Achievements 2000

November 3-19, 2000

Participants - 76 VOLUNTEERS

The trip was a highlight in many ways:

The largest medical team: 76 participants (28 physicians, 11 nurses, 14 audiologists, 4 engineers, 2 pharmacists, 2 optometrists, 3 healthcare professionals & 12 volunteers)
The most medical specialties represented: anesthesia, audiology, family medicine, general surgery, internal medicine & cardiology, obstetrics-gynecology, ophthalmology, optometry, otolaryngology, pathology, pediatrics & pediatric subspecialties of emergency/critical care and neonatology, pharmacy, physical medicine-rehabilitation, plastic surgery ad psychology.
The first seminar for the Vietnam Pediatric Association sponsored by Project Vietnam at the National Institute of Pediatrics, which drew over 400 participants November 8-9.

Achievements

Education and training:

2 days seminar at the 17th annual congress of the Vietnam Pediatric Association, to update on topics of Respiratory illnesses & Asthma, Neonatology (Sepsis & Respiratory Distress) and Emergency care (Traumas & Burns). It was attended by over 400 pediatricians nationwide and received highest reviews.
Training for the provincial medical staffs at Nam Dinh General Hospital & Ninh Binh General Hospital on Resuscitation for Newborn, Children and Adults. Quang Binh province gathered the medical directors and directors of critical care of all the district hospitals to attend a day-long presentation on the same topic.
Our medical specialists worked at the National Institute of Pediatrics and St Paul Hospital in Hanoi in the departments of Neonatology, Respiratory Diseases, Pediatric Intensive care, ENT and Rehabilitation. Drs. Luthringer and Nguyen discussed pathology issues on breast and prostate cancer at the National Cancer Institute.
Nam Dinh staff physicians worked with our team in the areas of Anesthesia, Ophthalmology, Maxillofacial surgery in the operating room.
Dr. Hung Nguyen, a maxillofacial surgeon from Thanh Hoa General hospital continued training with Dr. Harold McComb and received an instrument set for cleft palate surgery donated by The Smile Train.
Dr. Oanh Tran assisted Nam Dinh surgeons in setting up the laparoscopy equipment previously received.

Surgical Repair

92 surgical procedures on 76 patients treated (46 ophthalmology cases & 30 plastic cases) at Nam Dinh General Hospital

Rehabilitation:

patients were evaluated with rehabilitation plans and were fitted for 85 wheelchairs donated by Wheels for Humanity (75 chairs) and JAF Ministries (10 chairs).

Commune clinics:

At the communes of Loc An, Loc Hoa and Trung Linh hospice, where we treated over 750 patients and donated medicines & basic diagnostic tools to the healthcare staff with appropriate instructions.

Optometry services:

800 eye exams were completed at Nam Dinh General Hospital, the communes and primary schools. Almost 700 pair of glasses were distributed, and thousands more donated to Nam Dinh province.

Audiology services:

800 hearing tests were conducted to gather data for a comprehensive epidemiologic survey of hearing loss in children. This follows a previous random survey in 1999 of 270 cases which showed a 20% abnormal results. The testing was done in Hanoi at the National Institute of Pediatrics, and in Nam Dinh province at the General Hospital and primary schools.

Donations

Equipment donation ($100,000 value)

To the National Institute of Pediatrics: 1 anesthesia machine, surgical instruments, 2 mist tents, 2 infant respirators, 2 pediatric respirators, 2 nebulizers, spirometry machine, 150 peak flow meters & medical supplies.
To Nam Dinh Women’s Hospital: 1 colposcope and medical supplies
To Nam Dinh General Hospital:
- surgical equipment: 1 ENT operating microscope,1 anesthesia machine, 7 oxygen concentrators, 3 monitors, 3 suction machines, 1 autoclave, 3 defibrillators, 1 EKG, 2 nebulizers, a large number of surgical instruments and 97 boxes of surgical supplies, 85 wheelchairs, walkers and crutches, various orthopedic supplies,
- ophthalmology supplies: several boxes of lens implants, 30+ boxes of eye packs
- optometry equipment & supplies: 1 slit lamp, various vision testing equipment and several thousand eyeglasses.
To Ninh Binh General Hospital: nebulizer, peak flow meters and asthma medicines
To communes of Loc An, Loc Hoa and Trung Linh hospice: medicines and diagnostic tools