|
Our purpose is to teach surgical skills and specialized surgical techniques to missionary and national doctors at mission hospitals in remote parts of the world. By going to the mission hospital we are able to identify the local disease spectrum and determine what techniques would be most beneficial for the missionary doctor to learn during our 4 to 12 week stay at his hospital.
If a missionary doctor returns to a western country to learn new techniques, he may not see the techniques that will help him in his patient care in his adopted country. In other words, learning how to perform a carpal tunnel release would be of little benefit since carpal tunnel syndrome is almost non-existant in Third World countries. On the other hand, the need to learn how to release a scarred hand secondary to a deep burn would would be very helpful but such chronic burn scars would be rarely seen in western countires.
Deformed and disabled adults and children are dejected and often feel rejected by their peers and by God in Third World countries. Corrective surgery often removes the guilt and stigma and feelings of rejection by God and allows these patients to approach God for the first time and trust in Him as their Savior.
Teaching the missionary physician these new techniques that allows him/her to care for the disabled and deformed gives the physician the opportunity to operate on patients he/she once turned away. Once the patient remains at the hospital for surgical care, they have the opportuinity to hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ on a daily basis and respond positively to this message of hope and forgiveness.
|
