Brigade Experience

I write this on Thanksgiving 2008 waiting for family to arrive. My two healthy, beautiful children are home from college. I sit here thinking of my trip several weeks ago to Honduras for Propapa Missions America.

I have a son who has broken two legs and one wrist at different times in his life. American football has not been kind to him. In Honduras, children walk on their ankles with their feet turned in at ninety degrees due to club feet that should have been fixed when they were babies. Is my son any better than the children of third world countries, such as Honduras? Absolutely not, he is just luckier. He was born in a country were first rate medical care was available to him. Many children in this world are not that fortunate. That is just not right.

Our Ortho brigade arrived in Honduras Saturday night. I only knew several of the team prior to going, but by the end of the week I admired and loved every one of them. I have never met such a group of caring, hard working professionals. We all had the same thought, let’s just make a little difference. On this trip I also met the most amazing person ever in my life, Sister Laurinda. Every minute of her life is devoted to these children.

Sunday was clinic day. That is the day where we see the children that are scheduled for surgery during our brigade. X-rays are reviewed, patients are examined and they are told when to report. Fifteen surgeries are scheduled for the week. Surgeries will include several club feet repairs, knee injuries (two teens that have had knee tendon tears from soccer injuries a long time ago) and children that have contracted legs due to Cerebral Palsy.

Word gets around that we are here and people arrive, hoping that we can do something for their children too. Two of these walk-ins stand out.

A mom brought in her young son. He was born with his fingers attached to each other, like a ducks webbed feet. The doctors examined him and then gave the mother the good news, the fingers on the left hand could be detached during this brigade. The surgery on the right hand may be able to be done on a later brigade. The smile on the mom’s face when told we could help was priceless. Tuesday he had his surgery and he did well.








A dad brought in his teenage daughter. She was very skinny and sad. She walked with a terrible limp. Our translator informed me that she does not go to school as she is too embarrassed with the way she walks. Dad had an x-ray and he gave it to the doctors to review. After looking at the film the patient was examined. It was determined that the patient was born with such a deformity in the hip socket area that surgery could not be done. I will never forget the feeling in my gut as I watched dad and his limping daughter walk out the front door, knowing that this young lady is sentenced to a life like that. Had she been born somewhere else, her story may have had a different ending.

Last week I watched my son play football with his college friends, running like the wind, with all that hardware in his leg. I can only think of that teenage girl in Honduras.

- Brigade Member Larry Loewy