Our History
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2011
Dr. Alfredo Quiñones and Dr. Michael Lawton and their team made a trip to Guadalajara, Mexico upon the invitation of Dr. Rodrigo Ramos-Zuniga. During that trip those involved realized the need and the potential for suchpartnerships to advance neurosurgical care in less developed areas. More trips followed and the organization evolved over the next few years to develop educational partnerships throughout Mexico, which included participation in the Sociedad de Cirugía Neurológica De Occidenta, Mexico’s national Congress of Neurological Surgery conference. More neurosurgeons also joined including Dr. George Jallo and Dr. Theodore Schwartz. It cemented the mission focus of the organization: direct neurosurgical care, education and empowerment. |
2014
mission:brain collaborated with Dr. Gerardo Legaspi of the Philippine General Hospital in Manila to provide neurosurgical treatment to complex cerebrovascular diseases to some of their neediest patients as well as conduct symposia for physicians, nurses and support staff, including conducting the first bypass course in the country. The organization has been going to the Philippines since providing advanced training including speech and motor awake mapping for brain tumor resection with Dr. Mitchel Berger. |
mission:manila
In collaboration with the Neurosurgery Outreach Foundation (NOF), Mission:BRAIN completed another successful mission trip to Manila, Philippines in June, 2018, hosted by the Philippine General Hospital (PGH). Mission:brain Executive Director and Operating Nurse, April Sabangan joined the surgeons from NOF for several surgeries in Cebu in mid-June and then met up with a team led by Michael Lawton, MD in Manila from June 20-24. The local hosting neurosurgeon was the Director of PGH and well-known neurosurgeon Gerardo (Gap) LeGaspi, MD. Participating neurosurgeons came from as far as Singapore and Viet Nam to observe complex skull base and vascular neurosurgeries. The surgeries were followed by lectures on vascular neurosurgery by Dr. Lawton. Another lecture series on Neurocritical Care was held concurrently by neurologist Romer Geocadin MD, from Johns Hopkins University. A nursing symposium included neurosurgical presentations by April Sabangan, RN and Lisa Hannegan, Nurse Practitioner. Other team members from Mission:BRAIN included operating nurses Carol Blazier, from the Barrow Neurological Institute and Carina Ceralde from UCSF, and pre-med student James Yoon from Brown University.
The organization added one more partnership in Mexico City at Hospital Juarez de Mexico and continued to expand its team with a total of six physicians altogether providing both surgical care and participation at the Congress of Neuroscience. It also collaborated with other nonprofits in an effort to provide much needed neurosurgical care in Mirebalais, Haiti where with a population of 10 million, the country only has two neurosurgeons both of whom only practice in the capital of Port Au Prince. As more locations and partnerships are identified, mission:brain continues to be inspired by the enthusiasm and commitment of its supporters and collaborators but also realizes the increasing need for resources and support. There is much work to be done, but just as our brain is made up of multitudes of neurons connected together, mission:brain is made up of many amazing individuals working together to help change the world. mission:guadalajara
This year’s annual trip to Guadalajara involved a collaboration with a new medical center, Centro Médico Puerta de Hierro. The trip opened with a case presentation conference on the day of arrival, July 14. The next day, the team of surgeons performed an occipital lobectomy on a 30-year-old woman who was having at least 5 seizures per day that did not respond to treatment with medications. Over time, the seizures would have increased and created even more problems with her daily activities. A second surgery involved treatment of a woman who waited 9 years in order to get diagnosis of her Chiari malformation and had been on the waiting list for surgery for 6 months at the public hospital.
Later in the day, Dr. Quiñones gave a presentation about mission:brain and heard from a patient operated last year that was in the audience. Her kind words were a surprise and an inspiration to all. The trip ended with a symposium on The Care of the Brain. We thank all of the team from Centro Médico Puerta de Hierro for partnering with us to get neurosurgical care to those who need it the most. |
mission:monterrey
The mission:brain team worked in collaboration with Dr. Jorge Guajardo, Dr. Jose Ortiz Nieto and the Hospital CEO/ Leadership to perform a vault remodeling for metopic and sagittal craniosynostosis on a 6-months-old boy and a craniotomy for a medulloblastoma located in the cerebellum on a 32-years-old man. The surgeries were successful and the costs were completely covered by Christus Muguerza. In addition, the team met with the patients from the 2018 mission in order to get follow-up and feedback on the experience.
“The greatest moment of this trip was seeing he appreciation on the faces of the families in the post-operative period after their loved ones had been unable to obtain care for so long. It is truly remarkable to be able to touch lives in this way thank to the collaboration of the hospital administration, surgeons of Christus Muguerza hospital, and the mission:brain team. There is no greater gift than life.”—Dr. Oluwaseun Akinduro mission:peru
The mission:brain team with the closely collaboration of Dr. Alberto Trelles from Clinica Delgado performed two surgeries at no cost on two elderly women in dire need who natively speak Quechua (pre-Hispanic Peruvian mother-tongue) and Spanish and work in the fields harvesting coffee in a rural area known as Quillabamba (near Cusco City). The patients were operated successfully. It was wonderful to see how Dr. Trelles helped the patients to wake up from anesthesia speaking Quechua. This language is typically used only rural communities from inside the country. We also organized a social gathering to create more awareness regarding our mission and the different ways people can help those who do not have the means through our foundation. We also visited private and public universities to build bridges for near future trips in Lima, Peru.
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mission:monterrey
Our thoughts go out to all of our participating hospital sites during this time of the COVID-19 pandemic. Unfortunately, we have had to cancel our annual mission trips to Monterrey, Guadalajara and Mexico City for now.
We will be rescheduling as soon as it is feasible, safe and not an added burden to our local partners. We thank all of the nurses, doctors and all the other healthcare team members who are on the front lines caring for the patients and for all of us.
We will be rescheduling as soon as it is feasible, safe and not an added burden to our local partners. We thank all of the nurses, doctors and all the other healthcare team members who are on the front lines caring for the patients and for all of us.