Beginning in 1980, the first surgical team made up of Dr. Kinsey, Mary Kinsey, RN and Charles Rutter, CRNA made its way to Honduras. Missionary Bobby Bowman, based in Sula where the present day hospital is located, assisted Dr. Kinsey and Ruth Bowman prepared meals for the team. The team used an 8-bed facility with one operating room in La Flecha, a small town down the road from Sula. This facility had been closed for two years. There was no running water, no air conditioning and no electricity in the building. Water came from the pila, and alcohol and betadine solution were instrument cleaning and sterilization solutions. The operating table was brought from a clinic run by Bobby Bowman. Bed sheets and pillowcases were sterilized at night in a pressure cooker and used for drapes in surgery the next day. The “surgical lamp” was a wall of glass which provided light from the outside but also increased the temperature in the OR in the afternoon to approximately 95-100 degrees. Gloves and masks were operating room attire; there were no gowns. Surgery was performed with approximately 30 surgical instruments which were used and reused for the 38 cases that were performed on that first surgical team trip. There was no anesthesia machine or oxygen available and Charles Rutter used an ambu bag during surgery. Hernias, lumps, bumps, and moles were the procedures for the patients who ranged in age from pediatric to adult.
Over the past 40 years, the Kinsey team has continued its commitment to service and is now led by the son of the Kinsey’s, Dr. Steve and his wife Terry, as well as Joe Hamrick. They take teams numbering close to 30 members which have 3-4 surgeons who preform podiatry, GI and GYN surgeries.
We give thanks to GOD for each one who has served on a Kinsey team over the years.