Quechua Benefit Blog - Insight Peru Mission May 2010

Thy Kingdom Come

Thu, 20 May 2010 18:05:00 -0400

The Lord is at work in Chivay, Peru. Quechua Benefit is his feet and the magnificent team from Australia, Insight Peru, is his hands and eyes. Jesus gave sight to the blind and the surgical team traveling half way around the world to a small place in Peru is doing his work here today: 2000 years later. 20 people have restored sight in the last two days. Thy Kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven. Today, Dr Craig Cameron working with Dr Stuart Randell and Nurse Carmen Ryan identified two patients; a four year old boy and a 26 year old woman who have been blind from birth. The woman Asuanciona Huamani Cajala had an infant on her back. Dr Dean Durkin examined each patient and determined that the woman had a fair chance to be helped but because of the nature of her cataracts she would need to be operated on in Arequipa under general anesthetic. The boy, Richard Lima Chyllamua, a much more difficult case requires a specialist who is only available in Lima. The doctor, Juan Carlos Noguera Arrates, from the remote village of Huaculli who brought the patients on a 6 hour journey to Chivay asked if Quechua Benefit might help in someway. He volunteered to set up exams and escort the patients to Arequipa and Lima. Dr Helbert De La Flores the Peruvian Ophthalmologist from Arequipa who is observing the Chivay mission on behalf of the Peruvian Health Ministry agreed to facilitate the necessary arrangements. Quechua Benefits Dr Willy will work with the doctors to help with the finances and see that the plan succeeds. Each of you who read this little story can pray for successful operations for two human beings who are surely the least among us, and God willing, His Kingdom will be on earth as it is in heaven.

Mike - Mission Update

Thu, 20 May 2010 09:03:00 -0400

The mission is going along in a surprisingly smooth manner. We arrived in Chivay late morning on Tuesday. The clinic was in a bit of disarray but the crew all pitched in cleaning, arranging furniture and as Dr Bailey says "improvising". By 8pm we had a spotless operating room; equipment installed the anesthesiologist set up and a well organized exam room. All the medicine arrived on time and the only heart stopper was when the brand new autoclave did not work. No worries we found another one that had not even been unpacked out of its box: it fired on the first try. The first patient arrived that evening asking for an eye exam even though the clinic was not scheduled to open until Thursday. Never mind Roberto said he would wait. At least 75 years of age he was back at 8 am on Wednesday. By then we had most of the bugs worked out and decided to screen patients and begin operating a day early. Roberto would become our first cataract patient. We arrived Wednesday morning to a growing line of patients asking to be screened. The Insight Peru team swung into action and the eye drops hit Roberto's eyes at 1:00 pm. By 2:00pm Dr Dean Durkin was operating on Roberto and upon finishing the operation said "one down 219 to go". He completed 4 operations the first afternoon: Two that turned out to be tough cases. Roberto will be back at 1:00 pm on Thursday to get his patch off. Dr Durkin says that many of the patients will be able to see clearly straight away, others will experience blurry vision for a few days after the operation. Dr Chris Brown, the second surgeon, arrived on Wednesday afternoon fresh from hiking the Inca Trail to Machu Pichu. The team will begin at 7:00 am in the morning and hope to complete 20--25 surgeries by days end. These Aussies are awesome. More to followies are awesome.More to follow

Surgical mission to Peru

Wed, 19 May 2010 19:52:00 -0400

The InSight Peru Team, the RAAAT's, were dispatched yesterday to South America to begin their 2 week mission, which hopes to achieve 220 cataract operations for the native Indians of Peru in the name of the Australian Alpaca Association and the Ramsay Health Group. Whilst I had intended to be leading that team, family circumstances known to most of you have prevented me from joining them. The mission has not been without incident, even in this very early stage! To follow the daily progress of the 8 man team (soon to be nine, when they are joined in Arequipa by Dr Chris Brown) follow the blog at www.insightperu.blogspot.com. Please pass on this information to any who might have some interest in sharing it. Kind regards, Ian Davison