(PARIS) — The restoration work inside Notre Dame cathedral is ramping up.

Less than two years before the grand reopening, Notre Dame’s exceptional stained glass windows and paintings, which were spared by the flames that ravaged the monument back in April 2019, are now being given a fresh look.

This past spring, eight workshops of master glassmakers and artistic locksmiths were selected across France and entrusted with the cleaning and restoration of the cathedral’s stained glass windows.

“This is the first time they have been cleaned since … they were laid in the 19th century, 150 years ago,” president of the Manufacture Vincent-Petit and restorer Flavie Vincent-Petit revealed to ABC News.

Located in the city of Troyes, Vincent-Petit’s workshop has been awarded the cleaning and restoration of the stained glass windows of eight high bays.

“[Notre Dame] represents all the French and European medieval culture of the Middle Ages and how finally all these European nations were built around a spiritual impulse,” Vincent-Petit told ABC News, adding “It is extremely positive to be able to participate in the reconstruction.”

After months of preparatory work — including decontamination against lead due to fire, documentation and restoration tests — the restorers are only now starting the delicate and arduous cleaning and restoration process.

But caring for Notre Dame’s stained glass windows is not solely a French affair as the Cologne Cathedral workshop from Germany has joined the effort by restoring the stained glass windows of four other high bays.

Another project in this huge undertaking is the restoration of 22 paintings out of the 25 removed from the cathedral post fire.

Global donations for the project is an estimated at around €2,700,000 euros (approximately $2,703,000) and their restoration is carried out by 50 experts under the project management of the Regional Department of Cultural Affairs of Île-de-France (DRAC).

“No damage requiring the restoration of these paintings is linked to the fire of Notre Dame. These canvases are restored because they are old. Their restorations date back decades,” regional conservator of historical monuments at the DRAC Ile-de-France, Antoine-Marie Préaux, told ABC News.

At work since October 2021 in a secret location near Paris, the experts have been repairing 17th and 18th century works by masters such as French painters Charles Le Brun and Jacques Blanchard, as well as Italian painter Guido Reni, by sometimes recreating colors that no longer exist with the help of period documents.

Notre Dame is currently scheduled to reopen on April 15, 2024, exactly five years to the day after the devastating fire destroyed the upper part of Notre-Dame Cathedral and the surrounding areas.

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(CENTRAL AMERICA) — U.S. military medical teams have carried out medical missions in Central America for decades, but a recently completed mission to Honduras and Guatemala may set a new standard for future health care missions.

During what was known as HEART 22, the military’s acronym for Health Engagements Assistance Response Team, about 50 military medical personnel worked out of major medical facilities in Honduras and Guatemala, working alongside local doctors and medical staff who will provide enduring medical care to the patients treated during the mission.

HEART 22 was a departure from previous medical missions carried out solely by the U.S. military at rural medical facilities. About 50 U.S. Air Force and Army medical professionals and support staff participated in the two-month mission that began in July providing eye surgeries, dental care, and orthopedic surgeries for a month in Honduras and two weeks in Guatemala.

“We see it as a great opportunity to really enhance and cooperate in collaboration with the host nation and more on one on one basis, sharing experiences sharing knowledge, and providing excellent quality of care for the population in the area,” Dr. Richard Aviles told ABC News. Aviles is a Honduran doctor who for the last 30 years has helped organize the U.S. military medical missions run by Joint Task Force Bravo in Central America.

Based in Honduras since 1984, JTF Bravo, as it is more commonly known, is one of the U.S. military’s longest lasting overseas military missions but little known to the American public.

Established at a time when the U.S. was concerned about Central American insurgencies backed by the Soviet Union, the mission evolved into a counter-narcotics mission and now focuses on humanitarian and disaster relief. JTF Bravo is made up of 500 U.S. military personnel and 500 American and Honduran civilians operating at an airbase in central Honduras.

Originally planned to take place before the COVID19 pandemic, Heart 22 was a new initiative by U.S. Southern Command to address requests by Central American governments for a different type of military medical mission.

It “allows us to have some targeted engagement with regional partners at their request, helping them meet the needs of their specific country and their health systems,” Col. Phillip Brown, JTF-Bravo’s commander, told ABC News in an interview.

“It was a very tangible way for us to demonstrate that we are the trusted regional partner and you get to see it in action in a very local level in these hospitals,” he added.Addressing previous concerns about the need for follow-on care in remote locations after U.S. teams left smaller medical facilities, HEART 22 focused on larger hospitals in major cities in Honduras and Guatemala.

For example, at San Felipe Hospital in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, U.S. military ophthalmologists worked with Honduran doctors in what Aviles characterized as a “win-win for both sides.”

“Because patients are guaranteed that they’re going to have their follow up,” said Aviles. “That’s something that we have learned throughout the years with JTF Bravo in where it’s critical for us to guarantee that.”

Aviles said JTF Bravo had stopped doing ophthalmology in Honduras in 2009 “[s]imply because we were not finding the volunteer ophthalmologist that will do the follow up for the patients,” which is something they had tried to guarantee.

“The first rule in medicine is don’t do harm, and that’s important for us,” he added. “That’s why we’re happy that we now have this concept like in HEART where we can work side by side with the ophthalmologist and it actually encourages them as well to participate.”

“There’s ownership by the host nation instead of just coming in serving just the people,” he said. “We still serve the people in need, but there’s a participation and degree of bigger degree of responsibility from the host nation providers.”

About 1,200 patients were treated by HEART 22 medical teams working at four major hospitals to help alleviate a surgical backlog that had built up since the pandemic.

“We helped out a lot of people that didn’t have access to certain funds in regards to orthopedic cases, ophthalmologic cases ,and dental,” said Capt. Alexandre Rogan, the U.S. Air Force officer in charge of the mission in Guatemala.

That meant bringing in surgeons and dentists proficient in medical techniques that shorten recovery times, as well as equipment and supplies that were left behind.

“Because we have more time than just a day or two on ground, we’re able to then truly identify those that are in need, provide a continuity of care for them, and then ensure that continuous follow up happens,” said Rogan.

The medical team that served as part of HEART 22 adjusted to different working scenarios in Honduras and Guatemala.

“It gives you a more well-rounded opportunity because you got a different experience in each country in a way,” Sr. Airman Alexsis Green, a dental assistant stationed at Minot AFB in North Dakota, said in an interview.

Green explained that because of the large dental program at Tegucigalpa’s Hospital Escuela “they had us jump right on in so we were working hand in hand with them” while at the hospital in the western Guatemalan city of Quetzaltenango the U.S. team carried out most of the dental procedures because the local dental team was much smaller.

To enable long-term care at the hospitals they worked at the HEART 22 team left behind medical equipment and supplies they had brought with them.
Green said that included several dental chairs that would be used at Hospital Escuela that would enable the treatment of additional patients.

The dental assistant described her HEART 22 experience as an “awesome opportunity” where both the U.S. and local teams learned from each other.

“I hope that this mission continues throughout the years and allows other people that opportunity,” she said.

“We’ve been asked to come back,” said Rogan. “Our partner nations would love for us to do this again.”

But details about how that could happen remain to be determined as the original planning for HEART 22 was for it to be a onetime mission.

JTF Bravo commander Col. Brown understands the interest by Central American nations in replicating the new mission but knows that will come with challenges.

While smaller medical missions like the ones carried out by JTF Bravo for decades will continue, Brown sees the value in another HEART mission.
“I don’t think we can close the door on whether we can do HEART 2.0 again that makes sense.”

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