cabo. The group was started in 1989 by the people of Cabo and is dedicated to providing medical care, supplies, and medicines to the children living in the barrios surrounding Cabo. The group arranges for physicians to come to Cabo and treat the children or to send the children to the US for specialty care. Amigos de Los Ninos is nonprofit organization and relies on charitable donations to fulfill its mission. Dr. Troy Andreason and Dr. Dan Mills arranged for the first group of Loma Linda physicians to go to Cabo several years ago. Since then, the tradition has continued to grow.
Rohini and Lolita rest between patients in clinic.
Goals
- To see our postoperative patients from previous trips.
- To have a clinic to evaluate new consultations.
- To have a dental clinic and perform basic dental care.
- To lay the foundation that would make Cabo a place where we can go two to three times a year for mission work
Accomplishments
- Conducted an outpatient clinic for two days and saw over thirty patients. Some of these patients were new consults while others were postoperative visits.
- Completed seven surgical cases.
- Visited the barrios and distributed supplies; donated clothing and vitamins
Operative cases
We completed seven surgeries during our trip in January 2002. These included burn scar revisions, ear reconstruction, cleft lip, and cleft nasal rhinoplasty. An important accomplishment wasn't the surgeries themselves. We were also able to establish ties with local physicians and patients, ensuring success for our future missions.
This baby girl is an example of the continued care we were able to provide by making regular trips. She has had three surgeries for cleft lip by the Loma Linda team of surgeons: lip adhesion in May 2001, cleft lip repair in January 2002, cleft palate repair in April 2002.
Cabo San Lucas - April 2002
The team: Robin Hamlin, plastic surgery resident, Anil Punjabi, plastic surgery attending, Billy Hamlin, OR scrub nurse
Goals - April 2002
The goals of the April 2002 trip were to continue the work of the January trip. Drs. Hamlin and Punjabi performed 14 operations during this trip, in part, due to the patient contacts made during the January trip.
