Set against the lush landscape of Cali, Colombia, the open-air facility at Fundacion Valle del Lili allows birds to pass freely through its corridors, sunlight filtering into spaces typically defined by walls and fluorescent light. It was a striking contrast to the controlled environments Kevin McGunigal knew so well.
In May 2025, Kevin, a Certified Neurophysiological Intraoperative Monitoring Technologist (CNIM), joined a pediatric spine mission with Global Spine Outreach, sponsored by IntraNerve Neuroscience. The international team had converged to treat children with complex spinal conditions, many of whom had limited or no access to specialized surgical care in their home regions. For Kevin, it marked his first time practicing medicine outside the United States and his first visit to South America.
Over the course of a demanding week, the team navigated long surgical days, resource constraints, and language barriers while providing life-altering care to pediatric patients and their families.
Drawn to the Unknown
Kevin is candid about what first drew him to apply. “I’m a big travel guy,” he shared. “I like being out of my element. I like being in places [where] I don’t even speak the language.” That appetite for adventure, combined with his deep commitment to medicine, made the decision straightforward. “When there’s an opportunity to combine those two things together, I was like, yeah, that’s an easy call.”
He had applied several years earlier, but the timing finally aligned this past May, and he was selected. Arriving in Cali with few concrete expectations (sensibly aware of Colombia’s reputation yet open to whatever awaited) he was immediately struck by the beauty of the place. “From the moment I got there, I was like, man, this place is beautiful,” he recalled. The hospital itself defied his preconceptions: “The hospital was an open-air concept hospital…there would be birds just flying through. I was like, man, this is absolutely wild to see, like a hospital in a jungle.”
Despite the open design, the facility proved modern and well-equipped. “There was a lot of medical equipment that was there that we use every single day here. That’s considered top of the line.” Any lingering assumptions about limited infrastructure quickly dissolved.
Preparing for the Reality of Global Surgery
Still, preparation to account for any potential unknowns was non-negotiable. This was Kevin’s first international medical mission, and he approached it with caution, just in case.
“I was double, triple checking everything,” he said, particularly when it came to neuromonitoring equipment. The sheer amount of equipment put customs officials on alert as he and other members of the team passed through immigration at Cali’s airport. “It is a lot of wires, a lot of computer components…when you’re going to a country that is known for drug trafficking, they’re definitely a lot more strict.”
He also, serendipitously, prepared for something less obvious: basic supplies. “Gloves were just not standard practice pretty much anywhere simply because of the cost,” Kevin explained. Anticipating this, he packed extra and ended up sharing them with much of the team. “Pretty much everyone that wasn’t sterilely scrubbed in was borrowing from me the entire time I was there.”
Inside the Operating Room
Kevin worked alongside the orthopedic spine team, focusing primarily on pediatric scoliosis cases. Most patients were adolescents facing long, technically demanding procedures, including full spinal fusions that required meticulous coordination and sustained focus.
One case, in particular, has stayed with him longer than the rest. A teenage patient presented with post-junctional kyphosis following a previous fusion, complicated by inadequate instrumentation. “You could see [the rods] sticking through the muscles of the back,” Kevin said. The hospital lacked the proper tools to remove the existing hardware, forcing the surgical team to improvise on the spot.
“It was one of those modes where like, man, this is kind of intense as a case, but also tense because we don’t know how we’re going to do this.” Watching the surgeons adapt in real time left a lasting impression. “It was really cool to watch them innovate…another thing that I learned from that was just all the different steps on how to try and resolve that from a surgical standpoint.”
Long days, In and Out of the OR
Outside the operating room, Kevin’s role expanded in unexpected ways.
In the clinic he helped with patient intake, assisting wherever needed, but before long his days included something else entirely. “I became kind of like a babysitter, if you would,” he said. “I played Legos with kids and I played a bunch of Uno. I’ve never played more Uno in my life.” Language barriers faded over card games and shared laughter, he explained. “Everyone knows Uno.”
For children preparing for major spine surgery, those moments of normalcy offered comfort in a space that could otherwise feel overwhelming.
Kevin also valued the collaborative culture of everyone involved. “Medicine in the United States can be kind of a tribal system,” he reflected. “There, everybody was very interested, very grateful, wanted to help you out.”
The days were long and unrelenting, however. Mornings started long before dawn, surgeries stretched late, and evenings were often spent in planning sessions for the next day’s cases. Yet those moments, Kevin said, were among the most valuable. “I learned more in that hour and a half than I’ve learned in…almost 10 years.”
There was no illusion of this being easy work. “From the moment you touch down in the airport to the moment you leave, you’re on the clock.” Still, the exhaustion always felt meaningful. “That was one of the most rewarding things I’ve done professionally.”
One reminder of the experience now sits behind him hanging on the wall: a drawing given to him by a young patient. “It’s one of those things that not everyone gets to experience,” he said, “but they stay with you the entire time.”
Why Support Like This Matters
For IntraNerve Neuroscience, sponsoring opportunities like this reflects a deeper commitment, to patients, to clinicians, and to the belief that expertise should be shared where it can make the greatest difference.
Kevin puts it simply: “I would tell everyone first off, do it.” But he’s also clear-eyed about the reality, “It’s not surgery and then hanging out by the pool. That’s not the experience you’re going to get.”
What you do get is perspective, growth, and the reminder that meaningful care often begins by stepping outside what’s familiar.
