We arrived in Ghana on March 7, 2008, one year after a promise by Our Children International to return for a medical mission with doctors, nurses, paraprofessionals and volunteers to perform much needed surgeries free of charge for underserved people.

Seven of Chicago's top surgeons - Robert Weiss, MD; Oswaldo Lopez, MD; Barry Herst, MD; Francisco Marruenda, MD and Bryan Traubert, MD performed eye surgeries on children and adults. Gerald Kaplan, MD performed hernia operations and Christian Altman, MD, an anesthesiologist, worked with a group of surgeons from New Jersey to perform 140 surgeries in two hospitals during the week long mission.