Contact: Will Sansom, (210) 567-2579

Joseph Reses, M.D., resident in the Health Science Center Department of Anesthesiology, carries a child after administration of a general anesthetic. A Nigerian anesthesia resident helps with the IV tubing.
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SAN ANTONIO (Feb. 8, 2008) — A plastic surgery fellow, an anesthesiologist and a first-year anesthesiology resident from The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio spent two weeks caring for indigent patients in southeastern Nigeria. They treated children in need of surgery for a variety of problems, including cleft palates and hernias. They also treated adults.

Plastic surgeon coordinated the mission effort
Stanley Okoro, M.D., plastic surgery fellow in The UT Health Science Center Department of Surgery, coordinated the logistics of transporting physicians, surgeons, nurses and numerous other health care providers, along with 20 huge boxes of medications, supplies and equipment, to Africa.

“Dr. Okoro also had the unenviable task of sending off medical and surgical teams to the villages and two hospitals with machine gun-toting policemen, before he could himself provide surgical repairs of cleft lips on malnourished children,” said mission member Wendy Kang, M.D., J.D., professor in the Department of Anesthesiology.

Wendy Kang, M.D., J.D., professor of anesthesiology, speaks with The Honorable Ikedi Godson Ohakim, governor of Imo state.

Health Science Center team helped people from Imo
The U.S. team worked in Imo state, which is home to about 4 million people. Gov. Ikedi Godson Ohakim presented each member with colorful native Nigerian clothing and certificates.

Anesthesia residents learned new techniques
Dr. Kang served as attending physician for resident Joseph Reses, M.D., “who with no previous mission experience stepped up to the task of providing anesthesia with no monitors except for his five senses and intermittent pulse oximetry readings,” Dr. Kang said.

Anesthesia residents at Imo State University Hospital learned how to perform certain nerve blocks and epidurals along with post-surgical pain management as a result of the visit.

All three physicians, exhausted after the humanitarian project, were delighted to return to the health resources of the United States, Dr. Kang said.

See more photos from this mission trip.

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The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio is the leading research institution in South Texas and one of the major health sciences universities in the world. With an operating budget of $576 million and 5,000 faculty and staff, the Health Science Center is the chief catalyst for the $15.3 billion biosciences and health care sector in San Antonio’s economy. The Health Science Center has had an estimated $35 billion impact on the region since inception and has expanded to seven campuses in San Antonio, Laredo, Harlingen and Edinburg. More than 22,000 graduates (physicians, dentists, nurses, scientists and allied health professionals) serve in their fields, including many in Texas. Health Science Center faculty are international leaders in cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, aging, stroke prevention, kidney disease, orthopedics, research imaging, transplant surgery, psychiatry and clinical neurosciences, pain management, genetics, nursing, allied health, dentistry and many other fields. For more information, visit www.uthscsa.edu.