February 2007

As an orthopedic surgeon at PAMF, Colin Eakin has access to the latest state-of-the-art equipment and facilities to provide his patients with the highest quality care possible. While on recent sabbatical, Dr. Eakin traveled to Central America to perform surgeries on poor and underprivileged citizens of San Pedro Sula, Honduras, who do not have access to the resources needed for corrective surgery.

Dr. Eakin spent three weeks working at Mario Catarina Rivas Hospital - a large, public facility that provides care to the poorest citizens of Honduras - with the group Mercy Ships, a faith-based organization focused on providing medical care in the world's poorest countries.

"When a patient is injured in Honduras, it is up to the patient and his or her family to purchase whatever implantable devices will be necessary during surgery to fix the injury," said Dr. Eakin, who traveled to Honduras with a medical team that included nurses, therapists, surgical technicians and other support staff. "If the family cannot afford needed supplies, the patient is not able to have the necessary surgery, leaving him or her with an insufficiently treated injury."

In addition, Dr. Eakin said many families must spend time earning and saving money for the needed devices, so the surgeries are performed much later than recommended, making the operations extraordinarily difficult.

Most of the supplies needed for surgery were shipped down with Dr. Eakin's group, as the country has few resources for its medically indigent. With Mercy Ships providing the necessary equipment, he estimates that many people who otherwise would have had a profound disability were able to have their injuries treated in a timely manner.

Dr. Eakin said the gratitude of the patients, their families and the hospital staff was the most memorable part of the trip. "Everyone was very grateful," he said. "Some of them had tears in their eyes as they thanked us. It was very moving."

The most heart-wrenching operation Dr. Eakin performed was on a 14-year-old girl thrown from a bus, which almost took off her left arm. "She ended up with fractures of her arm, forearm and multiple hand bones, as well as extensive soft tissue injury," he said. "But ultimately, we were able to salvage her arm. She was devastated initially but more recently started to show her beautiful smile."

Despite the public hospital's limited resources -- it receives far more orthopedic trauma patients than its physicians can accommodate, Dr. Eakin said -- the doctors and staff have come up with innovative ways to treat patients.

"The local staff physicians are very well-trained, knowledgeable and resourceful," said Dr. Eakin. For example, he said the physicians found a way to use a simple Sears Craftsman drill in place of the more sophisticated drilling equipment used in the United States. "Unfortunately, they have so few resources with which to work that they are very limited as to what they can do for the injured, apart from when a group such as Mercy Ships is present," said Dr. Eakin, who hopes to participate in additional trips in the future.

Dr. Eakin's trip was made possible by the Palo Alto Medical Clinic's physician sabbatical program, which allows physicians paid time off to participate in educational and philanthropic efforts.