AGS Provides Face Shields to Help Medical Missions
AGS, a supplier of guest guides to campgrounds and RV parks, is providing face shields for U.S. healthcare professionals working on medical missions in South America, according to officials at AGS.
Crowley, Texas-based AGS has provided customized face shields for over 100 IMAHelps volunteers who are working on medical missions in Ecuador.
“We are grateful to AGS for their generosity in providing face shields for our medical mission volunteers,” said Jeff Crider, a longtime campground industry publicist and writer who also serves as communications director for IMAHelps.
AGS provides customized face shields for campground and RV park operators across the U.S. and Canada.
Rancho Mirage-based IMAHelps resumed its international medical mission work in October after a year-long hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic. IMAHelps sent a team of 45 volunteers to Eugenio Espejo Hospital in Quito, Ecuador to provide life-changing surgeries, acupuncture and pain management treatment, dentistry and leg prosthetics for impoverished patients from the greater Quito area.
The group’s patients included 33-year-old Blanca Marina Murillo, whose face was crushed in a motorcycle accident in 2013. Dr. Christopher Tiner, an IMAHelps plastic and maxillofacial surgeon from Pasadena, Calif., provided Murillo with reconstructive surgery, using one or her ribs to create a new nose for her. He also reopened her nasal passages, which were crushed in the accident. Murillo said the surgery would enable her to begin a new chapter in her life.
AGS face shields were provided to IMAHelps volunteers before their mission to Quito. Additional shields will be provided to the entire IMAHelps team of 120 volunteers prior to their next mission to Ecuador in July.
Founded in 2000, IMAHelps has provided free healthcare to over 100,000 impoverished patients in nine countries, including more than 2,500 life-changing surgeries. IMAHelps has no paid staff and all of its volunteers cover their own travel expenses. The group solicits donations which it uses to purchase medicines and supplies for its humanitarian medical missions.