On Monday, May 8, patients of the Hospital San Pablo de Coquimbo diagnosed with hypospadia and genital tumor pathology, were able to access an operation to repair this problem, which should always be performed at an early age, although in many cases due to the lack of specialists it ends up being postponed, but thanks to the support of organizations these can be avoided, among them the Children's Renal Corporation MATER.
Thus, our MATER Corporation went to the Coquimbo Hospital with a team of specialists formed by Dr. José Manuel Escala, Dr. Ricardo Zubieta, Dr. Ximena Sepúlveda, and Constanza Olivares, nurse coordinator of the surgical area of the Corporation; who attended on a voluntary basis and on behalf of the organization. In turn, the Hospital team was led by the children's surgeon. Dr. Jaime Bastidas, who made available two wards, performing the operations simultaneously, in addition to all the technical staff necessary to ensure the success of this crusade.
As for the interventions, seven surgeries were performed on patients between 7 months and 10 years of age. In the case of hypospadias, the location of the meatus is in a different place from the physiological, often associated with curvature of the penis, so most of the children must urinate sitting, because if they urinate standing up they can wet their clothes which affects the quality of life of the child. In addition, if the curvature of the penis is not corrected, this could have repercussions on the boy's sexual life in the future. On the other hand, genital tumor pathology consists of removing the tumor, with the aim of allowing the proper functioning of the affected organ and even preventing malignant cells from advancing to other parts of the body.
"We are very happy to be back and to be able to benefit patients in the city together with the Coquimbo Hospital. We hope that this alliance will last in time so that we continue to have the opportunity to contribute to the health of the area", said Dr. José Manuel Escala, pediatric urologist, president and founder of the MATER Corporation.
Dr. Jaime Bastidas, children's surgeon and deputy medical director of Hospital San Pablo de Coquimbo, added that "the foundation has helped us to solve renal and urological problems of children from all over the region, for which we are very grateful because they are children and families who did not have to travel to Santiago, who were spared that and it is still a complication. They stayed here and were solved with all the expertise of professional urologists who came to help us from Santiago, such as Dr. Escala and Dr. Subrieta, who are very experienced, so they are patients who give us the peace of mind that they have been very well solved".
In this regard, the families of the patients who benefited, among them Pablo Fierro, Pablo's father, who is from Tongoy, commented that "These operations are very good. Let's hope that everything goes perfectly. This is the first operation, and then the second part will come in a few more months and then we will have to operate and everything will be fine. I am very grateful to the people, to Dr. Bastidas who is the treating physician together with his nurses and all those who know Pablito".
José Muñoz Castro from Paihuano, another of the parents who accompanied his son today, added that "the best thing about these operations is the shortening of waiting times, which sometimes is very difficult. Especially considering what happened during the pandemic, so it has been very beneficial".
This was the tenth surgical operation that Corporación MATER and the Coquimbo Hospital have carried out together since 2016, which to date have facilitated the performance of more than 60 highly complex surgeries. It should be noted that for this operation, the transfer of the medical team from Santiago was carried out thanks to the collaboration of Sky Airlines, while the stay was courtesy of the Hotel Costa Real.
