Kenya 2014

The town of Kakamega lies in Kenya’s second most populous county about 30 kilometers north of the equator. Within this county, Kakamega Provincial General Hospital has a catchment area of over 4 million. After the ISMS Pediatric mission to Kakamega took place last year, the need for medical attention in this region was so outstanding that a new ISMS team (Team Michigan) was created with a goal to return to this area for their first mission.

Despite all the challenges and effectively only two and a half rooms being available, 45 surgeries were completed in four and a half days, including cleft lip repairs, burn treatments, post burn contracture releases, hernia repairs, thyroidectomies, removal of tumors and hand surgeries. The off site team went to four different remote locations outside of Kakamega, travelling up to three hours each way seeing over 500 people. Many adults and children were seen with many different treatable diseases including Malaria, fevers, worms and many skin conditions.