Operation Medical

04/06/2026

🚨 Volunteers Needed 🚨

Operation Medical is preparing for our July mission to Malawi, and we’re actively recruiting team members to join us.

This is your chance to be part of a hands-on, high-impact surgical mission serving patients with limited access to care.

Spots are limited - check out the graphic for needed roles and apply today!

03/11/2026

Big news - we’ve moved! 📦

Our headquarters recently relocated after the building that housed our office was sold. While our office address has changed, our mission and our work remain the same.

We’re grateful for the continued support of this community as we keep working to bring life-changing surgical care to patients who need it most.

You can find our new mailing address on our website: www.operationmedical.org

Thank you for being part of this mission. ❤️

01/27/2026

We are pleased to share a final summary from our recently completed mission to in Dharampur, Gujarat, India. Thanks to the dedication of our volunteers and the strength of our local partnerships, the mission concluded successfully after a full and impactful week of surgical care.

Over the course of the week, the team performed a total of 106 surgical procedures, including 21 Plastic Surgery, 22 ENT, 25 OB/GYN, and 38 General Surgery cases. Patients ranged in age from 1 year to 75 years old. In just five and a half days, 18 volunteers traveled thousands of miles to deliver life-changing care, strengthen long-standing relationships, and form new friendships along the way.

Travel home was not without challenges. Due to winter weather, some volunteers experienced extended return journeys of up to 68 hours. We are thankful that most of the team is now home safely, while a few have continued on to personal travel overseas following the successful completion of the mission.

We are deeply grateful to all for your continued support of Operation Medical. Your generosity makes missions like this possible and allows us to serve patients who would otherwise go without access to safe surgical care. To donate to our organization and support future missions, please utilize the link in the comments!

We look forward to sharing a comprehensive recap, including patient spotlights, volunteer reflections, and additional insights from this impactful mission in our upcoming Trip Report. Please ensure you are signed up for our email list to receive this encouraging summary!

01/24/2026

Friday, January 23

That’s a Wrap

Friday seemed to come in the blink of an eye.

The team has started dispersing, and those that did not leave this morning worked in the OR until around noon completing 8 more cases: 3 ENT, 4 General, and 1 Gynecology. Supplies were packed up to donate, for next time, and to return to the US.

It’s been a great week – thousands of miles, 5 1/2 days, 18 volunteers, 116 surgeries, lives changed, friendships rekindled, and friendships made.

Please check back in a few weeks for an update and a full trip report with details of patient spotlights, and reflections from volunteers.

We can’t thank you enough for your support and for following our journey. Until next time.

01/22/2026

Thursday, January 22

Today is the last full day of surgeries for this year’s camp. At lunch time we had brief audience with Pujya Gurudevshri Rakeshjithe, the spiritual leader of Jainism and founder of the Shrimad Rajchandra Mission in Dharampur. Additionally, this evening we enjoyed dinner at the home of Mr. Abhay Jasani, one of the major benefactors of the hospital.

That said, we arrived at the hospital early to get moving and finished up around 6:30 pm.

Our statistics for today were 19 cases: 3 ENT, 7 General, 3 Gynecology and 6 Plastic.

It was a great day and we near the finish line!

01/22/2026

Wednesday, January 21

Wash, Rinse, Repeat
It is hard to believe we are at the mid-point of the surgical camp. Things are running swimmingly with our team and the local staff. It’s as though we’ve known each other for years. The hospital runs very efficiently and keeps the patients moving in and out of the OR and each OR team continues to work together in harmony.
Today’s highlights included an emergency c-section delivering a healthy, bouncing 7+ pound baby girl into the world. Dr Arthur and Dr Lanni worked in tandem on another lengthy (5 ½ hour) case performing a quadruple, complex syndactyly release with skin grafts.
Today’s cases numbered 22 in all with 4 ENT, 7 General, 6 Gynecology and 5 Plastic cases. The day wrapped up around 6:15pm, we grabbed a quick bite in the hospital café for dinner and caught our bus back to the Ashram for sleep.
What a great day and a job well done!

01/21/2026

Tuesday, January 20th

Tuesday morning started with Op Med’s traditional group photo, so with everyone attired in their Op Med t-shirt, we posed in front of Ashram’s Raj Sabhagruh, a grand multi-functional auditorium that holds 10,000 people.

At the hospital, the patients were prepped and ready for cases and the team got to work. Today’s cases were many of the usual suspects. Each team had some longer cases today and the Plastic’s team had a complicated burn contracture case involving the shoulder and elbow, requiring a special muscle flap and extensive skin grafting that took Dr. Arthur and Dr. Lanni seven hours working together, yep that’s 14 manhours, or should we say surgeon hours on one case.

Overall there were 21 cases today, 5 ENT, 9 General, 5 Gynecology and 2 Plastic. It was another long day and we finished up at 6:30pm.

The team was treated to a special sound bath meditation at the Ashram at 9:30pm, it was the perfect prelude to sleep well.

Until tomorrow. ….

01/20/2026

Monday, January 19th

We started our day with a quick, light breakfast at the Ashram as we do each day and headed to the hospital. The staff was ready for our arrival with patients prepped and in the queue for their surgical procedures. We are a well-oiled machine at this point and will continue with volunteers assigned to their respective ORs/Specialties for the duration.

We ran the gambit of hemorrhoids, hysterectomies, burn scars and more. A couple of note-worthy cases today were a Splenectomy performed for a patient with ITP or Immune Thrombocytopenia, a rare autoimmune bleeding disorder where the immune system mistakenly attacks and destroys platelets (clotting cells), leading to low platelet counts, easy bruising, and excessive bleeding.

To learn more about this case and others, please check back to read post-mission for our trip report where we will go into more detail.

It was a very long day with the team wrapping up around 6:00pm. Time for some fast sleep so we can do it again tomorrow. See you then.

01/19/2026

Sunday, January 18th Update

The first day of surgeries began as most do on a mission trip – organized chaos, which quickly transitions to everyone getting ‘in their groove.’ It’s always great to see how total strangers become a tight team in a matter of hours together.

We have a dedicated OR for each of our specialties, ENT, Gynecology, General and Plastics and a central hub room for supplies and data collection located within the operation suites.

The caseload was moderate, but steady today resulting in 16 cases: 3 ENT, 5 General, 4 Gynecology, and 4 Plastic cases.

We had dinner together with some of the local staff and returned to our rooms for some much-needed sleep around 9:30 pm as Monday will be here in the blink of an eye.

We hope to see you back tomorrow for more updates. It means a lot to our team for you to follow along with us.

01/19/2026

01/18/2026

Sights from Saturday.