Medical Trip to Mwanza, Tanzania
Written by Sarah Kim, MD ENT Resident
This spring, our multidisciplinary team of the Northeast branch for Healing the Children —comprised of speech-language pathologists, facial plastic surgeons, nurses, anesthesiologists, administrators, and volunteers—embarked on the third annual mission to Mwanza, Tanzania. We served at Bugando Medical Center (BMC), a remarkable tertiary referral and teaching hospital on the shores of Lake Victoria. As the largest hospital in western Tanzania, BMC serves a population of roughly 13–15 million people across Tanzania’s Lake and Western Zones.
On arrival, the team was quickly embraced by the familiar faces of the hospital residents and staff who were essential in coordinating each patient’s clinic visit for the pre-operative screening day and serving as our translators as we sought to learn more about their medical history and discuss individualized surgical approach for a vast array of ailments. In a deeply humbling experience, we met with patients and their families who were brought to the clinic after suffering significant motor vehicle trauma leading to loss of limbs, and poorly healed tissue after multiple revision surgeries. We met with children with congenital facial clefts that were unable to receive prior workup or treatment, now with functional deficits such as vision loss. When hyena were attacking a patient and his friends, he stepped in to save his brother from a violent attack, and sustained devastating facial injuries.
With our operating room schedule outlined for the week, the Healing the Children team worked together meticulously to set up supplies generously donated for the trip. Three operating rooms were set aside for the surgeons this week, where we were joined by dozens of residents and medical students working in the hospital who have traveled from many countries around the world to train at this hospital center. On each bus ride to the hospital each morning, we held a team huddle led by the lead surgeon Dr. Dane Barrett where each group planned out the daily goals and actionable items. Come evening, we gathered for communal dinners at the Ryan’s Bay hotel. Over shared meals, we reflected on patient stories, clinical challenges, cultural insights, and personal growth.
On our final evening, BMC’s residents hosted an unforgettable lakeside celebration. Under the stars, we shared song and dance and in a beautiful gesture of gratitude, the residents had prepared for the volunteer team hand-sewn dresses for the women, while the men were gifted traditional wear—tokens of cultural pride and appreciation. Despite the long, arduous travel, the trip was richly rewarding and affirmed the power of cross-disciplinary teamwork in low-resource settings. We returned home not only with memories of challenging cases but with lifelong friendships, renewed purpose, and a deeper understanding of global health. In a hospital that handles a quarter-million outpatient visits annually and thousands of inpatients daily, our contributions—though small—were magnified by the hospital’s footprint.
International Inbound Update: Nagalem
Written by HTCNE Board Member and Trip Administrator Casey Saussy
Through our International Inbound Program, HTCNE continues to support nine-year-old Nagalem, from southwestern Ethiopia, who had a large venous malformation on her neck and jaw. HTCNE brought her to the US in 2021 for treatment and continues to support her health and dental care needs. Unfortunately now the malformation is coming back. She requires steroid injections to slow and potentially stop the regrowth. She can not get these injections in Ethiopia and our team is working with specialists that might be able to treat her again in the US. In the meantime, we are monitoring her situation and will provide financial support for her medical expenses as needed.
Nagalem and her mother at a dental clinic in Addis Ababa
The venous malformation has returned.
My Fourth Trip to Ukraine
Written by Susan Ketigian, a HTCNE volunteer RN, May 2025:
The goal of the HTCNE missions to Ukraine is to teach the Ukrainian surgeons how to do very complex surgeries. I think all but one of our patients was a soldier. There is no shortage of patients to help. This will go on for years. Generations to come are effected by this senseless war.
Along with the surgeons at the military hospital, the OR nurses need to learn the procedures as well. As I was looking for the OR nurses in the hospital to organize the training, one of the local surgeons told me an OR nurse is like gold. Very precious. Unfortunately, many of the OR nurses were deployed to the east and there was no one available to learn. Fortunately, I had enough nurses and techs to run 3 ORs efficiently and we were able to complete all the cases.
The work week was very busy to say the least. All of the patients were screened ahead of time via zoom calls with the local doctors to see who would be a good teaching case for reconstructing faces/ eyes/ lips. Very extreme and disfiguring injuries. We left for the hospital at 7am everyday. We operated in three rooms, 2 of the 3 are very long cases so the number of cases is lower but the amount of work hours is high. Thursday morning, my morning alarm went off and there was an air raid. I had to get dressed quickly and take the stairs to the shelter in the basement of the hotel. A basement room with no windows is considered to be a shelter. Once it was cleared we were able to depart for the hospital.
Our host organization is Razom, (means the word together in Ukrainian), an American-Ukrainian organization and they make this a 5 Star mission. They take very good care of us.
Although there is a war going on, the Ukrainians continue to laugh, dance, children play in the park, the restaurants are busy. They are resilient.
So much healing needs to take place. I hope the war ends soon.
Slava Ukraini!
Happy National Nurses Day from HTCNE!
As we celebrate International Nurses Day & National Nurses Week, from May 6-12, 2025 we want to thank all of the nurses who travel with Healing the Children Northeast.
This year’s theme, The Power of Nurses, perfectly embodies the irreplaceable value of nurses in keeping patients healthy and thriving.
To all the RN’s, APRNs, NPs and nursing students who volunteer with our medical teams, we appreciate you!
United for Better Care in Ukraine
HTCNE Board Member and long time volunteer, Debbie Fritz RN, was featured in a blog article by our partner organization Razom for Ukraine, about nursing care she has provided on numerous trips to Ukraine:
Extra Meaningful Mission by Susan Ketigian RN
HTCNE Board Member and long time volunteer, Susan Ketigian RN, is highlighted by the Healing the Children National Office in their recent post “Celebrating the Impact of our Incredible Volunteers”:
