2024 Year in Review
This year, Serving at the Crossroads, with the Manos Amigas clinic staff and brigades from the U.S., continued providing hope and healing to members of the community. Not only does Manos Amigas offer opportunities for treatment of medical conditions, it also provides opportunities for professional growth of its staff and employment for members of the community. In fact, Manos Amigas has become an employer of choice in the area as evidenced by 200 job applications for a recent opening. This is what Aid. Inform. Empower is all about!
2024 Impact
~15,000 Patient Visits
~13,000 blood tests • ~8,500 prescriptions • ~340 x-rays
4 eye brigades
1 surgical brigade • 1 family medicine brigade • 1 OB/GYN brigade
New partnerships formed with:
Blue Sky Surgical, The C14 Foundation, Maya Chorty Maternity Clinic, Wake Forest University ophthalmology school, Fraternidad Hospital in San Pedro Sula, and South Carolina’s Providence Presbytery
Manos Amigas nurses Melissa Castillo and Asalia Castro earned Ophthalmic Instrumentalist certificates
YAG Laser installed for cataract surgery
Planning began for new building with engagement of site planners and architects
PRIMARY CARE
9,200 medical visits
2,800 dental visits
3,000 vision visits
15,000 total patient visits
13,000 blood tests
8,500 prescriptions
Manos Amigas Staff — July 2024
The Manos Amigas Staff provides primary care daily throughout the year. In 2024, there were about 15,000 patient visits.
On the medical side, the staff treats common illnesses such as hypertension, diabetes, high cholesterol, respiratory infections, urinary tract infections, ear infections, and dengue fever. The medical staff is also supported by a blood lab run by a microbiologist and a digital x-ray operated by a radiology technician. This permanent access to medical care and medication helps patients manage chronic health conditions and treat acute illnesses before they become more serious.
The dentists provide preventative care (cleanings, x-rays, fluoride), fill cavities, perform root canals, do reconstruction procedures, and tooth extractions. With this access to dental care over the past 14 years, we have seen a dramatic shift from extracting teeth to saving teeth.
The optometrist conducts eye exams, provides glasses, treats common eye ailments, and screens patients for eye surgeries. The most common conditions she sees are cataracts, pterygium, presbyopia (far-sightedness), myopia (near-sightedness), and conjunctivitis. With this access to vision care and surgeries, people in the area are able to return to work, better care for themselves and their families, and enjoy activities like reading.
BLUE SKY BRIGADES (SURGERY, FAMILY MEDICINE, OB/GYN)
100 surgeries
520 people treated in villages
104 cervical screenings
4 babies delivered at Maya Chorty Maternity Clinic (ultrasounds also provided to mothers waiting delivery)
Blue Sky Surgical brought not only a surgical team but also a family medicine brigade and an OB/GYN brigade. The surgery team worked out of Manos Amigas clinic and performed surgeries using our three operating rooms plus a local procedure room. They repaired hernias and hydroceles; and removed masses, lipomas, and cysts. The family medicine brigade worked with Summit in Honduras—a nonprofit from Colorado and long-time partner at Manos Amigas—to travel to remote villages and provide care. The OB/GYN brigade worked both at Manos Amigas and at the Maya Chorty Maternity Clinic performing cervical screenings. They also provided training to the maternity clinic staff on complicated deliveries and infant resuscitation and performed ultrasounds for the women waiting for delivery at the maternity clinic. We are grateful for the grant from The C14 Foundation to support the cervical screening program.
Special thanks to Dr. George Trajtenberg who founded the surgical program at Manos Amigas in 2013 and led 10 brigades. This year he transitioned leadership of that program to Dr. Seth Newman of Blue Sky Surgical. Under George’s leadership, he and the other surgeons he brought with him performed 787 surgeries. The impact is immeasurable as it extends beyond those patients to the families that they can better care for and the jobs to which they can return. While George has put down the scalpel, we hope he will continue to share his wisdom with Serving at the Crossroads and Blue Sky Surgical as we work together at the Manos Amigas clinic.
VISION CARE
89 small incision cataract surgeries
22 YAG laser surgeries,
5 glaucoma procedures
11 pterygiums
50 oculoplastic and strabismus surgeries
Much has been going on this year in vision care at the Manos Amigas Clinic: new equipment, continuing existing partnerships, and fostering of new ones like Providence Presbytery’s New Visions project in support of the village of Trinidad. All are contributing to better vision care for people struggling with their eyesight. Vision Health International volunteers made three trips to Manos Amigas this year—January, May, and August. We are also excited to be working with Wake Forest University Medical School Department of Ophthalmology and the Fraternidad Hospital in San Pedro Sula. A team from Wake Forest worked at the clinic in June performing cataract surgeries.
Sergio, 31, hasn’t been able to work because he couldn’t see well. Karen, the Manos Amigas optometrist, evaluated him and determined he needed a very special lens for his cataract surgery. VHI was able to procure the lens and send it down with the January VHI team.
This sweet girl above was bullied because her eyes weren’t straight. Strabismus is a disorder in which both eyes do not line up in the same direction. Strabismus surgery loosens or tightens the eye muscles, depending on the affliction, which usually realigns the eyes into the correct position.
The impact of these surgeries is life changing—enabling people to return to work, being able to read again, and ending the bullying because of misaligned eyes.
August visit from Dr. David Khorram to work on the backlog of cataract cases.
“This trip was very special because of the local skill that has been developed that allowed me to step into an OR fully staffed by talented Honduran personnel. To my left, Karen did the blocks, Miguel circulated (his first time), David did the pre-op evaluations, Melissa and Asalia scrubbed, and Irma kept the instruments sterile and flowing. This was a milestone along an important journey for this clinic.”
OTHER GOOD NEWS
Manos Amigas Nurses Earn Ophthalmic Instrumentalist Certificate
Wake Forest University Medical School Department of Ophthalmology has an existing partnership with the Fraternidad Hospital in San Pedro Sula. In December 2023, four eye surgeons from Wake Forest University Medical School and the CEO of the Fraternidad Hospital visited the Manos Amigas Clinic to determine the feasibility of operating there in the future.
The CEO offered to train some Manos Amigas staff members for surgical eye care at the hospital in San Pedro Sula. This year, from March to May, nurses Melissa Castillo and Asalia Castro attended training and earned their Ophthalmic Instrumentalist Certificate.
A Story of a Boy and a Wheelchair
by Rudy Tellez, Blue Sky volunteer
With less than 12 hours to go, I received a message from our fearless leader Seth, asking if I could assist picking up a wheelchair from Paul’s home to bring to Honduras. This special wheelchair had been found by Dr. George Trajtenberg for a disabled boy in La Entrada and had arrived just in time. My sons and I went to pick up the chair, and while we were not able to assemble it, I told Nicolas and Sebastian that this was going to make a big difference to someone that we did not even know in a different country. It sure did! This boy’s father had been carrying his son 25 minutes to school each day and then back home after school. The boy had to sit in an uncomfortable chair while at school.
Thanks to many people, this boy has wheels to get around in and is comfortable at school. When people band together for the well being of others, the possibilities are endless, whether local or worldwide. My last day in Honduras, as I was leaving the clinic I noticed the empty box of the wheelchair… I got emotional seeing the results of everyone’s efforts!
