That is until Luke Tupper came to help. He used a donated boat to create a floating hospital of but two rooms. One room was for performing corrective surgery and the other for recovery. He was able to enlist the assistance of plastic surgeons, orthopedic surgeons, and opthamologists from the U.S.A. These physicians along with an anesthesiologist and a registered nurse would donate two weeks of time, bring their own supplies, pay their own travel expenses, and perform an average of 45 major surgeryies each trip. The clinic is now landbased and provides extensive prenatal care, dental services, water purification training and many other medical services to the people of the Amazon region of Brazil.

The surgeon returns receiving much more in personal satisfaction and growth than he donated in time and expertise. The lives he was able to help will forever be within his heart. One young man who was twenty-two years old and had lived his entire life with a bilateral (double) cleft lip and palate, took a five day trip through the jungle from his home to finally have his deformity repaired. Two years after his surgery he made the trip again because he was told that Dr. Gibney was back at the clinic and he wanted to show how good he both looked and talked. Since that first trip, the gratifying experience of the clinic has seen me make five more surgical missions to Esperanca.