Morristown doctors perform 48 surgeries in Guatemala

MORRISTOWN – A medical team from Morristown Medical Center recently returned from a mission trip in August to Antigua, Guatemala, where surgeons and nurses performed nearly 50 surgeries in one week.

Over the course of one week, the group broke into two teams to perform 48 surgeries including 13 cholecystectomies, 25 hernias (in 24 patients), six gynecological procedures and removal of five subcutaneous masses.

The mission trip took place from Aug. 16 to 23, conducted in partnership with Partners for Surgery, which operates the Asociación Compañero Para Cirugía in Guatemala, a hospital where the Morristown team performed the surgeries.

The team was led by Morristown Medical Center’s Chief of Surgery Rolando Rolandelli. Joining him were Bill Diehl, Ted McLean, and third-year surgical resident Ankit Dhamija. Several nurses also volunteered for the trip, including Marina Debanich, Lauren Minotti, Monica Grzelak, Ruben Milan, Carol Santana, Cyprienne Lacaden, and Valentina Salvador.

Partners for Surgery also found the patients for the Morristown doctors to help after Rolandelli supplied a list of surgeries they could perform.

Rolandelli said the biggest issue the team faced during the mission was turnover time. They had to be “super-efficient,” with just five minutes between surgeries as opposed to up to an hour in the U.S.

But they tried to do things as similar to the way they operated in Morristown as possible, focusing on minimally invasive treatments for a faster recovery time.

“We didn’t know what to expect until we got there, but we really stuck together for the whole week,” Rolandelli said. “We really depended on each other and focused on how can we do as good as possible and follow the same standards as here in the U.S.”

Rolandelli said missionary surgery is a huge team effort, and surgeons and nurses had to work together, sharing and taking on duties they aren’t typically tasked with when operating in Morristown.

“As a surgeon, I’m used to walking into a room and having everything be ready,” Rolandelli said. “But there we had to create the magic ourselves. We couldn’t just show up. So we took on roles we were not used to.”

The team also performed a complicated and unique surgery, the first of its kind in the world according to Atlantic Health, to remove blood from the abdomen of a 24-year-old woman who was unable to menstruate.

“It was a very sad case,” Rolandelli. “We cannot find literature describing her situation.”

Rolandelli said the woman came from a small village to meet the doctors. She had a very large belly and people assumed she was pregnant, but it turned out she had been menstruating for a decade and it was building up with nowhere to go. The surgeons had to create an opening to release the blood, and they hope to fix the problem permanently when they return next year. Until then they stopped her menstrual cycle.

Funding for the mission came from Unidad Hospitalaria Móvil Latino América nonprofit organization founded in 2011 by four doctors from Morristown Medical Center, Rolandelli, Diehl, McLean, and Gerald Lefever.

The organization seeks to grant opportunities for residents, nurses, surgeons and anesthesiologists to participate in surgical mission trips to Latin America by covering expenses for trips.

“I’m really impressed how members of the surgery department and past patients have jumped on the opportunity to contribute,” Rolandelli said.

Rolandelli used Operation Giving Back – a resource for finding surgical opportunities that he previously used following Hurricane Katrina - to locate the Antigua location for the group’s first mission trip.

Rolandelli said he plans on making two mission trips per year.

“We want to make a consistent presence,” Rolandelli said. “Often we find people who need surgery in several steps. We want to offer continuity of care following surgery.”

The group’s next destination is La Esperanza, Honduras next February, which Rolandelli scouted following his week in Guatemala.

He said patients will be coming from villages on the boarder of El Salvador, some of whom who have never seen a doctor, so the team will try to perform more surgeries for them.

“It will be broader in reach with surgeries but smaller in complexity,” Rolandelli said, adding there are only three colorectal surgeons in the whole country so they plan to focus their efforts on that issue.

Rolandelli said the group will return to Guatemala next August.

Those looking to donate to the mission trips can do so at UHMLA.com

Staff Writer Michael Izzo: 973-428-6636; mizzo@GannettNJ.com