HILARY HOSIA
Miracle workers in the form of Canvasback’s visiting OBGYN team screened close to 600 women at Majuro hospital during their recent two-week visit. The number of patients seen, pap tests conducted, cancers identified and surgeries performed underlined the demand for women’s health services in the Marshall Islands.
The team identified 13 cancers and conducted 32 surgeries during the visit. One unique thing about this year’s Canvasback team was the addition of Pathologist Lauren Hammock and Cut Off Technician Susan Hale with returning Cytologist Mark Endicott’s lab team, which combined to speed up processing pap smears and detection. “We have the fastest pap smear process in Micronesia,” Canvasback co-founder Jacque Spence told the Journal. Within a matter of hours, the pap smear results were available, meaning patients could wait for their same-day results, with a doctor to evaluate the test results.
Mammographer Brenda Wiley reported having conducted 241 mammograms. She discovered three potential cancers from the procedure. Wiley said the local team she’s helping had done several biopsies and one successful lumpectomy.
Meanwhile at the ultra sound department, Ultra Sonographer Gwendolyn Miller and local Sonographer Mary Hicking were working with patient Diana Ishoda when the Journal stopped by. The two reported conducting over 160 sonograms, which included the detection of multiple thyroid tumors, breast masses and ovarian cysts. This year’s Canvasback mission brought together 23 volunteers, including Philmar Mendoza, a Marshallese currently in her senior year at college in the US, who successfully convinced her school to be in the mission, making this trip her second. Aside from treating patients, Canvasback also donated 350 women’s care packages, which were received by Ministry of Health and Human Services Acting Secretary Francyne Wase-Jacklick.
Read more about this in the March 2, 2018 edition of the Marshall Islands Journal.