Our Medical Missions

Mission to Guatemala

CentraCare – Midsota Plastic Surgery partners with Helps International to bring surgical care to the poor and indigenous peoples of Guatemala.

Dr. Paul Schultz and Dr. Paul Heath led the first surgical and medical team in 1988. Since then, Midsota has facilitated more 70 trips to Guatemala, each with a multidisciplinary medical team made up of 100 volunteers and a complex array of medical supplies and surgical equipment.

“The volunteers enthusiastically return year after year, despite the conditions, for the opportunity to give of their skills and resources. The volunteers find this experience to be life changing, even as they are changing the lives of their patients,” said Dr. Schultz, Medical Director of Helps International.

One such life was Angel, a 6-year-old boy who came to the Helps clinic in Puerto Barrios with webbed hands and a cleft palate. Dr. Schultz began the delicate reconstruction process, along with three medical teams, to repair both his hands and mouth. Angel became both a joy and an inspiration to the volunteers, a face they will never forget. His story speaks powerfully to the work that Helps teams do in Guatemala.

For more 25 years, Helps International, Midsota Plastic Surgery and multiple other medical teams from across the country have served nearly 250,000 clinic patients and performed more than 18,000 surgical procedures.