Dr. Burgess and Lisa Babel, PA-C, returned to El Fuerte and the
clinic of San Blas in Sinaloa Mexico for another LIGA trip in early March. Each trip back to Mexico has allowed this
team to reconnect with staff and gain continued familiarity with their
surroundings. As always, the complexity
and great need for care humbles and overwhelms those medical personnel who
travel from different parts of the country to treat these patients.
This trip brought along some new volunteers from the Phoenix
area. An anesthesiologist and surgical
nurse from the valley added to the San Blas team and were a great help to Dr.
Burgess and Lisa.
Dr. Burgess was able to follow up with some of his previous
surgical patients and was kept busy with surgeries his first evening in clinic
and throughout the day on Saturday.
“It’s always a thrill to see previous patients and how they are progressing. I was especially excited to see the patient I
treated last fall who was highlighted in the MundoFox video segment. He has been able to recover good finger and
thumb movement despite not having access to a therapist,” said Dr Burgess.
Their first patient, Carmen, is a 53 year old female who had an
explosive detonate in her hand in 2012.
As a result of this injury she lost her ring and small fingers while
deforming the other remaining digits on her dominant right hand. She is a florist and has to work in order to
provide food for her family. One of the
local translators who assists with the clinic watched as she arranged flowers
with her hand and was able to hear her story.
Carmen struggled with scar tissue in her hand making it difficult for
her to reach or grasp objects. Dr.
Burgess was able to help her by surgically releasing the contractures giving
her more space between her thumb and index finger improving pinch, grasp and
grip. Carmen is recovering well and the translator was able to pass on she is
pleased with her recovery and early outcome.
Carlos is a 3 year old male who suffered a high voltage cable
accident in 2013 that left him with a contracted long finger in his right
hand. The initial treatment he received
simply sewed the finger down onto itself rendering it useless and also
preventing normal use of the rest of his hand.
As it turned out, do to his initial tendon, nerve and vessel injury, the
only option was to remove the contracted segment of the digit. He is now able to fully open and close the
rest of his hand significantly improving his function.
Edwin is a 7 year old male patient with Down’s syndrome. He sustained burns to his hand after picking
up a red hot coal from a fire when he was 3 years old. As a result he had scars throughout his hands
that prevented him from being able to flex or extend his fingers. The fingers were stuck together creating a
webbed hand which continued to progress as his hand tried to grow with his
advancing age. His surgical challenge
was to separate the digits from one another and then lengthen scar in the palm
in an effort to allow him to extend his fingers. He has a very complex condition and Dr.
Burgess expects to see and treat him in the future as his condition required
progressively staged operations.
Roberto is a 44 year old male who suffered a severely broken
wrist and severed tendons when he came upon thieves trying to steal his
electrical tools. He was beaten with a
machete. As a result, he has lost the
use of his hand due to the severed tendons, he has developed contractures and
scar to the hand and he has poorly aligned bone healing restricting joint
movement. The injury changed his life
and has prevented him from doing his job.
Dr. Burgess operated on Roberto to release the scar tissue and to try
and improve the tendon function of his wrist and hand. His next procedure in the fall will be to
release more of the joints in his hand and possibly transfer more tendons to
increase strength. Eventually he will
require work on the bone to correct the joint destruction. Dr. Burgess was deeply moved by Roberto. “Roberto is a man of faith. He harbors no resentment to those who harmed
him and he has accepted his disability.
He was grateful I was willing to try anything to help him and said he
accepted the outcome, good or bad, as God’s will,” said Dr. Burgess. “You hear those words and it makes you want
more than anything to make a positive difference in this man’s life,” reflected
Dr. Burgess.
The total number of patients treated at the San Blas clinic in
March for the weekend was 234. These
included specialties in general medicine, podiatry, plastic and general
surgery, and hand surgery. Dr. Burgess
and Lisa are looking forward to returning again in the future.
You can learn more about LIGA on their website, at www.ligainternational.org.
#RESULTS.RECOVERY.RELIEF.
TOCA
602-277-6211
No comments:
Post a Comment