Sights On Health2017 | Sights On Health

Mission – 2017

Sights on Health — Tue, 27 Jun 2017 13:52:15 +0000

Our June 2017 Cataract Surgical and Medical Mission to Calca in the Sacred Valley of Peru was another great success!! Over 500 medical patients and 1,384 eye clinic patients were examined, close to 1,600 pairs of distance, reading and non prescription sunglasses were dispensed, 63 eye surgeries and over 60 ultrasound procedures were performed. This was accomplished by our 55 participants which included 11 physicians, 2 optometrists, 2 Physician Assistants, 2 Nurse Practitioners, 5 R.N.’s, 1 certified ultrasound technician, 1 Nurse Assistant, 15 medical students from Stony Brook, Columbia, St George’s University, Upstate,University of Texas and NY Osteopathic medical schools, 3 optometry students from SUNY Optometry, nurse practitioner student from Stony Brook, 5 Spanish translators, an engineer, a school teacher who provided patient education, a pharmacist, and 2 undergraduate students from Cornell University and University of Rhode Island. We were fortunate to have our Peruvian team working with us in Calca along with the Peruvian Ministry of Health, Dr Francisco Morales, Dr Victor Rozas, Dr Frilo Silva, Dr J. Fuentes, 3 RNs, 4 Quechua translators and our on the ground logistical coordinator, Luis Loayza. We had patients come from very remote towns, some traveling 10 – 12 hours to reach us. The appreciation of the Peruvian patients that were treated was very heartwarming to our entire team. As part of our organization’s educational component, one of our board members, George Coritsidis, M.D. was invited to be the keynote speaker at the ES-SALUD Hospital in Cuzco. Dr Victor Rozas, the Medical Director of Peruvian American Medical Society served as the interpreter. The lecture series was well attended and well received.

Since the inception of our organization in 2011, our portable eye clinic and operating room has examined over 5,400 patients, distributed 8,300 pairs of prescription glasses/sunglasses and performed over 460 site restoring surgical procedures. The portable medical clinic has administered health care to approximately 8,350 patients to people and performed approximately 310 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!

Blog Post #6 – 2017 Mission

Sights on Health — Tue, 27 Jun 2017 13:08:15 +0000

June 16
Today we saw patients from 8am to 1pm in the medical clinic, completed post operative cataract checkups, and packed up the clinics by 5pm. Some of our members left for a night in Cusco, while others headed for macchu pichu. Everyone took time to enjoy the beautiful country of Peru through hiking in the mountains or walking the streets of Cusco. I went to machu picchu with 36 other team members on a bus and train through ollantetambo. We arrived at our hotel in aguas calientes just in time to sleep before waking up at 5am to get to the top of machu picchu for the sunrise. Our tour guide Freddy showed us the bus stop for our ride up, and we were definitely in for an adventure. The bumpy dirt road to the entrance was barely wide enough for two lanes and large buses brought us up and down the mountains. Finally at the top, we made it to the first platform to watch the sunrise over the mountains. We even sang happy birthday to one of our surgeons! Freddy then took us around the city and explained a lot about the Incan culture and the history of machu picchu. Tons of pictures were taken but none can capture the feeling of being at one of the seven wonders of the world. When leaving the park we stamped our passports and made it safely down the mountain to eat lunch and shop in the markets before getting on the train back to ollantetambo. The train was different this time around because we were able to see the river the train was meant to follow. Peru Rail also entertained us with a dancer in costume and a fashion show. The bus from the train brought us straight to the airport in Cusco to start our long travel back to the US.

We’ve been so fortunate to experience health care in Peru through working with the Ministry of Health and the hospital in Calca. We learned that when hiccups happen, you find a way to fix it because people depend on it. A tiny example is my on the spot learning of Spanish when taking medical histories. A Promise to Peru has many friends all over the US and Peru, for which we are so thankful. One of our emergency physicians said it perfectly when she said “the patients need you, and you need them.” A simple smile or a hand on a patient’s back for comfort goes a long way, even in a completely different culture. We provided quality compassionate care alongside Peruvian physicians with the help of more than 50 volunteers, and if you’re interested in joining us next year or donating to our cause please don’t hesitate to contact us!

~ Chrissie Chevalier, OMS I

Blog Post #5 – 2017 Mission

Sights on Health — Tue, 27 Jun 2017 12:58:34 +0000

We woke up today to the sound of loud bangs, some of us thought alpacas were being prepared for food and others thought it was fireworks. The firework-minded people won, because Peru was celebrating the holiday of Corpus Christi. Because people had the day off, our clinics were swamped. I was working the medical clinic intake with a Spanish/Quechua translator named Jhon, along with two other medical students. The entire morning was a blur! After having lunch with most of the volunteers behind the building I headed to help out the optometry clinic. Here I used the autorefractor to look at the patient’s eye dimensions and match a donated pair of prescription glasses to the numbers or provide them with reading glasses. Our clinic ran out of sunglasses to give away on Wednesday, but we would’ve given sunglasses to the patients to go with the prescriptions. The optometry clinic finished seeing patients for the day and I scooted over to the medical clinic for an extra set of hands. As soon as I got there one of our PAs was seeing a patient who complained of acid reflux but turned out to be pregnant. Leonora, our ultrasound technician and Spanish/English translator, performed a complete pregnancy ultrasound to make sure the baby was healthy. I was fortunate enough to learn from Leonora and see how the process works. After everyone finished at the hospital, we had a big end of the week banquet at the function room of our hotel. Louis made sure we had good food, good entertainment, and a fun time. We started off watching a traditional dance performance and at the end the dancers came into the crowd and got us to get up and dance with them! By the end almost every team member was holding hands and dancing in the middle of the room. After we settled down, Dr. Messina spoke to the entire group about our incredible trip. Following her were motivating and touching words by Dr. Coritsidis, Dr. Tracy and Vern Weinburg, Dr. Rager, Cathy, Julia, Dr. Cordoba and Louis. After our last Peruvian dinner complete with a cooked guinea pig and pisco sours, we sang happy birthday to our birthdays of the week and had the four of them blow out candles on cakes! To finish the night, Dr. Morales and his friend/our translator Jhon gave us a small history lesson on Peru’s people and the culture before playing the guitar and singing for us. Everyone was so appreciative of their talents and hearing the traditional songs of Peru.

