Wednesday, December 31, 2008
They were just two women walking and talking on a sun-splashed San Clemente beach.
But Denise Cucurny and Amy Wandel were not just chitchatting about the weather or a place to get lunch.
They were talking about how they can change the world.
Cucurny, once a self-described "hippie" turned professor of anthropology at Cal State Long Beach, had been on more than a 20 medical missions with Plasticos Foundation. The Huntington Beach nonprofit has performed plastic surgery from cleft lips and palates to other complicated reconstructive procedures in countries such as Cuba, India, Ecuador and Brazil.
Wandel came from a military career. She was a retired U.S. Navy plastic surgeon working for Mercy Hospital in Sacramento. She also was no stranger to working under pressure and traveling the world to help strangers. She'd been on more than 25 medical missions herself and was, to use her word, "hooked."
How could these two women – women with such different backgrounds – change the world?
When Cucurny started talking about how to do just that, Wandel smiled, knowingly.
Turned out they had the same idea.
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Cucurny can remember the first time she stepped into an anthropology class in college.
"I had no idea what anthropology was about," she says, "absolutely no clue."
But after sitting and listening for a few minutes, she was sold.
"They were talking about my life, all our lives."
Her work as an anthropologist took her to many countries including Spain and Costa Rica, where she lived for a while. She gained fluency in Spanish, something that would be invaluable in her future.
Cucurny also wrote and published a book, "101 Traditional Remedies in Costa Rica." She says it was the "first book ever" printed on recycled banana paper and, more importantly, the research it required sparked a deep interest in cross-cultural healing practices. It was a topic, she says, where her desire to learn about people and cultures intersected with her love of biology and medicine.
Cucurny went on her first medical mission after meeting Larry Nichter, a Huntington Beach plastic surgeon, who introduced her to the Plasticos Foundation. Soon, she became an important member of the Plasticos team, coordinating trips and providing translation in Spanish-speaking countries.
Wandel, who retired after close to 25 years in the Navy, had been going on medical missions wherever her work took her.
She was open to the idea that Wandel and Cucurny would start their own medical mission team, but one with a twist.
Women for World Health would be women only. No dudes.
Why women?
Cucurny's answered this way:
"No egos, no politics, no bull… "
Wandel's answer is a bit more specific. She says gender barriers tend to hamper true collegial cooperation.
"Generally speaking, with women, there is not much ego involved," she says. "I don't go on these trips to shine light on myself. But I've observed that there is always some grandstanding with some of the men on these trips."
She claims that with women there are no roles or hierarchies. For example, when this group set out on its first trip, last year, to Ecuador, they had no medical instruments or supplies. They had no suitcases and nothing to put in them.
"A male doctor going on this trip would typically tell his (usually female) nurses to take care of that stuff," Wandel said. "But in this group, we worked together and got it done in four months. It was remarkable to see it happen."
When it was all done, they had packed 17 suitcases full of supplies.
And women, no matter who they are, what they do or which part of the world they are in, often want similar things in life, Cucurny says. She talks of her experience talking with a group of Shuar women in the Ecuadorean rainforest.
Cucurny was struck by their "exotic" appearance – dark skin, hair and eyes and short stature. They, in turn, were captivated with Cucurny's blonde hair and fair skin.
"But when we sat down and talked, we realized that we were all women," she said. "We wanted the same things in life; love, children, appreciation – and good hair."
•••
Women for World Health is a multispecialty team, with experts in areas as diverse as plastic surgery and ophthalmology to dentistry.
Cucurny says wherever they go people are intrigued by their "all-woman" team of surgeons, nurses, anesthesiologists, specialists and trip coordinators. On their trip to Ecuador, they got a huge discount on their hotel accommodations when the owner found out about their mission.
"Being an all-woman team has opened doors for us, even where there could be some resistance at first," she says. "People feel that we are good ambassadors, that they can trust us to do the right thing."
That does not mean the group will not allow men to work with them.
"It takes a real man to work with a group that is predominantly female," Cucurny says. "I have a lot of respect for any man who can do that."
So far, the group has been on four missions – to El Salvador, Laos and two trips to Ecuador. Each trip lasts approximately a week. They perform close to 70 procedures during each trip and see hundreds of patients.
In the future, Cucurny hopes her group can help people in the United States who lack health insurance.
Wandel sees few limitations for a team of dedicated women.
"This completes us as medical professionals," she says. "The work we do on these missions is the essence of why we all went into medicine."
Contact the writer: 714-445-6685 or dbharath@ocregister.com
