WHY WE GATHER

Team Heart of Texas (HoT) is a volunteer-led surgical team of Operation International, partnering with local hospitals and clinicians to deliver complex, life-changing surgeries while building skills and systems that remain long after the team returns home. Our specialists in head & neck surgery, general surgery, anesthesia, and perioperative care bring critical supplies and expertise into the field—but the goal is bigger than a single mission. We operate alongside local medical teams, share knowledge, provide training and equipment, and return to strengthen those partnerships year after year.

IMAGINE THE IMPACT

Imagine living for years with an enlarged thyroid that makes it difficult to breathe, swallow, speak, or work. Or having a treatable hernia but no access to the surgery that could repair it. Sometimes, just a few hours in an operating room can change the trajectory of an entire life. A patient can breathe freely. Return to work. Care for their family. A local clinician gains skills they can use to treat the next patient. Team HoT exists to make those moments possible. And Into the Mist brings our community together to help make them happen.

WHAT YOU MADE POSSIBLE

Last year, you gathered with us at Into the Mist and invested in a promise: that life-changing surgical care should be within reach for everyone. This year, that generosity traveled all the way to Zambia.

71+ SURGERGIES. FIVE DAYS.

LIVES CHANGED.

At Livingstone University Teaching Hospital, Team Heart of Texas provided more than 71 life-changing surgeries, reaching every patient who was medically appropriate for care. But your impact didn’t end when the doors were closed. You helped build something that lasts. Your investment brought local surgeons, residents, nurses and medical students into the operating room to learn alongside the team. It supported hands-on training in surgical skills, sterile technique and critical care. And it helped establish a new partnership with a teaching hospital committed to growing its capacity to care for complex surgical patients for years to come. You didn’t just fund a mission. You made the mission possible.

2026 Into The Mist Masquerade

Join us for a night of fun and fundraising for Team HoT