2020 Ecuador Medical Mission

Count down to Ecuador:

With less than a week until our medical mission, I invite you to consider helping change the lives of the 40 patients awaiting surgery. The changes in the airline industry baggage policy have restricted our ability to bring our medical supplies without a surcharge. In addition, international humanitarian crises have made it challenging to secure low-cost medical supplies for our surgeries.

Please consider a last-minute donate to help offset these additional costs. Any donation, great or small, makes a huge difference for our patients and for our team of volunteers who donate their time, pay their way, and take hard-earned vacation time to serve.

Thank you for supporting this life-changing work.

Dr. James Wilton
Director, Annie's Angels Medical Team
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My name is Dr. Jim Wilton.  I currently practice in New Hampshire and am also the surgical missions director for the Padre Damien Founation in Gyauaquil, Ecuador.   Our volunteer medical team from the United States will be traveling to Ecuador in June 2017 on our 16th surgical mission since 2002.  We will be performing upper and lower extremity peripheral nerve surgery in Leprosy (Hansen Disease) patients.  

These surgeries reverse muscle weakness, eliminate severe pain, prevent future structural deformity and restore function to hands and feet.  They change lives!
Hansen's disease is a chronic, yet highly curable infectious disease that effects over one million new patients a year worldwide.   Although muli-drug therapy is very successful in curing this bacterial infection, long term problems arise when the body uses it's immune system to clear the bacterial out of the body.  This process damages the nerves and leads to severe problems years later.  

We surgically repair the nerves so that they will heal and not become damaged.  The social stigma associated with having this disease has not changed much over the past 2000 years. In third world countries like Ecuador, there is no safety net--which means for so many people, there is no hope.

With your help we can give dignity back to those afflicted with Leprosy by allowing them to return to work and becoming able to care for themselves and their families.  100% of all monies donated go towards mission team costs including medicines, surgical supplies and travel expenses.   Any amount that you can give, $5, $10, $25, $50 or more will help to make a significant difference for these patients.
 
On behalf of our medical team, the Padre Damien Foundation and the the patients themselves, thank you from the bottom of our hearts!