On a mission: Community South volunteers provide surgical care during mission trip

The patients had traveled for hours and hours to be seen.

Many had come from miles away in Honduras, drawn by the prospect of receiving life-changing medical care. They needed their gallbladders removed, hernias repaired, and surgery on their tonsils or prostates, among other procedures.

Beset by poverty, they had no other options.

Waiting to help was a team of medical volunteers — including four from Community Hospital South.

“Everyone was so excited to get up in the morning, and you go in and work,” said Dr. Amy Fruehwald, an anesthesiologist at Community Hospital South. “The patients are so thankful and sweet. Some of them have been waiting forever to have something that would have been treated here so quickly. They’ve been suffering with it for so long. You’re sad for them, but happy that you’re able to do something to help them.”

During a nine-day trip, a team of care providers from Community Hospital South used their expertise and talents to provide medical treatment for dozens of individuals in Honduras. Besides Fruehwald, the medical mission included Dr. Stephen O’Neil, general surgeon; Danielle Lee, registered nurse, and Kathleen McConnell, certified surgical technologist.

“… The experience was awesome and has changed how I look at the world. I am planning on going again next February,” McConnell said.

Together with volunteers from other areas of the country, they performed about 125 surgeries during their time in Honduras. While acknowledging the help they provided their Honduran patients, the team was quick to point to all that they took away from the trip.

“I generally feel that I gain more from being there than I bring there,” O’Neil said. “It really is true that you can learn about humility, that I can walk in there from a couple of thousand of miles away and someone puts their trust in me immediately. You learn about gratitude, about people being patient, that they’ll wait all day long to be seen in the clinic and I’ve never heard anyone complain.”

O’Neil was the impetus for this particular medical mission trip. He has extensive experience in mission work in Honduras, having been motivated to start traveling when his wife went on non-medical mission trips to the country. Though he always wanted to take a trip himself, he wasn’t sure how to find the right opportunity.

“I always wanted to do something in a volunteer realm, but I didn’t know,” he said.

But in 2010, O’Neil connected with Solanus Medical Mission, an organization that enlists teams of volunteers to collaborate to perform life-changing surgeries and provide other medical treatment.

Solanus organizes to bring medical specialists to the St. Benedict Joseph Medical Center, a facility run by friars in Comayagua, a city in central Honduras. Volunteers pay their own way down, then spend a week working on patients in an area beset by poverty.

O’Neil had been going at least yearly on the trips, recently increasing that to twice each year. Over the years, he had talked about the medical mission trips to his colleagues at Community Hospital South. They often seemed interested in learning more, and eventually, Fruehwald, Lee and McConnell arranged to accompany O’Neil on his next trip in late February.

“A lot of times, there are people who want to go, or think about going, but it just doesn’t work. The timings were not right, something is going on at home. But it all coalesced here,” O’Neil said.

Both Lee and Fruehwald had previously gone on medical mission trips with other organizations. They understood the experience they were signing up for, and that it was something she enjoyed.

But this was McConnell’s first opportunity to do medical mission work.

For each of them, it was a chance to use their abilities to help people who needed it.

“I had helped in Haiti for about seven years. You like to go back and see how things have progressed, see patients and people you’ve met before, share stories. But they’ve kind of shut Haiti down — it’s not someplace you can go now,” Lee said. “So when Dr. O’Neil was talking about Honduras, followed up and heard some of the stories, I was very interested in doing that.”

On Feb. 22, the group traveled to Honduras and was transported to their hotel, where everyone on the mission was staying. The first day among the volunteers was spent setting up the surgical rooms and medical facilities in anticipation of the patients.

Though the equipment was more dated, it was all in good condition for the medical teams to do their work, Fruehwald said.

“It was really good facilities, especially considering the other mission trips we’ve been on,” she said. “Though it was little bit different, everything felt safe and in good care, which was something that was important to all of us.”

Patients are cared for by Honduran doctors year-round at the medical center, can then take advantage of specialists for surgical procedures when one comes via a medical mission.

“We’re not just dropping in, operating and leaving. We’re not leaving them to their own devices — they’re all seen within one week of their surgery by the doctor down there,” O’Neil said. “A lot of times people are concerned about going into a situation like that where you’re just operating and leaving. But that is handled quite well in this area.”

Within their group were two volunteer general surgeons, including O’Neil, as well as urologist and an ear-nose-throat surgeon. Fruehwald, Lee and McConnell worked around each of them.

One day, the team worked in the orphanage operated by the Franciscan friars that run St. Benedict Joseph Medical Center.

“They had just a little need that happened to come up, and it felt good to be able to be part of that, helping the kids out,” Lee said.

For some, the trip was an opportunity to refresh her professional spirit.

“The things I learned and spent so long training for, that I may do every day, this reminds me how valuable they are and how important they can be — that they can really help people, beyond what I remember every day,” Fruehwald said.

Lee also found the mission to be invigorating, despite how hard the work could be.

“You can go on a beach vacation and rest your body. But you could be thinking the whole time — your mind never shuts off. You come back, and you don’t feel rested. Where with this, we worked hard. My body physically was tired. But my attitude and my heart wasn’t. I was kind of excited to come back and tell everyone about it,” Lee said.

AT A GLANCE

Solanus Medical Mission

What: A nonprofit group on a global mission to provide life-changing surgical care to underserved communities. During the organization’s most recent trip to central Honduras in February, four volunteers from Community Hospital South helped provide care to patients.

How to volunteer: Solanus completes several medical missions each year around the world thanks to volunteers. All medical specialties are welcome. To learn more and apply, go to solanusmedicalmission.org/upcoming-missions.

How to donate: Donations help Solanus extend its reach, enhance its medical capabilities, and make a lasting difference in the lives of those they serve. Contributions can be made at solanusmedicalmission.org/donate.