We’ve completed our work in Vietnam.  This week we performed 30 urology surgeries and participated in tremendous collaboration and shared learning, all for the beautiful children and families we serve!  A special thanks to our amazing team – nurses Dody Barr, Amy Pedersen, Laura Peterson, Ana Vazquez Rojas, Barb Wiemann and Norie Wilson; anesthesia providers Natalie Brunk, Anton Rohan and Behnoosh Shayegan; surgeons Yuri Reinberg and Donald Nguyen; pediatrician Dave Tetzlaff; biomed Leon Randall; logistics/medical records Conrad Nguyen and Stacey Brown; IPSAC partner Father Joseph Dao Nguyen; and our incredible translators. Small, but mighty, this team has successfully concluded our multi-year commitment with our partners in Thanh Hoa.

In our four trips to Thanh Hoa Provincial Hospital, nearly 100 volunteers served more than 150 children and families.  We collaborated with dozens of hospital staff – sharing information and working together to increase their skills and confidence to perform more surgeries and provide supportive care to their community.  You know what they say, when you volunteer, you often get more that you give – these children, families and our hospital partners have given us far more than we gave – thank you Thanh Hoa!

From PACU nurse Laura Peterson:

1 day of screening and 4 days of surgery.
Just like that, it’s a WRAP!
So many emotions walking out of Thanh Hoa Pediatric hospital a few hours ago, knowing I’ll never see these faces again, or walk the mile back every afternoon to the hotel. I’ll never prep another kid for surgery, use a translator for 100% of the process, watch family wait on the other side of the glass doors, or see sleepy little eyes wake up from anesthesia.
Not these kids anyhow.
This trip was something special. Something I can’t quite yet find the words for.
Someday I will.
This week was put together perfectly. Everything went without a hitch, and a huge credit needs to be given to our translators. They were AWESOME. So many thanks to these guys for the last week of work they did for us.

So, so many thanks.

See all the photos from our 2017 trip to Thanh Hoa here.