Valley Doctors and Volunteers Change Lives In Paraguay

[bc_video video_id="6088875854001″ account_id="5728959025001″ player_id="Hkbio1usDM" embed="in-page" padding_top="56%" autoplay="" min_width="0px" max_width="640px" width="100%" height="100%"] As word spread in Luque, Paraguay that a group of volunteer doctors and medical professionals arrived to give free healthcare, the line of people stretched for blocks, some even spending the night in order to not miss out. Dr. Todd Swenning, the director of orthopedic trauma at Desert Regional Medical Center and over two dozen volunteers from the valley just got back from that medical mission with IMAHelps, a non profit based in Rancho Mirage. "We bring cardiology, orthopedics, medicine, dentistry, plastic surgery, general surgery, we basically bring a small hospital," he says. In just seven days, doctors treated more than 7,000 patients and performed about 200 life-changing surgeries. "A lot of limb correction surgeries so young patients with either deformities or fractures that had healed really in mal-aligned positions so legs were in the wrong positions or limbs were in the wrong position," he says. Four-year-old Mauricio was among those who went to see Dr. Swenning hoping for a miracle. His leg was rotated inward so severely he couldn’t run. "Anybody who’s had a four-year-old knows that they don’t stop running right and if they have a physical ailment that keeps them from running you know it really is kind of I hate to say tragic but it is," says Dr. Swenning. Dr. Swenning was able to straighten out little Mauricios leg. He should be running very soon. "He couldn’t pronounce my name at all, so he just said, kept saying, ‘Gracias Doctor. Toob,’ he was close enough," says Dr. Swenning with a big smile. It wasn’t just a gift for little Mauricio, but a gift for him and the volunteers too. "The crazy thing is he got a straight foot but we received much more," says Dr. Swenning. Doctors performed more than $6 million worth of medical services.. One little patient drew a portrait of Dr. Swenning as the superhero Spiderman as token of his gratitude, he keeps it hanging in his office. Volunteers pay for their own travel expenses but donations for medical supplies are always welcome. For more information on IMAHelps click here: IMAHelps.