Philippines 2023 – Day 8

Our last day at the hospital!

We arrived, in small groups. Our transportation drivers were slow picking us up. Thankfully Cora’s nephew was able to come get our OR staff so they could start heading to the hospital to get started. 

Our patients from yesterday are recovering fine. The patient who had a gift for De Talboy and Garima asked for his address so she could send him a thank you – how thoughtful. 

9:15am

We visited a gymnasium where boys aged 7-12 years old were being circumcised. Medical Missions Foundation provided supplies. The City Hall staff does a lot for the community. They have a circumcision camp once a year. 

In the Philippines , most kids are not delivered in the hospital so they’re not able to get circumcised when they are born. In the Filipino culture, circumcision is required to do before the boy reaches puberty.  Before, the notion was that if they did it at birth the baby would experience trauma, they wouldn’t be able to tolerate the pain, and they believed if they circumcise at a young age (before 7 years of age) that the they would have to get it redone after a few years. 

Recent innovation and recent practice has changed this. More boys are now being circumcised at birth. 

2:28 pm

Back at the hospital. We have two thyroid cases our surgeons are finishing up. 

7:21 pm

The Mayor hosted a going away dinner for us. Medical Missions Foundation provided services in value of $4,450,000 pesos. Our team of volunteers performed 39 surgeries at Governor Celestino Gallares Memorial hospital. The dental camp served 200 patients. We also had 162 circumcision surgeries. As well as distributed over 1000 reading glasses. 

Thank you everyone for your invaluable service to the people of Bohol and for volunteering your time to Medical Missions Foundation.