Westport Teen — And Town — Support Surgical Trips

Miri Levin is a senior at Hopkins School. She has lived in Westport since she was 5 years old. Miri writes:

I stand 3,400 miles from home, dressed in surgical scrubs and a mask that hides my age and inexperience.

The operating room lights are bright. I feel at once comfortable and unnerved.

The scene is relatively familiar. I have been volunteering with the International Esperanza Project for 4 years.

But our surgical staff is makeshift by American standards. My mother, an accredited surgeon, will be performing reconstructive surgery after a gunshot wound to the eye.

I — a 17-year-old high school student — will be responsible for handing her the vital tools she needs. I shake off my discomfort, and arrange the surgical tools on a metal tray that stands within my mother’s reach.

Miri Levin and friend.

IEP provides high quality medical care to Guatemalan citizens who lack these resources. Every September I travel to Patzun, Guatemala with my mother to offer free medical care to individuals and families with circumscribed access to quality health care.

Our patients live in poverty, and frequently suffer from long-neglected health issues that have festered over time.

On any given day I move between numerous roles, taking and monitoring patient vitals, stocking operating rooms with surgical supplies, and soothing anxiety in children who may be visiting a doctor for the very first time.

International Esperanza Project takes a break.

My work with IEP forces me to engage with my greatest personal challenge: a sometimes haunting sense of self-doubt. While the imposter syndrome was certainly justified in my role among such experienced individuals, I often question whether I have the competence and experience to chase the accomplishments I want to call my own.

But by committing myself to stepping away from the familiar, whether geographically or intellectually, I can now call “positive risk-taker” as part of my identity.

The organization and compassion that Team Hope put forth during one week is unbelievable. From seeing thousands of clinic patients to performing hundreds of surgeries, the team blends seamlessly together even if most of them just met.

It doesn’t matter where you’re from, or where you’re going. If you come to Guatemala, you join a family. One that has dance parties during late night hospital trips, and one with some of the most gentle teachers out there, supporting and guiding you through a high stress environment that can be hard to adapt to.

During the most recent trip, we posted about a little girl suffering with childhood eye cancer. Both eyes had been removed at a young age, and her family could not afford prosthetic ones.

Within 24 hours, the Westport community raised $6,000. It was unbelievable to see how a group of people could be so generous to someone so close to my mom and me, yet so far from them.

I am so excited for the International Esperanza Project to come to Westport, this time in person. The event is April 2 at Hudson Malone (6 p.m.).

It is an honor being given the opportunity to speak about how much this trip impacted me. Now I have friends all over the world, and most importantly, so do all the patients.

Interested in attending the April 2 event? Email floralevin@drfloralevin.com.