April 12, 2017
The past couple of days have seen our mission ramp up its services on all fronts. Our physicians have spread all across Jordan, from Irbid in the North to Ma’an in the South, and from Azraq Camp in the East to Ajloun in the West. We have provided care for several hundred patients over this time, ranging from treatment of viral illnesses to complex surgeries taking several hours.
Dr. Khalid Kurtom has performed procedures with his neurosurgical team that have given refugees the chance at a new life, including an operation that allowed a debilitated woman the opportunity to walk for the first time in five years; he helped her with her first steps the next day.
Dr. George A. Oyler has provided neurological care for almost a hundred patients, even traveling to the home of a refugee with difficulty walking to identify his neurological problems.
Dr. Hisham Bismar and his team have provided several reconstructive surgeries to refugees, including the correction of severely deformed feet of a 17 year old that will allow him to walk normally for the first time.
Our team is growing more confident in their care and more attached to their patients. Tonight at our mission debrief session, members expressed a sense of frustration with the refugees’ plight along with a new resolve to make more people aware of it; a desire not just to treat our patients, but to advocate for them.
We now enter the home stretch of our mission; the final two clinical days. After months of planning, the mission week is now vaporizing away. We are committed to care for as many people as we can in the next 48 hours. Please pray that we can do so.
In Peace,
-Jihad
Pediatrician Dr. Jihad Shoshara is leading the current SAMS Medical Relief mission to Jordan from April 7 – April 14. The mission will provide care to Syrian refugees and the local Jordanian community, focusing on pediatric orthopedics and neurosurgery, a first time for our Jordan missions. We will be providing 50 surgeries in just five days. Dr. Jihad Shoshara, a pediatrician from Chicago, will be sharing live updates with us every day.
