Karla is a Honduran woman in her mid-40s, living in Tactic, Alta Verapaz, Guatemala. She attended a Partner for Surgery Mobile Medical Mission in June 2019 for a mass on her face and neck and was diagnosed with a Giant Right Parotid Mass. It’s been a long road for Karla and her journey continues even to this day, but Partner for Surgery Guatemala (Compañero para Cirugía, or CPC) has been with her the whole way. Read on to learn more about Karla’s patient story. 
Hilda was born on April 28, 2020, in Caserío Río Colorado, Purulhá Baja Verapaz, with a right unilateral cleft lip and a cleft palate. Partner for Surgery has been there to support Hilda’s family throughout the process of cleft lip repair surgery and as she awaits cleft palate repair.
August 2021 Guatemalan street protest
Partner for Surgery Health Promoter Marta de la Cruz was rewarded for her kindness during a recent street protest that stopped traffic, threatening to prevent her team from getting their patients to medical care.
Street protests are a common occurrence in Guatemala and represent the only way that some citizens have of making their voices heard. Most of these protests are peaceful, but not always.
One example of a protest that was not peaceful happened in October 2021. The anti-vaccine contingent came to rural Guatemala and more than 500 angry residents blocked traffic from proceeding. Among the vehicles stuck in the protest block was a van carrying health workers and nurses on their way to deliver Covid vaccine doses in Alta Verapaz.
The protesters destroyed the vaccines and held the health workers hostage for seven hours until police and local officials negotiated their release. Fortunately, that is a more extreme example than what our Health Promoters encountered last August. Read More
Partner for Surgery Health Promoters register rural medical mission patients
Now that vaccines are more readily available and the world begins to emerge from the Covid pandemic, Partner for Surgery is seeing a return to normalcy, as well. In January and February 2022, we were able to hold two consecutive rural medical missions to identify patients for upcoming surgical missions as surgical teams are able to return to Guatemala this year.
Prior to January 2022, Partner for Surgery’s last rural medical mission was on February 24, 2020, just before everything stopped due to the Covid pandemic. We were finally able to welcome volunteers from the U.S. and Canada from January 22-29, 2022, for our first rural mission in 23 months.
Almost immediately after it ended, we held our second rural mission (February 2-9). These rural triage missions reflect our confidence that the 11 confirmed surgical teams (as well as those planning to confirm) will be in need of full weeks of patients. The Covid concern is still there, but lessened, and we, our patients and volunteers, the hospitals, and the Guatemalan Health Ministry have all learned to adapt. We are hopeful about the future! Read More
Cesar was born on June 27, 2021, with a unilateral cleft lip and cleft palate. Despite the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, Partner for Surgery is there to help this rural Guatemalan family and ensure that their son was able to get the nutrition he needs as he awaits his cleft repair surgery.
When an infant is born with a cleft lip or palate, it’s important to repair the cleft as soon as possible so that the child can get proper nutrition. This is often difficult in places like rural Guatemala. Today we’re sharing Cesar’s story. Cesar’s parents, Margarita and Genaro, are a young couple, and despite their difficult financial situation, they were thrilled to learn that they were expecting their first child. Margarita gave birth to Cesar in June 2021 in Aldea Paapa, San Juan Chamelco, Alta Verapez.
The family’s joy soon turned to concern for their child.
“We were told our boy was born with a condition that required special care and if he was not able to breastfeed, he would need infant formula, which was a little expensive. I panicked,” Genaro said. “My wife and I were already struggling with food insecurity, so how was I going to buy powder milk for my son? For two months, I felt anxious, sad, and confused. I was having such a hard time trying to feed my family and to buy milk for Cesar. Margarita and I were having only one meal a day.” Read More
Around the world, the Covid pandemic has disrupted patients’ lives and medical team schedules. For Guatemala, it is no exception. Since early 2020, our Cleft Infant Nutrition Program has grown from 150 to now more than 250 children. This is even after the local Guatemalan doctors and their teams, which we have organized, performed 168 surgeries. Until the international surgical teams return, we need to prepare for all the children being born with clefts.
A Happy Day for a Lucky Little Girl
Rosa Estefany Cuz Choc was one of the lucky children who underwent surgery to correct a cleft in August. Covid cases in rural Guatemala are on the rise. Every patient is tested for Covid upon arrival and a positive test result means that there will be no surgery. When Rosa’s mother Louisa got a last-minute phone call, she was ecstatic! She had been waiting for over a year for this call. Because of a pregnancy complication, Rosa had been born in the local hospital, which then notified our health promoter, Marta de la Cruz, and Rosa immediately became part of our Cleft Infant Nutrition Program.
After a three-hour ride in the back of a truck, followed by nine more hours in two different hailed cars, Louisa and Rosa arrived in Antigua where they were met by our staff.
After the surgery, Louisa said, “I did all that you asked me to do, and you did exactly what you promised.”
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