~ Chrissie Chevalier, OMS I

Blog Post #3 – 2017 Mission

Sights on Health — Mon, 19 Jun 2017 14:46:00 +0000

This post is a little more personal because after the first day our clinics become routine. Today I worked in the eye clinic performing visual acuity exams. We were stationed outside the optometry clinic in a small outdoor courtyard with two benches and 3 eye charts taped to the wall. Even though the courtyard was enclosed by the hospital itself, stray dogs found their way in and wandered around. A handful of medical students and translators would collect their eye and medical history on a chart, write a number and pass the patient and chart along to us in the courtyard. Our patients ranged from 3 to 80 years old, and around 2pm a lot of school age children in uniforms came for testing. One of the optometry students told me the children were so excited to get glasses that they gave them small prescriptions and their eyes lit up. Testing the patients’ eyesight was difficult with the language barrier at first, for me, but I was able to pick up important phrases to explain what was going on and communicate with Quechua speaking patients via the Quechua/Spanish translators. The translators are very helpful and sweet, they were young girls who laughed with us and had the best personalities. After assessing patients’ vision and documenting our findings we sent them into the optometry room to wait for further screening and possible prescription glasses or cataract surgery. The highlight of my day was when I saw patients I had helped prepare for surgery yesterday and who stayed overnight due to long travel times walked through the courtyard to exit the clinic. They were all smiles and so thankful to every medical provider they came in contact with, shaking hands and holding their heads high. They knew they’d be able to see once they could take that eye patch off, and it’s incredible that our clinic provided eyesight for free.
~ Chrissie Chevalier, OMS I

Blog post #2 2017 Mission

Sights on Health — Sun, 18 Jun 2017 17:50:29 +0000

By Christine Chevalier

We slept in for the first and only time this week, after this we’re looking at early morning starts at 6:45am and earlier! After a breakfast of coffee, papaya juice, bread, pineapple and papaya some team members went to the local market for Peruvian popcorn, some took pictures with the llamas behind the hotel, and some relaxed in the courtyard until we met for our group picture. Our incredible Peruvian guide, Luis, brought us the shirts you see in the pictures! We are so thankful to have him with us, he truly works hard to make sure everything runs smoothly and safely. The team walked to the hospital to prepare and unpack all the medical and surgical supplies we brought from America. With every hand on deck we were able to set up the medical clinic and the eye/surgical clinic in good time. Our team was so efficient they were able to perform eye exams on about 45 patients! The optometrists, optometry students, and medical students worked so hard during this process and got a feel for this portion of our clinic. A handful of patients were identified for cataract surgery, and the ophthalmologists will be ready for operation first thing in the morning. After closing up the clinic for the day, the team dispersed for dinner around Calca and some even traveled about 30 minutes to Urubamba. The hotel informed us of water outage, meaning no flushing toilets, running sinks or showers but the team made do with bottled water, washcloths, face wipes and deodorant in hopes of water coming back Monday morning! Bedtime came early with the thought of a long week ahead, and late at night a band began playing loud music outside the hotel in the square hopefully lulling some of us to sleep.

Blog Post #1 2017 Mission

Sights on Health — Tue, 13 Jun 2017 22:32:28 +0000

By Christine Chevalier

We traveled from JFK airport in New York all the way to Calca, Peru with a layover in Lima! Our journey began at 7:30pm(EST) on June 9 and we arrived in Calca at 3pm(CST), making a total travel time of 19.5 hours. Our dedicated team came mostly from New York, but also from as diverse places like Texas and Oregon. We arrived safely and without hassle from international customs. Once arriving in Calca, 12 selfless participants brought luggage to the hospital to be set up on Sunday before joining most of our participants to the markets at Pisco for a chance to see the culture and pick up fun souvenirs. The hotel is slightly walking distance from both the ophthalmologic and medicine clinics, but some mornings our trusty bus drivers will bring us there. Our A Promise to Peru mission team is bonding well and truly having a good time getting to know each other, which serves as a glue for the upcoming week. Enjoy the first round of photos, there will be many more!

Campana Gratuita Oftalmologica

Sights on Health — Mon, 15 May 2017 18:38:02 +0000

Fundraiser Dinner Dance – photos!

Sights on Health — Thu, 13 Apr 2017 15:59:22 +0000

A big thank you to all who supported us to make the Fundraiser Dinner Dance a success!!

Natalie DiGioia, M.D., George Coritsidis, M.D., Caty Roberts, Debra Messina, M.D., Michael Sable, M.D. and Jim Rienzo

Dr. Natalie DiGioia with the two medical student leaders, Jared Su and Pallavi Tatapudy.

Dr. Messina with Ambassador Maria Teresa Merino de Hart and Ambassador Alberto Hart.

Dr. DiGioia with entertainer and singer, Raffe

Dr. Natalie Digioia and her son

Ana Castaneda, Julia Colmenares, Leonor Gonzales, Zoile Poire, Frances Alvardo Ng, Cathy Roberts, Debra Messina,Iris Canepa, Natalie DiGioia

A Promise to Peru, Fundraiser Dinner Dance – 2017 from A Promise to Peru on Vimeo.