Experience of a Lifetime

By Adal Wolde RRNA

We as individuals are presented with life-changing choices and experiences from time to time, and the privilege of embarking on a surgical mission trip to Big Warri, Nigeria through International Surgical Missions was one of those experiences for me. Yannick Macaulay and I are two students in the inaugural Doctor of Nurse Anesthesia Practice cohort at Texas Wesleyan University. University instructors, anesthesia and operating room staff at our Denver Health Medical Center clinical site helped make this opportunity possible.

A team of medical professionals from different areas of the US came together to provide surgeries for 79 Nigerians in a span of 5 days. Hernias, excisions and skin and breast biopsies were performed under extremely limited resources. Experience, ingenuity, teamwork, perseverance, and most of all, love, were necessary to carry out this initial, hopefully annual, mission. The richness of the community was palpable from the instant we entered the village. Upon entering the village to the last tearful waves of goodbye, we were showered with gratitude from patients, their families, leaders of the community and royalty. In the future, I hope to continue these missions to help more villagers and to reconnect with new friends that were created on this powerful and memorable mission trip.