Lutheran HealthCare Team Reports From the Ground in Honduras
A volunteer team of health care professionals provide free surgeries for children.
WHO: In support of the New York Honduran Committee,  nearly 20 Lutheran HealthCare (LHC) volunteers traveled to Tela, Honduras on April 19 and will stay until April 26. The group, headed by LHC Trauma Center surgeon Mohan Kilaru, M.D., consists of surgeons, nurses, physician assistants, technicians, and speech/language/hearing experts who are providing much needed services and reconstructive surgeries in the medically underserved region.
WHAT: The volunteers primarily focus on providing life-saving surgeries for children at a local hospital in Tela, Honduras. As one of the poorest countries in the western hemisphere (second only to Haiti), the region's children suffer from a variety of medical conditions, which without the Lutheran team would go untreated.
 Since arrival, Dr. Mohan Kilaru, the team leader and senior trauma surgeon in Lutheran Medical Center's level 1 trauma center, performed a number of general surgeries to repair and remove hernias and assisted Lutheran's plastic surgeon, Ahmad Nawaz, M.D., with keloids and other disfigurements. Dr. Nawaz has already operated on 20 patients with a variety of ailments. He had seven cases scheduled for today including surgical repairs for congenital lesions and disfigurements, cysts, moles, kiloids and burn scars procedures. Lutheran otolaryngologists Ramez Habib, M.D., and audiologist Dr. Melissa Innis, have coordinated on several critical ear, nose and throat surgeries. Each day the team is working tirelessly to treat the people of Honduras, who wait patiently for an entire year to be seen by our volunteers. In the last two years alone, the team examined more than 732 patients and performed 94 successful surgical.
The New York Honduran Committee began with a small group of Telan immigrants dedicated to their community. Since 1999, they have completed more than 12 medical missions bringing hope and a chance for a new future to thousands of families. In a country where most people can't afford basic health care, the chance for free reconstructive surgery can be a life-saving opportunity. The committee can be reached in New York and New Jersey by calling 718-693-1137 and 732-257-1334 respectively.
Stay tuned for more updates from Honduras as they become available!
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