News

Trip Highlights

02.18.2012

We operated on 70 patients over 5 days. Wednesday was the longest day when we did 20 surgeries. It took a team of 25 people and worked with more than a dozen Rotarians. We need many support people for each surgery. These include the Anesthesiologist, OR nurses, Recovery Nurses, Instrument cleaners...

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Unusual Clefts

Ramil is 12 years old and lives with his parents and 7 siblings. His father is a carpenter and his mother a housewife. He has a lateral facial cleft which makes his mouth very large on one side. Because the muscles are disrupted he drools from that side. As is common with this condition he has...

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Second OR Day

02.15.2012

A Volunteer group of clowns keep the children distracted from what awaits. A unique feature about this trip is the dental care. All children are screened prior to surgery. Most need many extractions. Lothar, a volunteer dentist from Australia, and Sally, a local dentist who Lothar has trained,...

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The Pediatric Ward

The ward is made up of 24 cots. One cot per patient and family. Sometimes the patients  must double up and have two per cot. Where do the parents sleep you must be thinking. As we all know, life as a parent can at times be difficult.  We can all remember the night when our child had an ear infecti...

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Change a life

Chris is 9 years old and lives with his mother and grandmother. He does not know his father. His grandfather passed this last April. He is old by US standards to have his lip repaired, but typical in the Philippines. The repair will take about two hours and a life will be changed....

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First Day in OR

02.14.2012

Today we had 16 patients scheduled for their cleft repair and we did all 16 cases. Eight cleft lip repairs and 8 cleft palate repairs. We  finished this last case at 6:15. Then the patient has to awaken and go to recovery. It takes about an hour to recover a patient. It is a long day! But it is a...

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SCREENING CLINIC

02.13.2012

We arrived at the hotel at 12:30 AM. The room was just what I needed.....A nice bed! Unfortunately, the morning came quickly. Then it is off to the screening clinic. The hospital in Lapu Lapu had crowds of people all hoping to have their clefts repaired. The process to see 80-100 patients at times...

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Alora’s Story

02.06.2012

Alora's Story I have participated in over 30 surgical outreaches to 8 different locations throughout the world. Last year Alora touched me and the members of our team is ways that no other patient has ever affected us. Alora was born with a Bilateral Cleft Lip and Palate. She had a lip repair as a...

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