Romania 2015 – Day 4

Why does Medical Missions Foundation come back to Botosani every year?

There’s family here. There’s need here. There’s sweat and tears and joy, along with an array of many other emotions. When the mission comes to Botosani, the town atmosphere changes ever so slightly. People flock to the clinic with their kids and loved ones, sometimes waiting long hours to be seen by one of our American mission volunteers. Nobody leaves empty-handed; some leave with life-changing surgery, others get a physical and vitamins. The Americans reach the end of a mission with hopefully more love and compassion in their hearts, after having experienced themselves a life-changing 5 day interaction with the kind and gentle people of Botosani.

This year our American orthopedic surgeon Dr. Archie Heddings brought his orthopedic nurses from back home along with the Project CURE representative to do a thorough assessment of the Botosani hospital, identify needs and plan donations as possible.

Today, Dr. Heddings was in the Adult hospital with Dr. Malancea doing surgery throughout the day. Dr. Malancea’s son was in attendance, assisting surgery as orthopedic resident. They worked on a right shoulder dislocation and fracture, which the Americans and Romanians were able to fix in a humbling exercise of collaboration. Tamara Steel, Dr. Heddings nurse, said “the Romanian surgeons are used to working with 15 instruments, we work with 200, and we all get things done. There’s lots to be learned here, this has been an incredible experience and I want to come back to see how we can continue making a difference.”

The clinic was busy as ever, split between Dr. Araiza doing orthopedic consults and our general checkups. Lance Miller, our pharmacist, gave out plenty of meds, vitamins and finished our 300 glasses supply. One woman came from a distant village with her 3 young children to be seen by the American doctors and receive vitamins. Our volunteers gave the kids a small toy each, which brought tears to the mom’s eyes. She said “i have no money to buy them toys, we are poor, thank you for making my children so happy.” Everyone just stood there for a second, taking in the reality of her statement.

Thank you, Medical Mission Foundation volunteers, for making a difference where you can.

The amazing photos from the Romania Mission are provided by Vlad Catana.

You can follow his work at www.facebook.com/VladCatanaPh

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