IMAHelps Nicaragua mission

RANCHO MIRAGE, California--IMAHelps has assembled a team of more than 80 doctors, surgeons, nurses, dentists, and support personnel for a 10-day medical mission to Estelí, Nicaragua, in August 2011.

This will be the largest medical mission since IMAHelps started organizing medical humanitarian missions 11 years ago, according to Ines Allen, president and cofounder of Rancho Mirage-based IMAHelps.

A small team of volunteers will depart the Coachella Valley for Estelí in late July 2011 to prepare for the mission, which will run Aug. 4 to 14.

The team of volunteers includes plastic, maxillofacial, orthopedic, and general surgeons as well as cardiologists, obstetricians, general physicians, pediatricians, gynecologists, support personnel, and four pharmacists. A prosthetist who can fit patients with donated artificial limbs, a dermatologist, dentists, and a specialist in endodontics will also be on the mission.

IMAHelps organizes medical missions annually. Founded in 2000, the group started with medical missions to South America, but has since broadened its efforts to include medical missions to Central America and Asia. The group is organizing a medical mission to China in September 2011.

During the 10-day medical mission to Somoto, Nicaragua, in August 2010, IMAHelps volunteers provided medical services to 8,446 people. This included 120 cleft palate repairs and other surgeries, 695 dental procedures, as well as 949 pediatric, and 1,465 internal medicine consultations. Services involved urinary tract infections to ear aches, stomach aches, joint pains, tropical skin rashes, and allergy-related ailments.

The medical mission to Estelí, Nicaragua, is made possible with a $38,000 Hedco Foundation grant, which was used to purchase anesthesia equipment, as well as an EKG machine.

Hospitals and more than 300 individual donors from the Coachella Valley and throughout Southern California have also made donations of equipment and supplies, as well as monetary contributions, which pay for medicines and supplies.

Volunteering - Renewal, inspiration, and insight

In the Coachella Valley, Desert Regional Medical Center in Palm Springs and John F. Kennedy Memorial Hospital in Indio have donated equipment and supplies for the Nicaragua mission. Other Southern California hospitals have also donated critical equipment and supplies.

Mountains Community Hospital in Lake Arrowhead donated thousands of dollars worth of maternity ward equipment and supplies, and Lompoc Valley Medical Center in Lompoc donated medicines and pharmaceutical supplies.

Dr. Doriana Cosgrove of Desert Med Aesthetics and Dr. Daniel Cosgrove of Well Max in La Quinta, Calif., coordinated a fundraising effort that helped raise $9,000 worth of donations, which paid for shipping of medicines and supplies from California to Nicaragua.

Rotary Club District 5330, which includes Rotarians from clubs in San Bernardino, Calif., and Riverside counties, raised $8,200, which helped purchase a portable X-ray machine.

Dentists from the Coachella Valley, Temecula, and Oregon also donated thousands of dollars worth of dental supplies for the Nicaragua mission in an effort led by Dr. Rene' Dell'Acqua, a cosmetic dentist from Palm
Desert, Calif.

IMAHelps volunteers will pay for their airfare to and from Nicaragua while food and hotel expenses will be covered by the Lion¹s Club of Estelí, as well as nonprofit group Unidos Por Nicaragua (United for Nicaragua).

For more information, visit www.imahelps.org.

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