On Thursday, January 8th , 23 people from LeMars, Sioux City, and 9 other towns and cities in the U.S. left for El Guante, Honduras, and the next medical and construction team sent to Honduras through the Gehlen Catholic program. This was the 3rd medical mission and 7th over-all mission in the past three years sent through the Gehlen program. Richard Seivert, director of Gehlen Mission Honduras and Mission Honduras LeMars said the trip was a great success. The medical teams performed remarkable things while in the many villages we visited. Totally, the medical teams saw 1911 patients. The general medical team of Dr. Gary Carlton, Sioux City, Dr. Mark Taylor, Sioux City, and Dr. Robert Drake, Pueblo, Colorado, along with nurses Pat Boudreau, Sioux City, Barb Hansen, Hornick, and Diana Vander Kooi, Merrill, set up clinics in the villages of Agua Caliente, Tablon-Jalteva, La Nueva Esperanza, Suyatal, Pedernal, Agua Dulce, and El Guante. The dental team of Dr. Tom Bjorge, LeMars, assisted by Jeanie Tomy, Cedar Rapids, along with podiatrist Kham Ung, Sioux City, set up clinics in Las Lajitas, Marale (2 days), San Miguel De Barrosas, Crucitas-Tablon, Pueblo Nuevo, and El Guante. The general medical team was assisted greatly by Pat Warner, x-ray technician from Floyd Valley Hospital, LeMars, and Christine Sahn, ultra sound technician, Lake Oswego, Oregon. A full pharmacy was again set up by Tom Ryan and Phil Ryan, LeMars. The pharmacy, served by both the Ryan’s (Tom on his 3rd consecutive trip) filled a little more than 6,000 prescriptions during the 7 days of clinic. Both teams were assisted in translations by Emily Puhl, Iowa State, Michelle Bowman, UNI, Maureen Fitzpatrick, Winona, Minnesota, Anne Sowelles, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Sister Barb Zimmer, El Guante, Sister Val Knoche, El Guante, Tacha Alvarado, El Guante, and Father Paul Kelly, Sioux City, along with Fr. Jerome Cosgrove. The team also had the fine assistance of 2 other Catholic Sisters from a parish farther to the north in Yoro, Honduras. They were Sister Juanita Polak, Notre Dame Sister, and Sister Fatima Carcamo, School Sisters of Notre Dame. Both are from Sulaco, Yoro, Honduras. Also on the team was Mike Anthony, LeMars, local businessman. Mike, assisted many days by Maureen Fitzpatrick, did many varied tasks in and around the compound where the team resided. Plumbing, electrical, and painting were only some of the things they helped with. This years team also had the fine assistance of Martha Drake, another Gehlen graduate, who served as a general medical team helper. Team leader once again was Francis Seivert, Elkton, S.D. who assisted all parts of the team in varied ways. Richard Seivert, director of both programs also traveled to Honduras for the last five days of the mission trip. Seivert commented that it was amazing watching all these things unfold each day. The team arose each morning at 5:30 A.M., and after a small breakfast, loaded trucks with medicines and equipment, and took off for their days work. Team members would break for just a short time each noon hour and then it was back to work. The dental, podiatry, medical, and pharmacy teams would set up in various kinds of buildings in whatever village they were in. They would often just hang ropes and drape plastic drop clothes over them to create offices in which to work. While the villagers lined up outside the nurses would pass out medical forms in Spanish and begin to record histories of each patient, take blood pressures and temps, and listen to their major complaint before being seen by one of the doctors. Tom Bjorge, longtime dentist here in LeMars, saw 134 patients in 7 days. He did 215 extractions, 45 fillings, and many periodontal scalings, using portable equipment donated by Peggy McGinty, Ponca, Nebraska. Working from sun-up to sun-down with very little time off, Tom was ably assisted by Jeanie Tomy from Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Kham Ung, podiatrist from Sioux City, saw 355 patients in 7 days and put 62 others through pip and mebendazole lines. Kham saw many leg ulcers and worked on hundreds of feet. Kham commented that he had never seen conditions like this in his life. All clinic patients, whether medical, dental, or podiatry were given piperazine and mebendazole for parasites and worms. They all were also given pain medications like Tylenol and ibuprofen and all received vitamins for themselves and their family. Most received toothpaste and toothbrushes as well as soap and shampoo. The nurses would triage those who were the sickest and get them in to see the doctors first. Often times we would play with the children while waiting in line. Many patients walked for hours just to get an opportunity to see a doctor. The medical doctors of Carlton, Taylor, and Drake saw the remainder of the patients, either directly or in the pip lines. Our doctors dealt with the following kinds of problems: elephantitis, malaria, diabetes, so many scabies babies that we could not scrub them all – so medication was sent home with the mothers, many cases of sexually transmitted diseases, a good deal of hypertension, we found 3 significant heart conditions, a great deal of asthma, a lot of eye and ear problems, many pregnancies, many colds and coughs, and we performed a number of small surgeries. We had a cauterizing hyfrecator purchased from a grant obtained from the state of Michigan so we were able to take that unit into the field and do many small surgeries. We also had a new portable ultra sound unit donated from a company just outside Seattle, Washington. Christine Sahn from Lake Oswego, Oregon did all the ultra sounds ordered by the doctors. Totally we performed 47 ultra sounds – 5 O.B., 15 pelvis, 26 abdomen, and one heart. Thus, the ultra sound helped us identify problems that we could refer on the the national hospital in Tegucigalpa or other visiting medical teams from the U.S. Our doctors encountered some cerebral palsy and many many elderly related health problems. Throughout all our clinics, dental, podiatry, and medical, we saw 58.6% adults (12 and over) and 41.4% children (11 and under). That corresponds to what we saw in the medical missions of 2002 and 2003. There were so many patients some days that some had to be turned away. When patients were not able to see a doctor they would go through the pip line and receive all the things like medicines and soaps. Quite often, depending on the days heat, the medical staff would hang tarps to get those standing in line out of the direct sun light. At the conclusion of each day Fr. Paul Kelly and Fr. Jerome Cosgrove would say Mass for any of the villagers that wanted to come to Mass. Fr. Kelly spent a good deal of time translating for the doctors during his 7 days and Fr. Cosgrove spent a good deal of time working the medical lines. As priests, both performed baptisms and anointing of the sick. A great deal of the medicine carried to Honduras for this team came from 4 not-for-profit agencies throughout the country that give medicines free of charge to groups going into developing countries. Those groups are: Catholic Medical Mission Board, New York City, N.Y.; MAP International, Brunswick, Georgia; AmeriCares, New Canaan, Connecticut; and Project Hope, Millwood, Virginia. The Gehlen program pays shipping and handling to obtain these medicines. Mission Honduras LeMars was honored as the group that raised money for and built the new clinic in El Guante. A sign hung over the major road leading into El Guante thanking the citizens of LeMars for all they have done to bring health care to the people of their area. Mission Honduras LeMars along with Gehlen Mission Honduras can be equally proud of all it has done for the people of Honduras. While in Honduras the medical doctors, dentist, and podiatrist, did follow up work on a number of special patients known within our program. One of those patients was Francisco Torres, the young boy that came to the Mayo Clinic almost 2 years ago for life saving heart surgery. He was examined and proclaimed very healthy by our entire medical team. They also examined a young 9 year old boy, Cristobal Vidal Diaz, that we hope to bring to the country for extensive testing. It has yet to be determined but we believe he suffers from an extreme form of osteomyelitis. To this date we have been unable to get the kinds of tests in Honduras he needs. Members within the program continue to work on helping this young man.