Fall 2011

0 CommentsSunday • September 11, 2011 • by admin

As summer rolls into fall on a continually wet note, there is never a dull moment at Blanca’s House. This summer saw the successful completion of our first dental-only mission, which occurred Thursday-Tuesday, 8/11-8/16, in Babahoyo, Ecuador. The surgical team for this mission consisted of Dr. Don Winokur, of New jersey, and his two dental-school children, Dan and Jenna, whom Dr. Winokur supervised. Two local dentists also helped out. Of 207 patients screened, 160+ had procedures, including 107 extractions under local anesthesia and 57 surgeries requiring general anesthesia. The mission was considered a success by everyone involved.

Summer fund raising efforts continue, although at a slightly slower pace than last year. The thoughtful assistance of the Kneeseys generated $2000 through a garage sale, and a day-long event at Chili’s (they gave us 10% of the food sales) brought in several hundred more dollars. Next week, 9/17, Galo Burbano will be attending a California meeting at which not-for-profits will be pitching for funds to national donors. Good luck, Galo!

Our final mission of the year is our annual “big one” comprising the specialties of GYN, general surgery, GI, and plastic surgery. This will be undertaken on October 12th, back to Babahoyo. We expect newcomers as well as returnees and a team that also includes residents, students, and junior volunteers. Last minute snags are always annoying, but we anticipate a fulfilling time will be had by all. In the past year we have spread our specialties net wide, and now include, in addition to those mentioned in this paragraph, ENT, dental, and orthopedics. We have not yet formalized plans and dates for next year’s missions but should do so shortly. We anticipate that the trips will include shorter single-specialty missions as well as well as a week-long large mission, like this year.

Many thanks to all our volunteers and donors for making this a successful and rewarding year. We look forward to another year of professionally satisfying relationships!

Spring 2011

0 CommentsWednesday • March 23, 2011 • by admin

As the daffodils begin to blossom, here is the latest information on what’s happening at Blanca’s House. There is a great deal of fine-tuning at this time of year, and much of it occurs now. The missions for the year have already been planned, and we are about to get underway. Our first mission is to Rivas, Nicaragua on March 31st. This will be a single-specialty orthopedics mission intending to perform total knee replacements.This will be our first time performing such a mission, and we hope it will be both as rewarding as it will be challenging. Thereafter, the missions planned to Guayaquil, Ecuador in April and May now have a new location: the military base in RioBamba, Ecuador. Many patients in Guayaquil have already been treated, and RioBamba, a six-hour bus trip into the Ecuadorian Andes, promises a wealth of new, never-been-evaluated patients. Planning for our “big,” multi-specialty mission to Babahoyo, Ecuador in the fall is going well. But wait, there’s more: at the request of New Jersey dental group, we are adding a dental-only long weekend mission to Babahoyo in August to perform dental restorations. Who was it who said that 2011 would be a slow year?

Other than medical missions, our secondary (though no less important) efforts focus on fundraising. Remember, all mission members are volunteers paying their own way, as are all administrative staff and Board members, but we desperately need funds to pay for non-donated supplies and similar items. For example, the anticoagulant blood thinners needed for the knee replacements must be purchased and cost thousands of dollars. So please remember to try to help our fundraising efforts in any way possible. We welcome out-of-the-box thinking, and if you have an idea for innovative fundraising, please contact our fundraising coordinator. Thus far, planned fundraising efforts include a psychic night at the Belle Terre Community Center of April 27th, an afternoon summer picnic-party at Hoyt Farms in Smithtown on August 31, and our Halloween Party at the Meadow Club on October 4th.

Our missions and members now include a growing number of medical students, physicians’ assistants, and residents in training, in addition to physicians, nurses, and junior volunteers. We welcome their ranks and thank everyone for his participation.

Spring 2010 Newsletter

0 CommentsThursday • April 1, 2010 • by admin

By all accounts, our most recent mission to Gaspar Hospital in Rivas, Nicaragua was a smashing success. Some participants, who have gone on multiple missions, called it the “best ever.” This was a single-specialty trip to perform laparoscopic cholecystectomies. The probably reason it was so successful was that our laparoscopic surgeons, Dr. Craig and Dr. Bowlds, not only performed the surgeries but taught the technique to local physicians. “Giving back” has many meanings but is almost always rewarding, and this teaching facet of the mission made everything all that much more worthwhile.

Running 2 OR’s, Drs. Craig and Bowlds performed an astounding 35 procedures over several days. By surgical day three, the local docs, who were eager to learn and very receptive to learning, had assumed most responsibility for the cases. Also noteworthy was that in medical records, our newly-introduced paperless system worked very well. At the end of the mission, we donated an entire laparoscopic tower to the local hospital, so the instructed physicians could continue what they’d been taught. We also gave out games, toys, and flip-flops to local children. Special thanks go to Dr. Craig’s daughter, who worked in I.T., and Neil Dasgupta, Stony Brook medical student, who said that he learned more on the mission than he’d learned in several years of med school! We look forward to having Stony Brook students on our future missions.

