In April 2016, 30 Oak Point University students, alumni, faculty, and friends went to Tegucigalpa, Honduras for a Service Learning medical mission trip to provide medical services and supplies to the community. During the one-week trip, a total of 2,110 people were seen in the portable clinics; this included 1,105 medical visits, 248 dental visits, 441 optical visits, and 316 children’s lice treatments. The volunteers collected donated items which included hygiene kits that they assembled at the mission house and distributed to over 400 patients at the pediatric and women’s center of the local public hospital.
This year’s trip had many remarkable moments experienced by the medical volunteers including the discovery of a 19 year-old woman with a three-month-old baby who had a benign pituitary tumor that was causing vision changes; the tumor was growing rapidly and she was then taken to a special clinic for further medical intervention. Several of the volunteers donated their own shoes to patients who only had shoes that were too small or that were worn out. And glasses were given to people who had never before seen clearly.
Oak Point Assistant Professor Nancy Reese, DNP, RN, CNE returned to Honduras this year with the volunteer team on her 23rd mission trip. One memory in particular stood out for her this year as she was asked to perform an infant baptism on the first day in Honduras. (Dr. Reese is a certified lay minister.) The baptism took place in the basement of the church over a rain barrel with the family in attendance. The family then had instruction in faith and an introduction to the local church leaders.
Oak Point University plans to return to Honduras once again in 2017 for another Service Learning medical mission trip.
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