Getting ready for Mission 2008 to Quito, Ecuador

Hi Everyone,
It's only 13 weeks until our group departs for Ecuador.
On February 8th the first half of 50 doctors, nurses, physiotherapists, students and lay people will leave Edmonton, Alberta and head for the Tierra Nueva Hospital in Quito Sur, Ecuador.

The mission is an annual event. The Canadian Association of Medical Teams Abroad or CAMTA for short is the charity. Check out www.camta.com!!!!

CAMTA was formed in 2001. Until last year we have done one week of surgery each year. It takes about 10 days to conduct that surgery because first after traveling to Ecuador we have to set up the operating rooms; then screen the patients; and then create the operating room slates.

One week has always meant two theatres of surgery: one for pediatrics and one for adult orthopedics.

There seem to be a lot of club feet and dyspasia of the hip in children in Ecuador. And if the dysplastic hips are corrected in childhood then these kids get early osteoarthritis of the hip.

Osteoarthritis means PAIN and REDUCED FUNCTION!!! In Ecuador that means that the person can't work and therefore can't help his family put food on the table.

This last spring we doubled our mission to two weeks of surgery. Thus we could help about 28 kids and about 40 adults get better. And it was so successful that we are going to do it again.
But planning a mission with 80 staff is a lot of work. Thus with 13 weeks left until departure we have lots of work to do. I'm going to keep you up to date on preparations with this blog.

If you look at the website there are pictures of our mission. www.camta.com

Thanks everybody!!!