Dr Kamran Shayesteh told us about his recent trip to Columbia, South America, as part of a medical team working with the Paul Chester Children Hope Foundation.  The Foundation sponsors surgical missions in countries with limited health care to improve the life of locals through procedures that have become essentially routine in developed countries. The medical teams have been in Ecuador, Kenya, Nigeria and recently Colombia.

More than 15 MD’s and other professionals performed surgeries for cataract and pterygiums, goiters, parotid tumors, gunshot wounds, skin grafts from burns, and cleft palates. Each procedure, often simple, helped people performed a task they had lost, restoring some quality of life.  After surgery, a young boy recovered the use of his hand, being capable again to grab a shovel, becoming employable again.