Mayflower Medical Outreach

Mayflower's Medical Outreach project focuses on a continuing medical mission to Nicaragua. After several medical mission trips, doctors, nurses, and other non-medical members of the congregation decided to establish a permanent ear/nose/throat clinic in the small mountain town of Jinotega.

In an ambitious project spanning five years, MMO has led health care providers and lay personnel from across the nation to build and maintain a clinic to serve the medical needs of the people from the second-poorest country in the Western hemisphere. The ultimate objective is to turn the clinic over to Nicaraguan doctors who will staff it permanently, allowing Mayflower delegations to continue to visit and assist them in their work.

Otolaryngology in Nicaragua

Mayflower Medical Outreach supports a wide variety of programs in Nicaragua. Each year a team of otolaryngologists and nurses travel to the mountain town of Jinotega to see patients and perform surgeries. This is done in conjunction with a broader effort that includes construction and women's health care.

Summer trips focus on otology and pediatric otolaryngology, but general otolaryngologists and residents are welcome. During these trips practicing otolaryngologists and residents from Nicaragua also join us and learn surgical procedures. Their participation not only increases the manpower in the clinic, but also provides them with an excellent training opportunity. In addition, we currently support the full salary of Dr. Ernesto Moreno, who provides year-round otolaryngological services at Victoria Hospital in Jinotega and helps to triage consults and surgeries prior to our annual visits.

The Lenin Fonseca Hospital in Managua is another MMO project with at least one trip each year is dedicated to improving otolaryngology at this facility. Lenin Fonseca hospital is the site of resident specialty education and is the main tertiary referral center for otolaryngology.

In Managua our efforts are mainly focused on physician and resident education. This includes staffing clinics, teaching surgical techniques, providing temporal bone dissection labs, and performing more difficult skull-base surgeries.

Last but not least, we recognize that training is of little value if the physician does not have the necessary tools and equipment. MMO constantly seeks used equipment and discarded supplies to be used at either Victoria or Lenin Fonseca Hospitals. Smaller items are hand carried with each trip and larger items, such as microscopes, are sent via shipping container. These equipment donations and MMO's training programs have had a dramatic effect on the state of otolaryngology in Nicaragua, but there is still much work to be done.

For information on how you can help please contact:

Jim Saunders, M.D.
james-saunders@ouhsc.edu

or write or call:

P.O. Box 26901, WP 1360
Oklahoma City, OK 73190-3048
(405) 271-5504

For more information on MMO programs please see the links to the right.