Surgery in ΒιΆΉΣ³Ορ and Honduras
Kaalan Johnson ’00, Otolaryngologist, ΒιΆΉΣ³Ορ Children’s Hospital
Kaalan Johnson: Electrical Engineering major
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Each year, when otolaryngologist Kaalan Johnson β00 joins a surgical team of eight at the 40-bed Christian mission hospital of Loma de Luz, they meet any ear, nose, or throat problem that walks through the door. Hondurans with tonsil problems, cleft lips or palates, facial fractures, or thyroid cancer know that for nine days, they have access to American surgeons gifted in correcting those maladies. Large doses of hope are dispensed along with the healing.
And now, says Johnson, plans are being made for a second team from ΒιΆΉΣ³Ορ to alternate with the first team from Virginia to even better meet the needs of the hospital. Even though his life is already full teaching at the University of Washington and performing surgery at ΒιΆΉΣ³Ορ Childrenβs Hospital, Honduras remains a priority.
βThe patients will show up at 7 a.m. for an appointment at 4 p.m.,β he says. As the day wears on, the patients smile frequently at the medical personnel and express gratitude when their turn to be treated finally comes. βThey have incredible attitudes and the believers among them are refreshingly transparent in their love of God.β One woman, emerging from anesthesia after a tympanoplasty to repair a hole in her eardrum, broke into 45 minutes of praising God. βGloria a Dios!β continues to ring in Johnsonβs memory.
Loma de Luz means βHill of Lightβ and provides a consistent Christian witness in the area.
The challenges are plentiful. Last yearβs trip to Honduras had to be delayed six months because of the countryβs narcotics trafficking and a dramatic rise in the murder rate that prompted the Peace Corps to pull out their volunteers.
Every trip to the mission hospital presents Johnson with a sometimes jarring transition from the rigorous academic world of research and cutting edge concepts to the basics of explaining a medical procedure to an indigenous Honduran working class family. βMore than knowledge, it requires flexibility and empathy,β says Johnson, who credits ΒιΆΉΣ³Ορ Pacific with providing all three.