November – Ghana: Children’s Lifeline / Children’s Hospital of Boston / Harvard Medical School
The twenty-six member team led by Dr. Francis Fynn-Thompson had a challenging time in Ghana; but, despite power and water outages during some of the surgeries, all procedures were successful. Evaluations were performed upon arrival and decisions were made for the cardiac surgeries that would be performed. Patients from past missions were also evaluated and doing well – in one day, sixty patients were evaluated. Two surgeries had to be cancelled due to malaria, but that allowed other surgeries to be performed. In all, eighty patients were evaluated with twelve surgeries performed. Time was also spent educating the nursing staff. Computers were donated by Children’s Hospital Boston to a local school which had none. Other items donated were taken to the Sisters of Charity, Mother Teresa’s Orphanage.