Seven times a year, groups of highly skilled doctors and nurses descend on Haiti ready to "do battle" in the backcountry.  They arrive heavily laden with bags of surgical equipment, drugs and supplies to accomplish their objective.  You can almost hear the "Mission Impossible Theme" playing in the background.  They travel over treacherous mountain roads, often arriving in the dead of night.

As the sun rises, they go into action like a well-oiled machine, reviewing cases and plunging into a full and tight Operating Room schedule.  Here they are in their element.  The surgery goes like clockwork and the staff holds onto the hope that the air conditioning will function to the end of the mission.  The conditions requiring surgical intervention are varied.  Some are ordinary and routine....hernia repairs, tumor extraction, hysterectomies,?????.  Then there are the extreme cases, the ones that have delayed medical attention due to great distance and lack of resources.  These are conditions no one would every see in the U. S. because medical care here is freely available.   They come to us not daring to hope for a miracle, but some relief none the less.  They are not disappointed.  No one is ever turned away.

After 4 grueling 10 to 12-hour days in surgery, and an average of 36 cases, the team packs up and returns home, "Mission Accomplished".  They leave behind 36 patients in far better condition than when they arrived.