(SHREVEPORT, Louisiana) – A medical team from CHRISTUS Highland Medical Center recently returned from a surgical mission trip where CHRISTUS Health’s mission of extending the healing ministry of Jesus Christ was extended to Guaimaca, a town in Honduras.

Dr. James Barnes, general/bariatric surgeon and chief of staff at CHRISTUS Highland Medical Center, and his team -- RNs Pam Clapp and Vickie Colvin and certified scrub tech Atalyn Nix -partnered with Baptist Medical & Dental Mission International (BMDMI).

“First Baptist Church in Natchitoches headed up the mission. It’s a three-week mission but there are different subgroups that go,” Barnes said. “Ours was the surgical part of the trip and took place during the last week. Another general surgeon from Arkansas also was part of the trip.”

Barnes’ team left May 30 and returned June 7. During that time, 23 patients were seen.

“We got there that Friday night. Saturday, they set me up in the clinic and I saw all 23 patients that day,” Barnes said. “These are patients they have been getting ready for months and months. They come into the clinic and they have maybe a bad gallbladder or hernia or whatever.”

This is Barnes’ third trip to Honduras.

“It’s a good trip because they can have all the patients ready when I get there,” he said. “It’s a relatively modern operating room and we can do laparoscopic surgery there.”

Of the 23 patients Barnes saw, 21 had surgery.

“It was laparoscopic gallbladder and hernia surgery and we did a couple of them Sunday afternoon. But the big surgery days were Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday and I did six or seven cases on each of those days,” he said. “Although we saw a couple of miscellaneous cases, those were the primary surgeries we were doing.”

Fortunately, Barnes said, there weren’t any complications with any of the surgeries.

“Everything went well, but the gallbladders were all really bad. Here in the United States, if you start having gallbladder trouble you go see a doctor, you get sent to a surgeon and within a week or two you get your gallbladder out,” he said. “But down there, they’ve had to wait for months, sometimes years. So, by the time they finally get the surgery, it’s just bad. But everything went well.”

Patients ranged from children to adults.

“Most of the patients were in their 30s, 40s and 50s,” Barnes said. “The youngest I operated on was an 8-year-old girl who had a lipoma on her face. It was more of a cosmetic thing than anything and we took that off.”

Following surgery, Barnes said most of the patients were able to go home the same day. However, there were two or three bigger cases where the patients were kept overnight and examined the next morning before being sent home.

“By bringing our surgery team to Honduras, we have a unique opportunity to provide life-changing operations to a group of people who have no other access to this type of health care,” Barnes said. “It’s a chance for me to give back some of the blessings I have received in my own life.”