CURE Hospital "Hand Team"
medical missions trip November 2nd-8th 2014
This was our 2nd trip to the CURE
hospital in Santo Domingo. Thank you to every one who made
donations and kept this missions trip in their prayers! Words cannot describe how
fulfilling a missions trip is to help the poor, the weak and the needy, so I'll tell a short story for each
of the pictures below:
The Dominican OR staff at the hospital was grateful to see more KimKaps
arrive for their department. Handing out the KimKaps to the locals who live and work in Santo Domingo was
definitely a highlight of the trip, receiving many sincere hugs.
Elsa the cleaning lady in the OR is proudly
wearing her KimKap.
Each member of the staff carefully selected what colors and style they wanted to
wear.
Part of the missions work was to fabricate custom molded splints
for the children for positioning to improve function or for after surgery.CURE hospital has Club Foot clinic every Wednesday morning.
We made a lot of splints for club foot that are to be worn by the
children while sleeping.
Yoryito with the baseball cap, was born with Brachial Plexus birth
palsy.
He bites his right hand at night while sleeping and he has many callus on his hand, short fingers and weak arm and
hand muscles, no wrist or digital extension.
The doctors felt that a custom wrist splint would help to improve his function for feeding , ADLs and play activities.
An OT Student , Lorraine, volunteered for this trip since she is fluent in spanish. I was able to understand more of the peoples' stories.
Eduardo was born with cerebral palsy.
Eduardo is excitedly playing with a handmade wooden toy car from
"Toys for God's Kids". He was so excited to get 2 purple wrist splints that we had a hard
time relaxing his tone to be able to take a photo. Hopefully
the custom wrist splints will improve his function.
Engel was born with Arthrogryposis, which commonly presents with
club foot. Arthrogryposis is caused by decreased fetal movements. Extra
connective tissue forms around the joints. There is also muscle weakness & fibrosis. Each child
presents differently. It can affect only 2 joints or as many as all joints. Engle has some shoulder
movement and a little finger movement. During therapy he was able to push the light up toy off the bed and watch
it "blink" He could also pinch the rubber hairs on the toy and stretch it like the therapists stretch
his feet during CUREs Club foot clinics.
Engel is wearing his "Dennis Brown Bar" for club foot
management while waiting for his surgery day. Dr Bob Terrill removed a small wedge from Engel's left wrist to
improve his wrist extension so that
he can grow and learn to use his hands for more tasks.
Kamil has a congenital malformation
called a Triphalangeal Thumb. (Rare) She is only 1 year old and she will
not be able to have an opposable thumb without
surgery.
Dr Bob remembered the excitement of the KimKaps in the OR, so he
saved his KimKap from the previous trip to wear while
performing the life changing surgeries for the children of the poor families in
the Dominican.
Kamil's thumb MP joint was reconstructed after removal of
the extra phalanx. She had 2 metacarpal heads.
This is Annely, She
has bilateral club hand. She was born without a radius. Her wrists
are deviated radially.
On this trip an OT student volunteered and accompanied me, so it was much more
enjoyable to make the splints for the children. We made Annely 2 wrist splints to help to
straighten her wrists. Her mother is in the background.
Ruby is 19
years old, she broke her right wrist, lumbar spine and had immediate foot
drop. The public hospital told her that
there was nothing any doctor could do for her. A team member spotted her
in the waiting room at CURE hospital
in May and asked her if she wanted to see an American doctor. We
made her a custom foot drop splint
with special straps to provide progressive stretches to her left foot.
The splint worked so well that when whe
saw her this May she was able to walk without a cane. Dr Bob was able to
prepare for the surgery she needed for her right painful wrist malunion. He brought down a donated
wrist plate for her surgery. The family was so grateful that
they invited us to their home for a visit. I was able to say yes because
the OT student spoke fluent spanish.
When we visited their homes, the family walked us to all of the family homes,
their places of employment, and their
church, their sick friends and counceling centers. We had 18 extended
family members walking with us in a circle
keeping us safe in the middle. The family said that God sent us to
visit and that our visit honored the family and their
community. We ended a wonderful evening sharing their homemade dinner in
their homes.
Once you
come home from a trip like this it takes time to absorb all that was
accomplished by the Team. CURE hospitals are Christian based, we pray
every day for each child and for every surgery.
Thank you again KimKaps for
brightening up the OR!
Sincerely, Connie Kurash
