“We thank God, because He put Jim on our way, because he is very caring, the surgery was so perfectly done, and today no one could say I ever had a brain tumor.”

Miguel and Carolina
El Salvador

Dr. Miguel Oqueli, a pediatric orthopedic surgeon at Hospital Bloom in El Salvador, suffered a stroke one morning which rendered him lethargic and completely paralyzed on his left side. I was contacted by Children’s Cross Connection, a charity organization that requested I take Miguel’s case at my practice in Atlanta.

Miguel’s brain scan showed that he had experienced a hemorrhage from a large tumor deep in the center of his brain. When he arrived, I performed surgery and fortunately was able to remove the tumor entirely. Upon recovery, he was able to walk back onto the plane and, several months later, returned to his life’s work at Bloom. I learned Miguel had been involved for years with orthopedic surgery campaigns carried out by Dr. Dennis DeVito from Scottish Rite in Atlanta. Today he is the Chief of Pediatric Orthopedics at Bloom. Thanks to the connections Miguel’s case forged, I was able to travel to El Salvador with Dr. Devito and help with complex spine cases, operate alongside my peers and returned often working and fostering relationships with the neurosurgeons. A major accomplishment was starting the minimally invasive Stereotactic Surgery program in El Salvador. These joint accomplishments bring me much encouragement and joy.

Miguel and Carolina Oqueli

El Salvador