SRW Accomplishments

SO MANY CASTS

Six weeks after our orthopedic team travels to Honduras to do needed orthopedic surgery there for children, another smaller SRW team returns to change the casts of those who had surgery. Those new casts stay on for another 4–6 weeks. To be even more efficient while the casts are off, the Honduran brace company personnel makes a mold of the foot that will need a brace in their shoe when the cast is removed for the last time. The bracing post-operatively is as important as the surgery itself to improving the patient's mobility for the future. SRW helps with that expense to the patient as most cannot afford the $150–$300 per child for the braces. Thank you to the Cornerstone Church in Mosinee, WI and the Ladies Guild from the Zwingli UCC of Mt. Vernon, WI for help with part of those funds.

Some of the younger children have to have anesthesia for this cast change procedure and some have metal pins that are also removed. About fifty percent of the patients go to surgery while the remainder can be treated without anesthesia and do well. Our team is small but mighty! We perform the procedures in two days at the clinic in Siguatepeque as the children and their families travel back to this clinic from across Honduras. This year we saw 31 patients and 43 braces need to be made for those children. This was accomplished Feb. 22–March 3, 2020. Our team members were all team members who also made the same trip last year. We cannot wait to see these patients next year and see their improved mobility in action.

Team members were:
David Mann MD
Mary Dowling RN
Wendy Read RN
Jessica Ebert CRNA
Jessica Hoffmaster CRNA
Elizabeth Shimon PA
Cassie Kolstad PA
Pat White RN
Pat Kreibich RN

< READ PREVIOUS