Mission planning, kinda like riding a bike, right? Once you learn, it will come right back to you, maybe? With COVID, it’s been three years since we’ve organized a surgery team to travel to Sewa Sadan Eye Hospital in Bhopal, India. Finally, here we are. We’re a team of 26 from Kansas City, Chicago, Atlanta, and Mumbai. We’ve three specialties: general surgery, ENT, and Urology and all the support personnel – anesthesia, OR nurse/scrubs, and PACU. We’ve veterans that have been here several times, and many newbies. Department Chairs, seasoned surgeons, residents, and medical students.

Back to COVID: you suck. India was hit very hard. Due to travel restrictions, here in India and at home in the U.S., our annual Medical & Educational Mission to Bhopal was put on hold. Our funders rallied and helped us to provide a much-needed ambulance to Sewa Sadan Eye Hospital to transport COVID patients and more. Last summer, probably while at the Lake of the Ozarks and enjoying a beverage, Tammy and I basically said, fuck it (ok, that was me) let’s start the planning, will the timing ever be perfect, probably not.

It’s Monday, the first surgery day of five. Are things a little rusty, yes, but all is good. Mondays always are rusty, everywhere. We’ve an incredible team that is working together to provide our patients with the great care, with compassion and precision, affording them this opportunity that otherwise would not be an option. Our partners here at the hospital have spent weeks preparing for us, screening patients, ordering supplies and medication, recruiting volunteers to work alongside our team, and more.

So how’d the bike ride pan out? A little bumpy but we’re back. There were times that I thought, I’ve forgotten how to do all of this. But it’s not me that does “all of this”. It’s a team effort. The recruiting, thank you Alex Chow, we’ve most of the Rush University Medical Center Urology Department on our team. Ordering the supplies and medications, thank you Tammy and Pratibha. Packing and organizing supplies in Kansas City, thank you Lyn, Meredith, Kay, Patrick, Brandon, Teresa, and Matt. Thank you Nyana, helping to organize in-country plans and logistics. Thank you to the WHOLE team, everyone has and is contributing and it’s only Monday. I am excited to be back, thankful for the incredible team we have, our amazing partnership with Sewa Sadan Hospital, and our funders, we cannot do it without them. Really the only bumps on the ride – airlines and air travel, you suck too.

~ Hayo (We’ve 4 Abigail’s/Abby’s on the team, I am so confused)