October 2009

In October, IOWD doctors and nurses traveled to Hanoi, Vietnam to work in the National Hospital for Obstetrics and Gynecology. Participating in this new and exciting program were Drs. Kaytan Amrute, Joan Blomquist, Jeffrey Freed, David Glazier, Sharon Knight, Vanny Le, Paul Ritchie, Stacey Wallach and Nurses Njoki Ng’ang’a and Evangeline Epper. Our friend, volunteer, DeAnna Stevens, also joined the team.

Dr. Vanny Le, an anesthesiologist, spoke fluent Vietnamese and was much in demand for translating!! Vanny was a valuable new member of our team!! We truly appreciate her language skills in the operating rooms and in meetings.

The generosity and graciousness on the part of the Vietnamese people was absolutely fantastic! We were made to feel ‘at home’ immediately. Wherever we were…in the hospitals, in the streets, in restaurants, in shops…we were welcomed. It was a wonderful beginning!