Our first Blanca’s House Gala was held on April twenty-third at Lombardi’s on the Sound. Honorees included Mr. Ken Roberts, CEO of Mather Hospital, Mr. Jim O’Connor, CEO of St. Charles, Dr. and Mrs. Salim Matar, and Dr. and Mrs. Gary Bernstein. Danielle Campbell, of News 12 L.I., showed off the Emmy she had won for coverage of one of last year’s Babahoyo trips. The gala was a tremendous fundraising success: 203 people attended, and we raised over 20,000 dollars, enough to fund our remaining missions for 2010. Special thanks to Kerry O’Sullivan and her team of fundraising volunteers.

Our next mission is scheduled for the end of May to Salinas, Ecuador, and will include a large team with all five specialties represented (plastics, ENT, GYN, general surgery, and G.I.) We are looking forward to including orthopedics in one of our 2011 missions.

Fall 2009 Newsletter

0 CommentsSunday • November 1, 2009 • by admin

Another season gone by and another satisfying medical mission down. By all accounts, this one was the most physically taxing of all, with sixteen-hour days for some volunteers. but you can’t argue with the results: with a total of 267 procedures performed and over $700,000 dollars of medical services donated, it was an unqualified success. Medical personnel were exhausted but satisfied. There were a number of “firsts” at our host hospital in Nicaragua. They had never seen inpatient colonoscopies or endoscopies, and by the time we’d left, they’d seen scores. Also, they were unfamiliar with laparoscopic cholecystectomy. We will be donating an entire laparoscopic tower with all needed supplies, and we hope to return to teach laparoscopic cholecystectomy to the local docs. We are now in the process of scheduling medical missions for 2010.

Currently our most intensive focus is the establishment of Long Island’s first free clinic. Those of you who have seen Dr. Mehmet Oz’s talk on Oprah know that free clinics are in vogue nationwide. There’s even a national consulting group that helps set them up. However, only one such clinic — in Schenectady — exists in New York, and its viability is questionable. A free clinic handles the non-emergent medical needs of the uninsured. It is completely pro-bono, charging no fee whatsoever, and is staffed by volunteers. From the healthcare providers’ standpoint, the greatest obstacle to operating such a facility is malpractice liability — i.e., many providers are reluctant to offer free care if they might be sued. However, one possible way around this is to become federally certified as a free clinic. Under the national FTCA Act, legislation exists which supplies malpractice insurance to eligible facilities. we have our our FTCA application and are in the process of obtaining approval, although there are some regulatory hurdles in New York State. In a nutshell, the FTCA won’t insure a facility run by a physician like a private doctor’s office; it has to its own State-recognized entity. We’re working closely with Senator LaValle and hope to have a definite answer for the Blanca’s House Free Clinic by the end of the month; although we believe we’ve received preliminary approval. With that go-ahead we’ll be searching for a suitable facility of about 2,000 square feet in which to house the clinic. Our intended “roll out” date is approximately April, 2010, preceded by a gala fundraiser. Clara Macri, Kerry O’Sullivan, and Dr. Shobin are the point people on this, so if you have any suggestions or questions, please contact them.

Don’t forget our Halloween fundraiser Friday night, October 30th, at the Meadow Club!

Kudos to Clara Macri, for her unstinting work to establish the free clinic and Galo Burbano for being a person of note recognized by Long Island Pulse Magazine. Congrats!

Summer 2009 Newsletter

0 CommentsSaturday • August 1, 2009 • by admin

By the time you read this, the May 2009 mission to Babahoyo – the fifth medical mission run exclusively and independently by Blanca’s House – will be history. Approximately two hundred forty cases were successfully performed. Special thanks go to our junior volunteers and the nurse-anesthesia students from Columbia University for making the trip even more worthwhile. We are now looking forward to, and actively working on, the medical mission to Rivas Nicaragua, in September.

But Blanca’s House has much more on its plate than medical missions. The Board is focusing on two other areas: local medical missions, and fundraising.

For the past year, your Board members have been brainstorming about how best to establish a Long Island presence for providing free medical care. We feel that no matter how rewarding missions abroad are, the time has come to serve the underprivileged, medically disenfranchised community at home. We are currently doing the paperwork and due diligence to establish a free medical clinic somewhere in Suffolk Count, as well as extending our outreach facilities and events such as soup kitchens and health fairs.

As usual, the success of these ventures depends on the generosity of friends of Blanca’s House. wE need funds for supplies, fees, equipment, etc. Therefore, our fundraising efforts will now be geared toward both our foreign and local medical ventures. wE are planning a major fundraiser for October, which will supplement our usual “galas” and events throughout the year.

In order to facilitate meeting new donors, Board members are actively attending functions where such people might be present, a process known as networking. Kudos go to our newest Board Member, Clara Macri, whose remarkable networking skills and socializing prowess are beyond description. Clara has put us in touch with many potential donors whose help will be invaluable.

In other news…

Congratulations to Dr. Cocarro for being elected President of Suffolk County Medical Society.

One of our patients in Babahoyo had a large parotid tumor that could not be safely resected during the mission. We are actively working on bringing him to Long Island for the surgery. Thanks in advance to Ken Roberts of Mather Hospital for making their facilities avaliable.

See our half-hour Babahoyo special, hosted by anchor Diane Campbell, on cable channel 612. Click on “extra” and select “Healing Hands.”