MISSION SUMMARY:

 BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVE

ISHI's return to the Philippines in 2012 was to the Southern region, this time to Dapitan City on the island of Mindinao. The mission was first proposed by Rey Sygaco RN. Dapitan City was identified to be a rural area with many patients unable to afford surgical care. Consequently, patients ignore their disease for years and then present with advanced disease states. Mr Sygaco, born and raised in Dapitan City, currently lives in Chicago and has a nonprofit organization (Dapitanon Inc) to support projects in his old hometown.

A nursing school classmate of Sygaco, Socorro Rogers, an ISHI veteran, proposed that ISHI team up Dapitanon and conduct a surgical mission together. Mr. Sygaco then put ISHI in touch with Dapitan City's Vice Mayor Patri Chan, who identified Dr. Jose Rizal Memorial Hospital as a site for the ISHI surgical mission. Objectives of the mission were to provide free general surgery, specifically thyroidectomy (identified to be in high need), provide teaching and instuction to the OR staff, and create a relationship with Dapitanon and the Hospital to facilitate repeat missions to Dapitan City..

 SUPPLIES AND EQUIPMENT

The team carried all essential supplies to Dapitanon City. Supplies were donated by Americares and MAP International. Whatever supplies could not be procured by donations or were unable to be carried were purchased by ISHI; some items in the US, and others such as IV fluids, oxygen, and intravenous antibiotics locally. A refurbished electrocautery machine (donated by Americares) was given to the Hospital's Operating Room. Anesthesia moniters, which had been generously donated to ISHI by Mindray Corporation, were used in the OR's on this mission for intraoperative monitering.