We are very proud of our colleague and friend, Evans as she completed her second annual medical missionary trip. 
Once again Evans volunteered with the Philippine Medical Society of Northern California Missionary group to provide much needed medical and surgical services to thousands of residents of Dumaguete City in the Philippines from January 16 to 20, 2017.
The medical team worked side-by-side with missionary physicians to provide a wide range of much needed surgical services to patients including cancer removal, cataract and glaucoma surgery, hernia repairs, hysterectomies and many other types of operations.
Some of the more memorable care rendered by Evans and the team included surgery and care on a baby girl named Marie who was left in a ditch in a cemetery when she was only 1 week old. Maria was found covered in ants and she had a cleft lip, which was why the team believed she was abandoned. The 9 year old boy who found Maria carried her to his home and his family took her in. The family heard about the Medical Missionaries and brought the baby to them on their last working day.
Fortunately for Maria, volunteer plastic surgeons from Manila corrected her defect that same day. Evans and her team members attended her baptism before her discharge and they generously donated enough money for her and her family to last them the next 6 months.
Another memorable patient, amongst the thousands treated, was a woman in her 60’s with a large thyroid mass. Surgeons estimated that it took about 20 years to grow based upon the size! The volunteer surgeons took several hours to remove the mass and the patient lost a significant amount of blood where her life became threatened. Unfortunately, there wasn’t enough blood at the hospital needed to transfuse her so Evans and the medical missionaries stepped forward to immediately have their blood typed and crossed for donation. Several of the team had matching blood types and donated that day. She received blood transfusions that evening and survived.
“Miracles happen in the strangest ways and these are just some of the cases that made this trip worthwhile,” says Evans. “We saved more lives than we could ever have imagined, this has truly been a humbling experience for me.”
Evans extends her heartfelt thanks to Dr. Pugach for his utmost generosity in allowing her to continue to pursue one of her biggest goals in medicine – to serve the underserved.
Medical Missionary Team
About the Philippine Medical Society of Northern California
The Philippine Medical Society of Northern California assists the indigent communities who have little or no access to medical care and has been conducting community outreach programs and medical missions to selected rural areas in the Philippines since 1986. This amazing organization relies mostly on volunteer hours and donations from private individuals, hospitals, and pharmaceutical companies
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