Local anesthesiologist Dr. Tom George overcomes obstacles to provide crucial medical care during mission trip to Honduras
The doctors were in the middle of surgery with the patient under anesthesia when the power went out. The backup generator wasn’t working, and there were no working lights or monitors.
Dr. Tom George and his colleagues had to think fast, so they strapped on battery-powered headlight lamps to keep the patient alive under anesthesia and complete the operation.
Frequent power outages and lack of equipment are among several challenges facing physicians and patients in Honduras, where George recently spent a week treating patients at Clinica Medica San Lucas in the town of Gracias.
“Though we face a constant stream of inevitable problems: power outages, equipment failures, expired medications, and others, there is a feeling of comradery among the physician, nursing, translation and cleaning staffs,” said George, a practicing physician at Kalamazoo Anesthesiology P.C. “We recognize the value of what each team member brings, and we work together to overcome these challenges.”
George, a member of the Michigan Society of Anesthesiologists and interim CEO of the Michigan State Medical Society, recently completed his 11th medical mission to Honduras as part of a group led by a husband-and-wife team, Dr. Mark and Becky Veenstra, of Kalamazoo.
“Taking volunteer surgical teams to Honduras for the past 28 years has positively impacted the lives of many patients who would otherwise not have had the opportunity to have surgery,” Beck Veenstra said. “We go to bless others but in turn are so blessed by the gratefulness of our patients and by our volunteer teams who have such hearts of service and compassion.”
George joined Dr. Veenstra, his son Dr. Joshua Veenstra and Dr. Steve Lown to treat patients from the surrounding area, some who had waited several months to more than a year for treatment. Typical maladies included large ovarian cysts, extreme uterine prolapse, congenital club feet and severed hand tendons from machete wounds.
“These trips always rekindle my enthusiasm for medicine,” George said. “It was a reinvigorating week that reminded me of something that is too easy to lose sight of at home: In the end, it is all about the patient.”
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