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2011 Mission

Charlotte visiting Ryan before the mission

Our 2011 Mission to the Philippines a Huge Success

Our 2011 mission took us to Tagbilaran City on the Island of Bohol in the Philippines. This was a completely new part of the world for our team of 35 and what an amazing place it turned out to be. Many children in need of services received life-changing surgery and so many locals pitching in to help, truly made this mission special.

Here is a brief summary of the mission:

January 15th

Our team being welcomed

Arrive, Tagbilaran City, Philippines
We were deeply touched by the reception we received from the city mayor's office – which included a local high school band, a welcome banner and a government representative present to thank each of us for our service to their people.
Our team of 35 (surgeons, anesthesiologists, pulmonologists, dentists, speech pathologists, nurses, social workers, administrators and a film crew) toured the hospital and unpacked all the supplies in preparation for the next day.

January 16th – January 21st

Waiting for triage

We arrived at the hospital early ready for the intake clinic. This is the day that we screen patients to see if we are able to provide services. For 12 hours non-stop we saw parents and patients looking for hope for a better life. We were overwhelmed by the need for surgical services. We met 2 families that had 3 children each needing surgery for cleft lips and cleft palates. We saw many others with unrepaired bilateral lips, a pretty severe deformity that is fixable and we saw others with health problems to severe for our mission. It was decided that we would increase the number of surgeries we were planning to perform in a day. Our surgical teams would take on as much as would be humanly possible for them to do. By the end of the day it was clear that we would have to turn away some patients. This absolutely broke our hearts. It was decided that all babies and children with cleft lips would receive surgery and we would be able to provide 11 cleft palate surgeries. The cleft palate patients were chosen based on the potential for the best outcome. These were difficult decisions and there was not a dry eye in the room when our team had to tell some of those waiting that we would not be able to help their child.

Dr. Pahlavan evaluating

Waiting to learn her fate

3 children from the same family with clefts w/ Dr. and Mrs. Rubinstein

Playful siblings Ruby, Aries and Zubair waiting to see a doctor

January 17th-21st

Dr. Dong with a patient

Surgery started first thing Monday morning. The 3 operating rooms were in full swing for 5 days at least 12 hours per day and each surigcal team did 4 surgeries per day. Our dental team was also extremely busy. Working from a local dental clinic as well as city hall with the assistance of local dental students they saw nearly 300 patients as well as created obturators for those patients who we were not able to provide cleft palate surgery. Our speech team was also hard at work, working with patients and their families on proper speech techniques. They held educational seminars and a did a lot of teaching through play with the youngest patients. Throughout the week the local volunteer nurses worked and learned side by side with our team and they proved to be valuable assests to the mission

Dr. Rubinstein with 11y.o. Emron before surgery

Dr. Rubinstein with Emron after surgery

Our administrator Cheryl giving an excited Jessie a piggyback ride to surgery

A shocked Jessie looking a picture of himself after surgery

January 22nd

Nurse Chona, Dr. Schloegal and Dr. Shih with mom and baby at the discharge clinic

The day was comprised of seeing all surgical patients and their families for discharge and dental patients picked up their new obturators and worked with the dental andspeech teams to learn how to properly use their new appliance. This was quite and emotional day for all as we had grown attached to the children and their families. We finished the day by packing up our supplies and saying our goodbyes to all the local volunteers.

While it was hard for our team to say goodbye it was eased by the fact that we will return in 2012. The need in this part of the world is enoumous and we would like to return to help those we had to turn away as well as new faces and second surgereis for those we saw in 2011. Most of the patients we saw with cleft lips also had unrepaired cleft palates which must be repaired in a second surgery.

We thank our supporters from the bottom of our hearts for your support. You have been a huge part of making this mission possible and we are truly grateful.

Special thanks to SmileTrain for their financial support and Mentoring.

2010 Mission

Mission Accomplished

Hector with our social worker Miriam

Faces of Tomorrow's second mission was a huge success. We had a few bumps in the begining with our team falling ill, still everyone fought hard to work through the exhaustion and vowed to complete the mission.

In total, we performed surgeries on 50 patients, with 60 total surgical procedures performed. (Some patitents were able to get two procedures done in a single surgery).
In addition, our dental team saw well over 50 patients, peformed 15 filings, 8 extractions, several orthodontal procedures, and they also created and distributed 21 obturators. Obturators are similar to retainers,but their purpose is to plug small holes in the palate that may be inoperable, allowing the patient better speech, as well as keeping food or liquids from coming out through the nose.

We met so many wonderful Ecuadorian families and fell in love with the Ecuadorian children. We heard many heart wrenching stories and had many emotional moments. All of which touched our team deeply and motivated us to continue mission work into 2011 and many years in the future This blog entry by Dr. Albin Leong our Pulominologist gives a sense of the overall mission, the dedication of our team and the wonderful people of Ecuador.

2009 Mission

Our first mission took place in Quito, Ecuador January 9-18, 2009.
With great humility we are thrilled to report that the mission was a huge success. Many lives were changed including every member of our team.

Plans For The Future

Our board is in discussions about additional missions in 2012 and 2013 and we are looking to expand into other countries outside of Ecuador and the Philippines. As our team grows as well as our resources we would like to conduct more then one mission per year. We are also in the process of developing a collaborative education program in which we will work closely with the local doctors and nurses prior to the mission and after the mission. We believe this will be an integral part of our organization moving forward and will further solidify our international relations.

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