Partner Project — Burn Mission in Vietnam

Partner Project — Burn Mission in Vietnam

 

 

St. John’s Mercy Hosts Team Striving To Establish Burn Rehab Center in Vietnam

                                 

 

Each year, Peter Rumbolo, MD, Mercy Burn and Plastics, and John Havican, RN, surgery nurse, along with other members of the burn mission team travel to Vietnam to provide burn reconstruction surgery and physical therapy to patients who otherwise do not have access to that type of health care.

On Monday, Dr. Rumbolo and Havican led representatives from Vietnam on a tour of the Medical Center and St. John's Mercy Rehabilitation Hospital. The group included members of the Vietnam Ministry of Health and Dr. Lam Hoai Phuong, the regional director for the southern province of the Vietnam health care system, who is involved with the development of the group’s burn missions.

Information gathered on the visit will provide logistics necessary to set up a burn rehabilitation center as part of a new 11-story hospital that is being built in Ho Chi Minh City. The vision is for one of the floors to be dedicated to burn reconstruction patients cared for both locally and those treated on the group’s burn missions.

“We were happy to host the people of Vietnam in their quest to establish a burn rehab center of excellence in the near future,” Dr. Rumbolo said. “We thank St. John’s Mercy Medical Center for the welcoming efforts, including the greeting by Dr. Paul Hintze and the open-armed welcome received from all departments we visited.”

The burn mission group has now operated on approximately 500 patients during the missions to Vietnam. Dr. Rumbolo, recently named director of burn missions for Operation Smile International, has a personal goal to treat 10,000 patients worldwide.