Medical mission satisfies
Group donates life-saving treatments in Ecuador
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On a mission: Brian Healey (left), a certified registered nurse anesthetist, and Chris Grattan, an operating technician at Eastern Long Island Hospital, are part of a team bringing medical care to Ecuador and Costa Rica. Other team members not pictured are nurse anesthetists Theresa Stapon and Galo Burbano.
The memories motivated Burbano, a registered nurse anesthetist at Eastern Long Island Hospital, to improve the plight of his former countrymen.
"Every child counts; every family matters" is the motto of Blanca's House, a nonprofit organization Mr. Burbano founded three years ago with the help of other medical and lay personnel determined to use their skills and energy to save the lives in Ecuador.
They hope to soon be able provide medical help to other South American countries.
"It's a bug that you get," Mr. Burbano said, describing the drive that motivates him and his colleagues to volunteer time and expertise to improve healthcare for those who otherwise couldn't afford their treatment.
Mr. Burbano and his colleagues -- operating-room technicians Christopher Grattan and Theresa Stapon -- along with a host of medical personnel throughout Long Island, have been making two trips a year to Babahoyo, Ecuador.
"It's been a great experience for me," Mr. Grattan said. "Sometimes we take for granted here the care we get."
The group brings equipment that was headed for the garbage heap here -- tools that after being sterilized are able to be used effectively in Ecuador, Mr. Burbano said.
"They're like a Cadillac over there," he said about the rehabilitated equipment.
In Ecuador, the American team is lucky enough to have a clinic established by a former Valley Stream physician, Dr. Ivan Roman, who runs the clinic with his wife, Dr. Marjorie Lopez-Roman. After Mr. Burbano's team of medical personnel leaves Ecuador, there is follow-up treatment for the patients at the clinic, said Burbano, who wants to make similar arrangements in other countries.
The medical mission's most difficult decisions come when they are forced to choose from the many people who need treatment. Teams can only treat a limited number of patients on their weeklong trips and have to allocate their personnel and resources carefully, Mr. Burbano said.
That sometimes means having to turn down treatment for a patient who might need 10 hours of attention in order to render care to 10 people who need only an hour each, he said.
But Mr. Burbano recalled a recent case of a patient who had a sizable tumor blocking his ability to swallow. Without treatment, the man faced certain death. But staffers convinced Mr. Burbano's group to take the case and raised $900 to pay for the necessary surgery.
Today, the man is "doing awesome," Mr. Burbano said. "You can't put a price on that," he added about helping to save the man's life.
It's not just medical personnel who are needed on the missions to South America, Mr. Burbano said.
On each trip, they take up to three high school volunteers who are trained to handle various aspects of running the clinic, he said. Besides needing medical staff, the team needs translators and administrative and clerical staff, he said.
On a recent trip to Ecuador, 52 volunteers treated 240 patients and performed 190 procedures, Mr. Burbano said.
Volunteers pay their own travel expenses and generally work about 12 hours a day during their weeklong stay, he said.
"I look forward to going," Mr. Grattan said. The hardest part is leaving his own family behind while he makes the humanitarian trips, he said. But there's great satisfaction in the work that's accomplished on the missions, he said.
jlane@timesreview.com
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