MCJR team volunteers recently returned from a week-long mission trip to Guatemala, where they provided free medical care and surgeries to 78 Guatemalan patients. The volunteers, which included our own Dr. Mike Berend and Steve Spry, RN, worked alongside Team Hope in Motion (Team HIM) and other OrthoAlliance partner teams across the Midwest to serve the needy.
The trip was a great success: over the course of 4 days, the surgeon teams worked tirelessly to provide 67 joint reconstruction and replacement surgeries. Here’s a breakdown of the week’s procedures:
Many of the Guatemalan patients have endured long-suffering birth defects or untreated injuries for decades. Because of these defects, many of the surgery cases are complicated and require expertise and ingenuity on the surgeons’ part. This just highlights how dedicated Dr. Berend and the other surgeons are to their craft. The surgeries our teams provide them are life-changing and would be unattainable if not for the generosity of many.
Dr. Berend and other MCJR clinicians typically travel to Guatemala once or twice a year with Team HIM to further their mission to serve the needy. We are so grateful that our surgeons use their gifts to serve some of the least of these.
To read more about their adventures and view more photos from the 2024 trip, visit the Team Hope in Motion blog.