For the second time in a year, the SPSA surgical mission returned to Calbayog, Samar, December 7-14, 2006. Invited back by Congressman Reynaldo Uy and Calbayog City Mayor Mel Sarmiento, SPSA’s Surgical Mission co-chair Manny Cacdac and Pacing Dorado, accepted the request to “finish up” on the surgical cases left from the mission’s first trip to the province January 14-21 2006. There were 548 surgical procedures performed during the first mission, however the sheer number of cases were just too overwhelming for the surgical team to finish in 6 days. Coming back was the mission’s mopping up left over cases and more.
The surgical mission team flew to Calbayog immediately after the last day of the Philippine College of Surgeons Annual Congress where some of the SPSA missionaries participated as speakers. A warm welcome and reception awaited the group as the chartered plane landed at the city’s small airport. Shortly after the members of the team were assigned to their lodging facilities, the work immediately began with unpacking and sorting out the boxes of medical supplies sent earlier and screening of patients for surgery at the three hospitals in the city- the District Hospital, St. Camillus Hospital, and Calbayog Sanitarium.
Coming in after Typhoon Durian in late November and which obliterated villages around Mount Mayon, Typhoon Utor swept into the island of Samar the day after the SPSA surgical mission team arrived. Battering the island with gusts of up to 150 km (94 miles) per hour and heavy rains, the power lines were knocked off, rendering the city of Calbayog without electricity. The hospitals operated with emergency generators which at various times gave out leaving operating rooms in the dark, holding back operations in progress or canceling a number of surgeries. Except for those establishments and homes that have emergency generators, the city was basically dark at night. The city mayor provided back-up generators for the hospitals where the surgical team were performing the operations.
Despite the inclement weather and inconveniences of not having the electricity during the duration of the mission, the team of surgeons and support staff finished up with 540 surgeries- 185 majors, 71 eyes cases and 284 minors.
Reflecting on the mission, Drs. Cacdac and Dorado, together with Congressman Uy and Mayor Sarmiento, agreed that whatever havoc may have been wrought by typhoon Utor was well overcome by a successful mission well-planned and carried out this second time around.
