In Their Own Words :: Luis Sandoval

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Orthopedic surgeon, served in Pakistan and Indonesia following the earthquakes.

It was a great experience to be able to help. We arrived with our own field hospitals, many of them tents equipped with x-rays and ultrasound. On December 31st, it started to rain, and then the rain turned to snow. It snowed so much the tents collapsed. Everyone went outside to shovel snow off the tent and put it back up. It was an unforgettable experience. I was operating on bone fractures resulting from the earthquake. And we had to learn cricket and volleyball so we could play with the people there. I cried when I left in April, and so did many of the people there. Then a month later, the earthquake hit Indonesia. We arrived there on the third and we were doing operations on the 5th. We stayed three months. When the President of Indonesia came to Cuba, he gave an award to us.

Read Cuba's Cure, our article on the Cuban health care system.
And see ¡Salud!, a film on Cuba's global health mission.