Columbus, Neb., Medical Missions Team prepares to make final trip to Nicaragua in Feb.

COLUMBUS — There are plenty of hugs and tears every time Dean and Carolyn Athey visit the people of Puerto Cabezas, Nicaragua.

But their upcoming trip will be extra emotional. It could be the final time the local couple sees the people they’ve helped care for and medical professionals they’ve worked alongside over the past seven years.

The Atheys have developed strong relationships in the Central American country since they started traveling there with a local medical missionary team in 2010.

“You feel like you’re going down to see your family again,” said Carolyn Athey, who will make her seventh trip in February to the poor, underserved city along Nicaragua’s northeast coast. She missed one year following the birth of a grandchild.

Dean Athey has been a constant with the group, which was originally organized by Dr. Nila Novotny and included several local medical professionals and volunteers.

The Columbus Medical Mission Team has since branched out to serve in other locations, including Haiti and Kenya, but the Atheys continue to focus their attention on Nicaragua. Their group is now known as Global Passion Ministries-Nebraska.

“We’ve accomplished a lot, and there is still a lot to accomplish down there,” Dean Athey said.

The Atheys, who are joined by Tamra Boettcher, a registered nurse at the local internal medicine clinic operated by CHI Health; Karl and Sue Tillinghast, former Columbus residents who now live in Lincoln; and Alicia Henderson, have seen plenty of changes in Puerto Cabezas over the years.

Their rooms at the compound now have air conditioning — though there isn’t hot water — and electricity is more reliable at the former open-air army barracks that now serves as a hospital.

“They have really fixed up the hospital. You can tell that they’re taking more pride,” said Boettcher, a member of five of the eight mission trips.

The medical care also has evolved.

The team, which also includes a group from California, used to swoop in, perform medical procedures for a week, then leave. Now physicians and nurses from Nicaragua are part of the effort.

“To have seen this evolve into the Nicaraguans helping their own people has really been a highlight,” Dean Athey said.

The medical team initially performed a variety of general ear, nose and throat surgeries but has since shifted to predominantly focus on cleft lips and palates. These birth defects are a common occurrence in the poverty-stricken area, where the groundwater is contaminated and pregnant women are exposed to high levels of carbon dioxide while cooking with wood-burning stoves inside unventilated huts.

The malformations can impact a child’s ability to eat and cause them to be ostracized by their family or village.

“Those (surgeries) have a huge impact on those children and their families and their communities,” Dean Athey said.

Because of the lack of access to health care in the region, many people travel for days to see the American medical team.

In addition to health care services, the group also selects a special project each year to benefit the community. They’ve helped out the hospital, a local orphanage and school and provided money to improve a public feeding station that provides meals to hundreds of children each day.

Each project is selected based on the needs they see while serving in Puerto Cabezas.

“The need just seems to scream out at you,” Dean Athey said. “It just becomes very obvious to us, very clear to us as soon as we see it.”

The Atheys and Tillinghasts plan to make their final trips to Nicaragua in February.

Dean Athey, who retired from his job as an anesthetist at Columbus Community Hospital earlier this year and works part time at Columbus Surgery Center, said the intensity of the work there led to this decision.

“I just feel that this is the time,” he said.

“It’s going to be hard,” said Carolyn Athey. “It’s going to be very hard to say goodbye.”

Boettcher, who will continue working with the medical team, hopes to recruit other local volunteers to fill the open spots.

Her involvement extends far beyond the medical services the group provides.

“It’s a spiritual trip, too,” Boettcher said. “It strengthens my faith. It’s just a renewal every year, for myself especially.”

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Reprinted with permission.