Expanding access to complex gynecologic surgery

Solidarity Bridge and Puente de Solidaridad have focused increasingly over the past five years on supporting the expansion of healthcare services in the city of Sucre, capital of the southern Bolivian department of Chuquisaca. One of our local public hospital partners in Sucre is the Chuquisaca Oncology Institute (Instituto Chuquisaqueño de Oncología, or ICO). Blog readers may recall our first visit to ICO in 2018, when we heard the hospital’s inspiring origin story from one of its founders. Political turmoil in 2019 and the pandemic in 2020 and 2021 have prevented us from returning since then, but the ICO has continued to grow. Since our visit, the hospital has built and outfitted a second operating room and expanded the patient ward, among other upgrades.

We look forward to reuniting with the dedicated team of specialists at the ICO! L-R, Dr. Isabel Huayhua, Dr. María Eugenia Villarroel, Dr. Wilfredo Campos, Dr. Tatiana Mina, and Dr. Isabel Quinteros.

To continue to improve treatment options especially for their female patients, this year the ICO requested the support of a specialist in gynecologic oncology. After several months of careful planning and patient selection, a five-women mission team departs for Sucre this Saturday to work alongside their team of OB-GYN surgeons. The primary goal of our visit is to advance training in laparoscopic surgical techniques for gynecologic pathologies. We look forward to learning in turn from the ICO’s young and dynamic professional team who continually expand their hospital and services in the face of innumerable challenges.

U.S. team members include Dr. Erin Stevens, Gynecologic Oncologist from Green Bay, Wisconsin; surgical nurse Jessica Waldo of Ontario, Oregon; photographer and medical supplies assistant Deb Winarski of Evanston, and Solidarity Bridge staff Megan Kennedy-Farrell (chaplaincy/accompaniment) and Jodi Grahl (Director of the Gynecologic Surgery Program and trip leader). Puente de Solidaridad’s Executive Director Patricia Vargas and social worker Marizol Mamani, as well as a trio of volunteer Bolivian interpreters, Dr. Luciana Rasguido, Dr. Eduardo Buzolic, and Fernanda Calbimonte, will round out the team.

Follow along here for updates from Sucre!