Getting a project done has always been easier for me when a friend or colleague pitches in. On April 24th, so many people pitched in to help us repack our cargo, that we were done working in half the time I anticipated.
This all dates back to winter of 2019. Operation Walk had a mission scheduled for March of 2020 and our cargo was being collected, packed, and prepared to ship out in early March 2020. We pack about 9,000 pounds of cargo. Some of the items have expiration dates. The countries that we help have strict regulations on what they can accept. Medications must be “good” for 6 months from entry into the country. Things like gloves and catheters and IV tubing are subject to failure if the plastics and rubber they are made of get old or hot and they start to disintegrate. Some of these fragile items are inside of “packs” that come in sealed boxes, so each box has to be checked to see if items inside will expire or spoil.
Because of COVID-19, the t rip to Nicaragua was cancelled. But we also had a trip scheduled for Guatemala in August of 2020 and hoped that we could use the cargo for that trip, since the date was close and all items would still be useable. Of course, that wasn’t meant to be either. The cargo sat, packed in our warehouse during the pandemic, as lonely and useless as we all felt.
In February of 2021, as vaccinations rolled out, we looked toward the future. Our colleagues in Guatemala were to start getting vaccinated in March-May of 2021. We worked with the hospital in Antigua to come up with COVID protocols that would assure the safety of our team, their hospital staff, and the prospective patients. We felt that by following strict guidelines we could make a successful trip in late August 2021. Our team would have to be reduced in size, follow strict guidelines, limit the amount of patients operated per day and how many patients could be hospitalized at once, while following social distancing protocols.
We had the supplies to make the trip, but they had been sitting for too long. It is daunting enough to pack everything for a mission, but now to have to unpack, sort, and repack was an overwhelming task for Mary Ellen Sieben, Operation Walk Los Angeles Team Leader and OR Coordinator. The call went out for help, and on April 24th the following people responded:
- Dr. William Long
- Dr. Maxine Anderson
- Dr. John Kumar
- Dr. Paul Gilbert
- Cindy Gilbert
- Kyle Baldwin
- Ava Baldwin
- Mary Ellen Sieben
- Jeri Ward
- Ana Vasquez
- Roxana Noblejas
- Robert Hostetler
- Alejandra Castillo
- Sharron Whiteley
- Julie Anderson
- Molly Anderson
- Stacy Kelso
- Danny Ragasa
- Julius Veloso
- Haidie Griffin
- Audra Kennedy
- Sandy Baltazar
- Marilu Gonzalez
We also managed to arrange a Zoom call with Dr. Julissa Pineda and Brian Valle in Guatemala to work on the coordination of a trip planned for August 2021, COVID regulations willing.
We are still four months away from making this mission, but we have positive feelings that it will come to fruition. The safety of our team and the people we serve is our priority. With vaccinations, masking, handwashing and social distancing as a must for all of us, we should be able to get back to work helping others.
The hardest part of the pandemic has been not being able to see and hug our families and friends. The second hardest part is receiving so many emails and letters from people in other countries, begging for our return. We are the one chance that so many have to get the help they need to walk again. Here we come!
-Jeri Ward, R.N.