Volunteer doctors perform 196 free major operations

By NINFA QUIRANTE, PIA Samar
February 14, 2011

BORONGAN, Eastern Samar  –  Over a thousand estehanons received free medical attention during the Diocese of Borongan’s 7th Medical Mission that extended from January 31 to February 11, 2011.

According to Eden Cidro, the mission’s volunteer coordinator, the doctors from the United States and Canada operated on 209 patients.

“Most of these were major operations, only 13 were minor,” Cidro said.

Some of the major operations done during the medical mission were thryoid surgery, mastectomy and nasal polyp surgery.

The patients had the operations, free of charge.

According to Dr. Grace Quinto, a patient would normally spend around P70,000 for a mastectomy.

In a separate interview, Commission on Social Action’s Head Fr. Juderick Calumpiano said that the parish priests were the ones in charge of referring patients to the medical mission.

From the name of the program, “Bulig Kablas,” the medical mission aimed to make medical attention available to indigents.

The word “kablas” in Waray means impoverished.