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PRECEDING PAGES Left: Some
families walked for hours to reach
the hospital, where they began
lining up before 7 a.m. When
the medical team arrives mid-
afternoon, some crowd the door,
fearing their children would miss
the opportunity to be treated.
Right: Nurse Linda Harper cradles
a post-op baby on this, her
second mission, or “brigade,”
as it’s called in Ecuador. “Even
though you pay to go on these
trips, you come back richer.”
ABOVE LEFT Josephine Sullivan
provides a comforting touch
for patient Genifer Farias Loor.
The OR nurse plans to make two
mission trips a year for the next
five years. “After that, my house
will be paid off and I’ll go four
times a year.”
ABOVE Starting a frightened
toddler’s IV requires teamwork;
Nurse Linda Harper, right,
and nurse Janice Johnson,
left, whose husband, Kent, an
anesthesiologist, also made
the trip.
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Compassion translates in any language.
3. T
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FAR LEFT Kiel works the
recovery room where mothers
and grandmothers anxiously
wait for the children to
wake up.
LEFT A new dress goes with a
new smile. Anesthesiologist
Kaylyn Krummen holds an
infant who’s just undergone
surgery to repair a cleft-lip,
as OR nurse Zoraida Delgada,
looks on. Says Delgado.
“Kaylyn sometimes danced to
entertain the children!”
FAR LEFT For Josephine
Sullivan, a walk on the
beach turns into another
opportunity to lend a hand.
Joining the locals, she pulls
her own weight—and then
some—to get a boat onshore.
LEFT After a 12- to 16-hour
hospital shift, the team
re-energizes at dinner,
talking, laughing and even
dancing. Allison Godchaux
demonstrates her moves.
FAR LEFT Linda Harper
attends to a post-op patient
while a worn-out mother
awaits her child’s return from
the OR.
LEFT The three-mile commute
from hotel to hospital was
made by foot, boat and
tricycle. Leading the brigade,
nurse practitioner Allison
Godchaux, left, and nurse
Jennifer Kiel. Behind them,
physician Ricardo Ortega
and Linda Harper. Both
Godchaux and Kiel brought
their teenage daughters
(Godchaux’s husband, surgeon
David Oberhofer, was also on
the team).
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LEFT The ENT team performs
cleft lip surgery on Diosselyn
Santana. From left, Kaylyn
Krummen, Zoraida Delgado,
surgeon Ed Hepworth and
scrub tech Pamela Anderson-
Zerr. Before applying
anesthesia, “we sang songs to
the kids to calm them down,”
says Delgado.
BELOW After surgery,
Diosselyn and her mother,
Patricia Pilay Reyesboth, both
need time to recover.
E A C H Y E A R thousands of nurses donate
their time and talent to travel to all corners
of the earth on medical missions. Countless
organizations sponsor trips that can easily fit
into a two-week vacation. Not that you should
confuse volunteering with vacationing.“You
work long hours and sometimes the conditions
aren’t that great,“ says Linda Harper.“But
it’s an unbelievable experience.”Sue Averill,
a nurse who’s a veteran of many missions,
agrees:“You come back so energized and with
a whole different perspective on nursing.”
Her website, onenurseatatime.org, has a
searchable database of volunteer organizations
ABOVE Godchaux shares
a laugh with 15-year-old
Natasha Kiel while her
14-year-old daughter, Julie
Godchaux-Linneman, looks
on. Healing the Children
missions aren’t generally open
to teenagers, but as team
coordinator, Roberta “Bobbye”
Kriebel, explains, “These
two were an exception and
exceptional.” They entertained
children by making animal
balloons, blowing bubbles and
breaking into song and dance.
MARY DUFFY is the executive
editor of Scrubs.
and opportunities. The group also offers
scholarships to defray the travel costs
associated with most trips (One Nurse at a Time
helped underwrite Allison Godchaux’s trip to
Ecuador). Another great resource that offers
an in-depth look at a world of opportunities
is Volunteering at Home and Abroad: The
Essential Guide for Nurses by Jeanne Leffers
and Julie Plotnick. Whether you’re motivated
by a desire to give back, a sense of adventure
or a nursing challenge, the benefits of
mission work “defy description,” according
to nurse Janice Johnson. “I think you have to
experience it to understand it.”
UNIVERSAL HEALTH CARE
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