On the Road to Mandalay Where the Flyin-Fishes Play

Dr. Healy with a young patient and parent

The Aloha Medical Mission sent its first mission to Burma (Myanmar) September 30 to October 12, 2006, with 14 volunteers.  We took the road to Mandalay, but unlike Rudyard Kipling's poem, we did not see "the flyin-fishes play".  We worked at the Sitagu Ayudana Hospital in Sagaing, which is across the Irrawaday River from Mandalay.

We were well received by our host and sponsor, the chief Buddhist monk Ashin Nyanissara, who founded the 90 bed hospital.  They provided us with nice quarters on the hospital grounds and fabulous Burmese meals in their special dining room.  On arrival, we saw our initial 26 surgical cases, admitted and with all lab work and x-rays done.  We operated on thyroid and breast cancers, goiters, gallbladders, and acute appendicitis.  Over 200 patients, adults and children, were treated, including 60 major surgeries and cataracts.

2006 Myanmar Team

At the end of the mission, our hosts took us sight-seeing in Sagaing and Mandalay, where there were hundreds of beautiful Buddhist temples and pagodas.  On the way home, the team also visited Bagan, the ancient capital of the first Burmese empire, with its numerous temples built at the time of Angkor Wat in Cambodia.  We also spent a day on beautiful Inle Lake, where fishermen use their legs to row their boats.

It was a unique and memorable mission, and we have been invited to return next year.

Carl Lum, M.D.
Mission Director