Sights On Health2016 | Sights On Health

Julia Colmenares CNA – honored by the Peruvian American Chamber of Commerce

Sights on Health — Tue, 08 Nov 2016 18:42:28 +0000

On November 5, 2016 Julia Colmenares CNA was honored for her dedication to A Promise to Peru by the Peruvian American Chamber of Commerce of Long Island at a dinner dance celebrating their 10th anniversary. Julia has been a part of the surgical mission team for the past 5 years. Pictured with Julia are A Promise to Peru board secretary Cathy Roberts and her husband Ken Roberts.

We published an ad in Paccli to congratulate Julia!

A Promise to Peru, Inc. A top-rated nonprofit!

Sights on Health — Wed, 12 Oct 2016 14:20:46 +0000

Check Out Our Music Video!

Sights on Health — Wed, 29 Jun 2016 15:00:58 +0000

Check out this amazing music video two of our medical students made of the wonderful, fabulous, and hardworking P2P team! We had the best time during our mission and we wanted to show off our silly sides and joy to everyone else!

Cataract Surgical/Medical Mission June 2016, Calca, Sacred Valley, Peru

Sights on Health — Thu, 23 Jun 2016 16:58:35 +0000

Our June 2016 Cataract Surgical and Medical Mission to Calca in the Sacred Valley of Peru was a great success!! Over 400 medical patients and 924 eye clinic patients were examined, close to 1,600 pairs of distance, reading and non prescription sunglasses were dispensed, 51 eye surgeries and over 100 ultrasound procedures were performed. This was accomplished by our 51 participants which included 11 physicians, 3 optometrists, 4 R.N.’s, 1 certified ultrasound technician, 1 certified surgical technician, medical students from Stony Brook, Columbia and NY Osteopathic medical school, nurse practitioner and physician assistant students from Stony Brook.

Since the inception of our organization in 2011, our portable eye clinic and operating room has examined over 4,000 patients, distributed 6,700 pairs of prescription glasses/sunglasses and performed close to 400 site restoring surgical procedures. The portable medical clinic has administered health care to approximately 7,850 patients to people and performed approximately 250 portable ultrasound examinations. We could not have done all of this work without the support of so many individuals, who have donated their time, energy, and funds to our cause. A Promise to Peru, Inc. thanks each and everyone of you!

Day 5: That’s a wrap!

Sights on Health — Mon, 20 Jun 2016 16:31:51 +0000

Follow Amanda Bader as she blogs about her experience in Peru! apromisetoperu2016.blogspot.com

Friday marked our last day of clinic and we definitely went out with a bang! Walking into clinic, patients were lined up in almost every empty space of the hospital, awaiting both eye and medical care. Although Friday’s clinic only ran until 2pm, we were still able to see hundreds of patients as well as screen a few patients for cataract surgery to be referred to a Peruivan ophthalmologist in Cusco named Dr. Silva.

At the end of the five days, we saw over 950 eye clinic patients and over 400 medical patients – totaling over 1,350 patients! Words cannot describe how grateful we are to the people of Peru for letting us treat them, the hospital in Calca for allowing us to take over their facilities this week, Dr. Morales and Dr. Silva for their correspondence, all of our donors and supporters who helped make this trip possible, and of course, our entire Promise To Peru volunteer team, including ophthalmologists, physicians, optometrists, nurse practitioners, RNs, pharmacists, technicians, translators, administrators, medical and PA students, and other volunteers who worked so tirelessly and diligently these past five days – this mission trip could not have been possible without each and every one of you!

And of course, a special thank you goes out to our co-founders, Dr. Debra Messina and Dr. Natalie DiGioia, for all of the work, hours, and organization they put in to make this one of the best trips yet!

Day 3 & Day 4: The journey continues!

Sights on Health — Mon, 20 Jun 2016 16:26:48 +0000

Follow Amanda Bader as she blogs about her experience in Peru! apromisetoperu2016.blogspot.com

And there goes another two days! With each passing day, we continue to exceed our goals, as we saw about 500 patients in the eye clinic and over 250 in the medical clinic. Our surgical team has also been working tirelessly these past two days and were able to perform 26 cataract surgeries – a total of 50 in four days! Friday is our last day of clinic, and while it’s bittersweet to leave Calca, everyone on the team is so appreciative for the opportunity to serve the people of Peru. We hope to have made a difference in the lives of our patients! Check out the pictures below as well as the final post above!

The Surgical and Medical mission is underway.

Sights on Health — Wed, 15 Jun 2016 13:16:48 +0000

The Surgical and Medical mission is underway. Both clinics are set up and has begun to see patients. We were welcomed by Dr. Francisco Morales and introductory lecture about the state of healthcare in Peru.

Day 1 & Day 2: And so it begins!

Sights on Health — Wed, 15 Jun 2016 13:02:12 +0000

Follow Amanda Bader as she blogs about her experience in Peru! apromisetoperu2016.blogspot.com

“Wow, these first two days have just flown by! Monday began our five-day journey and this year has started off with extreme success! Day 1 began at 6:45am, with patients lined up waiting for both the eye clinic and medical clinic to open. Optometry/ophthalmology intake began with walk-in patients from Calca and over the course of the day, buses filled with elders from remote villages of Peru, including San Salvador, arrived at the clinic. We also continued to screen and prepare patients for cataract surgery, and by the end of this very long day, we had operated on 12 patients! Over on the medical side, things were no less busy, as our physicians, nurse practitioners, and physician’s assistant saw over 100 pediatric and adult patients. We are so honored and thrilled to be helping all of these Peruvians!

It was no surprise that Tuesday’s clinics were able to surpass the previous day’s numbers – today we saw over 200 ophthalmology/optometry patients, and around 120 medical patients! In addition, our ophthalmologists were able to perform 13 more cataract surgeries. After two days, we are slowly but surely establishing a nice “flow” in both of our clinics and we are excited for the days to come! Enjoy all of our pictures below!”

Day 0 in Peru!

Sights on Health — Thu, 09 Jun 2016 16:21:32 +0000

Follow Amanda Bader as she blogs about her experience in Peru! apromisetoperu2016.blogspot.com

We are excited to announce that we have safely arrived in Peru!

Today (Sunday) was the group’s first trip to our clinic, which is located in a hospital in the town of Calca, Peru. We were warmly greeted by Dr. Morales, a Peruvian physician who has helped us plan and prepare for this trip, gave us a brief presentation on the status of health in Peru, outlining and describing the health disparities and obstacles they face in both the populated and rural communities of Peru.

After the presentation, the team prepared for our week in clinic by unpacking medical and surgical equipment as well as pre-screening select patients for cataract surgery, who came three hours by bus from a remote village called Quiquijana. The clinic swung into full force as everyone assisted with visual acuity tests, various optometry exams, and screening patients for ophthalmic surgery. We already have our first patients lined up for surgery tomorrow!

Tomorrow is the first official day of clinic and we are so excited! Our team has been working tirelessly to set up both the ophthalmology as well as medical clinic and we are ready to give the gift of health to the people of Peru!

Packing day – May 14th 2016

Sights on Health — Mon, 16 May 2016 16:35:02 +0000

Thank you to all of the participants who joined us in the past few weeks and especially today for the daunting task of packing over 50 suitcases of medical and surgical supplies. We are ready for take off next month!