Today was our last clinical day at Trece Martires. The medical and dental team would spend the morning seeing patients before returning back to Manila for the weekend.

Leo have a health talk to the locals on ear care and ear infections. Almost every Filipino we saw had a habit of using cotton tips to clean their ears. Unfortunately this usually pushes the wax deeper into their ear canals and would often cause hearing loss. There was a notable number of children who had significant hearing loss from wax impaction, and most of them were incredibly brave and tolerated removal with a suction device.
We saw a 2 year old boy with an umbilical hernia after he suffered from an infection around his umbilicus at burn. Even though he didn’t have any symptoms, unfortunately the only treatment is to undergo surgery. They were told about this previously by a local surgeon, but unfortunately the parents were so poor that they had not even bothered asking about the medical costs. All we could offer was antibiotics and prayers that God may provide a way for him to have surgery at some stage.

Bible study every Friday, and that their health has also significantly improved! We aim to continue adding more patients to this support group as we continue to see more patients.
After emotional farewells and an extended photo session, the team departed Trece Martires back to Manila, where they will spend a few days resting before travelling to Marilao on Sunday.
“Faith expressing itself through love” Gal 5:6
Leo