Photos: Giff Johnson, Karen Earnshaw.
KAREN EARNSHAW
Almost 40 people underwent life-changing surgeries at Majuro hospital over the last two weeks thanks to a Canvasback mission that included 26 team members from the United States who were assisted by a large number of the hospital’s staff.
Jacque Spence, co-founder of Canvasback Missions, was ecstatic late last week with the level of orthopedic care that had taken place. “It’s so exciting! You must come and talk to the team!”
First on the agenda was to chat with Operations Manager Janet Burki in one of the outpatient offices. A long-time friend of the Marshall Islands and a veteran of Canvasback missions in Micronesia, Janet explained that she worked jointly with Outpatient Supervisor Agnes Flood. “We’re the people who manage clinic operations. Our job is to make sure that the process is working as effectively as possible. We’re here to enable the health care providers to see as many people as possible. We also work with the surgery schedule to make sure this is being set up efficiently.”
Janet spent many years working on Kwajalein, starting in 2004, giving her a useful familiarity with the Marshallese community: “I first met Jacque on Ebeye during a Canvasback mission. I’ve been with Canvasback since 2012 and have now worked on 25 missions in Micronesia.”
She said a total of 26 people had flown in to help with the current mission. “But some of these people were overlapping others as not everyone could get enough time off work. So there have been quite a few hand-offs between team members in the last two weeks,” she said.
“We have surgeons who specialize in treating knees and others who specialize in upper extremities,” adding that the lead surgeon and medical team leader was Dr. Derek Johnson.
“But despite all these people on the team, it really is us coming in and working with the local team. Without them, all of this just wouldn’t happen.”
From the get-go, there were glitches: “A big problem for us was that none of the luggage came with us. We did have some equipment that was shipped ahead of time, so we were able to do surgery on the first day.”
To counteract the hiccups, there were many upsides: “The team is young, in medical terms, and very high energy. They have been creative!
“The lead doctor loves the Marshall Islands. He was here in 2023 and identified a lot of patients” who are being operated on in this clinic. “We’re also grateful that we have an orthopedic doctor in the hospital: He’s Dr. Louie Tacuyan. He has enabled us to do so many surgeries. And his ability to do follow-up care is very important. He has been absolutely instrumental in the number of patients we have seen.”
The Canvasback Orthopedic Mission did 28 total knee replacements, with eight people having replacements on both knees.
Some of the patients were using wheelchairs, while some could barely walk prior to their operations. The team also did 11 upper extremity surgeries.
It was invaluable that Matson Navigation shipped much of the equipment to the Marshall Islands for the orthopedic mission, especially because the team’s luggage was delayed. The donation of the shipping of a 40-foot container meant that on arrival the team had access to a large percentage of their needs at Majuro hospital.
Jacque is also grateful to the global medical technology leader Zimmer Biomet which donated the many implants needed for the surgeries.