3-day surgical mission does 60 major operations

ORMOC CITY, Philippines — Sixty ill people, with life-threatening conditions, each got a new lease in life after undergoing surgical operations performed for free by Filipino-American surgeons who were on a mission in this city in three days this week.

The Filipino-American surgeons, all members of the Society of Philippine Surgeons in America, with some volunteer nurses, have been doing various missions in the country and South America for the past 18 years already. Next week, the same team will be in Mindoro for another mission, while their latest in Ormoc was sponsored by Rep. Lucy Torres Gomez (4th district, Leyte).

The 72-member mission team included Dr. Owen Kho, president of the Philippine College of Plastic Surgeons, who performed reconstructive surgery on a burn patient whose face got deformed from a burning incident in the past.

After three days of free medical services, the mission team was able to do 60 major operations, 101 minor operations for "lumps and bumps," 18 opthalmological procedures and cataract operations, and 200 dental extractions.

One of the hundreds who availed themselves of the services was Lucy's sister, Caren Torres Rama, wife of Vincent Rama, who had a minor bump on her forehead removed.

Caren said she had long wanted to have it removed and was afraid, but she trusted the mission team so much that she entrusted it to perform the surgical operation on her.

Lucy, who went the rounds of the three hospitals where the surgeries were held, said she was very touched at some of the cases that the doctors encountered. One of these was the case of an 11-year-old boy who was about to go totally blind. The doctors were able to save his threatened eye from getting blind similar to his other eye.

The congresswoman said the boy now had at least good eyesight in his one eye and, if not for the mission, he could have grown to live a blind man. "Makahilak ko oi," said Lucy, adding that she was also touched by the show of gratitude of the patients and their families.

The surgical operations were "free" and some of the patients only paid for the laboratory tests needed before the actual surgery, but the patients did not mind spending for these because anyway they got the surgery, the high cost of which they could not afford if done via the regular conduct of operations in hospitals. (FREEMAN)