Cataracts in Panama

On April 10 I went to Panama as part of an Air Force medical humanitarian mission.  There were several different medical specialties involved, but ophthalmology had the biggest team with the only surgical mission.  I was the leader of the eye team so I flew down a few days early on April 10 as part of an advance team to make sure everything was ready to go by the time everyone else arrived.  I had visited the year before for the pre-mission site survey so I was familiar with the area.

We flew into Panama City and got a an armed escort of two motorcycles each with a driver and automatic rifle wielding backseat rider.  We traveled four hours, with a new set of motorcycle escorts seamlessly pulling into the caravan to swap out with the previous set about every half hour, until we arrived at the city of Santiago, state of Veraguas.

We checked in to brand new and fairly nice hotel right on the Panamerican Highway just outside of Santiago, and less than a mile from Hospital Luis “Chicho” Fabriga, where the supplies for the whole team had been delivered and where the eye team would be working.

There were about 40 people on the medical mission which included family practice, internal medicine, pediatrics, women's health, dermatology, and dentistry.  The eye team had the only surgical mission so we spent the whole time at the local hospital, while the other services traveled to three different remote sites to hold clinics for several days in each location.  There were 9 members of the eye team including 5 surgeons and 4 technicians.  Our primary focus was cataract and pterygium surgery.  In the two weeks we performed 121 surgeries and almost 400 clinic visits.

The hotel had laundry service, but I and a few others opted to venture into town to find a lavandaria and experience a little of the real Santiago.  

Because the "eye team" was separate from the rest of the mission, we were fortunate to get a van for our own transportation, though it also resulted in me being the team driver.  On Saturday at the end of our first week we went exploring in the mountains to do some hiking and find some hieroglyphics.

We finished Saturday with a few hours at the beach.  I spent my beach time asleep in a hammock following an exhausting week of dealing with typical humanitarian mission challenges in addition to 5+ hours of driving for our tourist expedition.

 On Sunday I was able to go to church in Santiago with Col Lance Nelson, an ophthalmologist in the Air Force Reserves from Utah who was on our team.

The end of the second week we turned things over to a second combined eye team of air force and army ophthalmologists who continued the surgical mission for two more weeks.