| Baptist Haiti Mission, Hospital Fermathe |
| Dates: February 27th thru March 7th
Summery:
The Mission to Haiti was accomplished in partnership with Smile Train. Smile Train provided for the trip planning to include locating the hospital, patients and hotel. All arrangements for this was done in cooperation with the Smile Train coordinator. Surgical Volunteers International was responsible for all of the medical volunteers and performed all of the surgical procedures.
SVI had a advance team that arrived on February 26th to screen patients and prepare for one surgical case on Saturday. The rest of the team arrived on Friday February 27th. Screening was performed on over 125 patients of whom 70 were scheduled for surgery. During the week we performed a total of 70 surgical procedures. Of these 67 were Smile train procedures.
In addition to the 70 surgical procedures we provided dental care to over 60 patients in the hospital dental clinic. We also had a pediatric clinic at the school in Citi Solei. In 5 days of clinics our pediatricians provided care and medications to about 150 patients. All of this care was provided without charge to the patient. Go to www.anthonykaren.com for photos of our trip.
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| Posted by Sreejith | May 06, 2005 @ 07:29 |
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| Michael Soto,14 year old boy from Guatemala City |
| No child should ever be forced to choose between mutilation of their ears and severance of their finger. But on Jan 24th, 2007, Michael Soto, an outgoing, 14 year old boy from Guatemala City, Guatemala, was kidnapped and given the choice of whether his ears or fingers would demonstrate the seriousness of US$3million ransom requested by the kidnappers. Immediately his life and the lives of his family members were transformed. Only after tough negotiations and mutilation of both ears did the kidnappers agree to reduce the ransom to US$60,000 and release Michael. Traumatized by the events and without his earlobes, Michael retreated to his room, shunned his usual activities, and avoided school for fear of being mocked by his classmates. To cope, he grew his hair long and covered the sides of his head to hide the scars and missing ear lobes
Four months after the kidnapping, Michael’s story was brought to the attention of Dr. Larry Hollier, a plastic surgeon from Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston and Director of Surgeon Volunteer International, while on a cleft-lip and palate mission trip to Guatemala. Using the financial resources available to the organization, Dr. Hollier arranged for Michael to travel to the United States and have his ears reconstructed using prosthetic material. This required a two staged approach. In the first phase, a team of surgeons, consisting of Dr. Hollier and Dr. Joseph Edmonds, an ear-nose-throat surgeon from Houston, surgically implanted magnetic pins into Michael’s skull. After healing, Michael was again flown back to the United States and prosthetic ears were molded in the form of his father’s by Allison Vest, an Anaplastologist of Medical Art Prosthetics in Dallas. Michael was then able to return to Guatemala with no further procedures required. This effort in its entirety was fully funded by Surgical Volunteers International and Dr. Hollier at no cost to Michael and his family.
While the traumatic events will never be forgotten, a new chapter has begun in the Sotos’ lives and in it Michael is now happy, active and doing well in school. Today he no longer wears his hair long and instead fashionably styles it in a way that exposes his new ears.
Please follow the Link
www.click2houston.com/video/1826370/index.html |
| Posted by Sreejith R Nair | May 06, 2005 @ 07:27 |
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| Trip Report: Binh Duong, Vietnam January 2, 2008 |
| On January 2, 2008 17 medical volunteers departed for Binh Duong,Vietnam on Friday afternoon. On Saturday the team spent the day on either group tours or shopping. After two nights in Ho Chi Minh City we departed for the hospital in Binh Duong. We arrived at 9 am and were greeted by over 50 patients desiring to have surgical treatment. We were hosted by the staff of Binh Duong General Hosp The team consisted of volunteers from Houston, New York, Chicago, San Francisco and Cairo Egypt. As on all trips we had surgeons, anesthesia providers, operating room nurses, PACU nurses, pediatrician, medical records and Bio-medical engineer. A total of 38 patients received free surgical care during the week. Cases consisted of cleft lip, cleft palate, burn scar reconstruction, and hand cases. . The local surgeons and anesthesia team assisted us and there was a collaborative effort with education and hands on teaching involved with each surgical case. All the patients did well with no surgical complications or incidents reported. |
| Posted by Sreejith R. Nair
| Jan 26, 2005 @ 07:03 |
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