AAO-HNSF Humanitarian Travel Grant Report: Operation International – Tarija, Bolivia
During their visit in October 2023, the Operation International team completed 70 surgeries in five days at the newly opened San Antonio Hospital in Tarija, Bolivia.
Monica Azmy, MD
A four-year-old going back for a nasal hemangioma excision and cleft palate repair with craniofacial surgeon Fernando Almas Carvalho, MD (center), and anesthesiologists Roy Berenholtz, MD (left), and Daniel Torma, MD (right).Monica Azmy, MD, a PGY5 at Montefiore Medical Center, the University Hospital for Albert Einstein College of Medicine, joined Team Manhattan of Operation International on a mission to Tarija, Bolivia with the help of an AAO-HNSF Humanitarian Travel Grant this past October 2023.
Operation International is a 501(c)(3) secular, non-political, nonprofit, humanitarian organization founded in 1996. In the quest to advance human rights worldwide, Operation International provides free medical care to people in need—regardless of their gender, culture, ethnicity, and political or religious affiliations. The organization also offers education and training to local healthcare workers during the trips and engages in efforts to improve local hospitals’ infrastructure.
Otolaryngologists Vikas Mehta, MD (AAO-HNSF Coordinator for Research Quality), and Dilip Madnani, MD (right) operating during the trip.During their visit in October 2023, the Operation International team completed 70 surgeries in five days, helping patients with thyroid goiters, benign tumors of the head and neck, cleft lips and palates, skin cancers, and various other head and neck pathologies.
The team was led by Mona Gangar, MD, of Montefiore Medical Center, and comprised head and neck cancer surgeons, pediatric otolaryngologists, facial plastic surgeons, anesthesiologists, nurses, and surgical techs. In addition to forming relationships with the local community and local health care workers, the team was the first to operate in Tarija’s San Antonio Hospital, helping kick start it as a community health center for years to come.
The Operational International team and local physicians, nurses, and staff who worked together during the trip.
A four-year-old going back for a nasal hemangioma excision and cleft palate repair with craniofacial surgeon Fernando Almas Carvalho, MD (center), and anesthesiologists Roy Berenholtz, MD (left), and Daniel Torma, MD (right).
Otolaryngologists Vikas Mehta, MD (AAO-HNSF Coordinator for Research Quality), and Dilip Madnani, MD (right) operating during the trip.
The Operational International team and local physicians, nurses, and staff who worked together during the trip.
